Superjedi's M_S 2

well that looks awesome!! can't wait to see the rest!!

OK, I've begun painting the helmet itself. I started on the back. . . figured I'd do the most complicated part first. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.

I started by mixing a beige-gray color and sprayed that on. Easy enough to begin with. Once it was dry, I followed in the footsteps of the mighty Steve the Swede and traced out the areas I wanted to leave exposed. Then I used the highly touted Winsor and Newton's masking fluid to cover these sections.

Once the masking fluid was dry, I sprayed on a dark blue green. It started out as Testors Euro I Green (from the Rogue Studios color list), but I didn't think it was blue enough, so I added some Polly Scale BAR blue until I felt it closely matched the reference pics.
Once that was dry, I peeled up the masking latex, and . . .

This is where it stands right now. No weathering or anything yet of course. Just the 2 main colors on the back panels.
Eric

You know the back is the most complicated...Maybe next time I'll start that first also ...Great Idea..

SJedi, how you Lovin that Masking Fluid....Nice HUH??

it's looking good so far

Originally Posted by Spideyfett

SJedi, how you Lovin that Masking Fluid....Nice HUH??

Spidey. . . what can I say. I'm thinking about writing a love letter to Winsor/Newton. That stuff was so easy to use I couldn't believe it. And it came off like nothing.
I'm still shaking my head at how easy it made to paint the back of the helmet.

sweet! Man, alot of good lookin Fett stuff being done on the boards here lately! Good work!

You're on the road to greatness!!

PRESS!

I predict that is gonna be one fine bucket!!!! Keep those progress pics coming. Its looking awesome
Damian

Hey guys,
What is this masking fluid you are talking about? Is it liquid mask? Got a pic of the bottle ? Your helmet is looking awesome!!!!! I want in in the fun. Thanks

That looks great. I am having a hard time even with weak tape. The paint wants to come off where I have masked it off. When I peel the tape off it ruins my weathering effect. Is it possible to spray a coat of satin on each part of the helmet you have already done so the paint chipping effect wont come off what you have already done?

Masking is basically liquid rubber either use some latex you can buy at an art store or misket which was used on the originals. It's a very old method that has been used by modelers and industry professionals for decades. only problem you run into is keeping the scratches accurate and less random it's very hard to keep the paint from peeling in the wrong direction.



Lee

UPDATE July 2nd:
Whew! What a day. . . I didn't realize how much I'd gotten done till I stopped to take a good look at my progress. Figured I'd take some more pics at this stage.

Well. . . to begin with, all the basic colors are now sprayed on. I used Testors Panzer Olivgrun for the lower cheeks and dome, Polly S Brunswick Green for the upper cheeks (brushed on with a 1/2 inch brush by the way), and Polly S Boxcar Red misted over Polly S Rock Island Maroon for the mandibles/strip around the helmet. After all the main colors were dry, I put on 2 light coats of Krylon Satin Finish. Man this stuff dries smooth.

For detail painting on the back, I again penciled the outlines of the color breaks, and used Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver, and when that dried, Polly S SP Lark Dark Gray for the darker areas. On the keyslot area there's some purple outlining mixed from Polly S BAR Blue and Rock Island Maroon, made to match my reference pics. Some of the smaller silver scratches are done with a silver Sharpie marker (thanks Spidey for that outstanding tip!!) I used the sharp end of my compass to make the small white scratches.

Still have washing and some more weathering to do but here's where it is as of now.
Eric

:thumbup ...wow!

Looking great so far, keep it up!

Originally Posted by superjedi

Some of the smaller silver scratches are done with a silver Sharpie marker (thanks Spidey for that outstanding tip!!) I used the sharp end of my compass to make the small white scratches.

Still have washing and some more weathering to do but here's where it is as of now.
Eric

No Problem...Hey we're all here to help each other right??

I Love the way that silver looks....That's gonna look great...

UPDATE July 4th
Well, I took advantage of the long weekend to put some more work into the helmet.
I've been working on the weathering around the Boxcar Red portions of the helmet. Just been following the reference pics and putting on more gray/silver/purple parts. The right mandible is done as well. . . man, that was a killer.

Also I wanted to do something besides the red sections, so I did the lower left cheek. I tried it first with the SP Lark Dark Gray, but as mentioned by Steve the Swede, it was too close to the Panzer Olivgrun to really show up, so I took his advice and darkened it up with some Brunswick Green. That made it contrast nicely!
Here's some new pics. They're taken indoors in fading light, so they may look a bit different from my previous pics, taken in brighter sunlight near a window.
Anyway, enjoy! And as always, critiques are welcome.
Eric

Wooohoooo, looking good!

oh man, GREAT tutorial on the back. That is the ONE section of my helmet I am not very proud of, I had literally two different techniques on each side for that part and still was very unsure about my final result. I am going with what you did on my second one. Great job !!

Man... all of these "newer" guys with their kick butt painting on their buckets is making me really consider going back and repainting mine! DOH! Just when I thought I was almost out...

Webchief,
See, that's what comes from being a "lurker" for a while. . . soak up some terrific info from people, and then WHAM!
I've been building models for a loooooooong time, since I was about 8 years old. That was 30 years ago (so all you math whizzes out there can figure out how old I am now!) and I would never have attempted anything like this if I didn't have decades of practice.
Thanks to all you long-timers who have put up some fantastic pics of your own stuff!
Eric

UPDATE JULY 8th
OK, the mandibles are done! I'm finished with all the "red" areas now using the same technique previously described. As well as the lower right cheek, using the darker version of the Lark gray.

Killstripes! Man, after reading some of the frustrations people have had with these, I was a bit leery about doing these, but here's how I did it.
I started by scaling up the template found on TK-409's website until it was the correct size, then began masking them off with some blue painters tape. I stuck the tape down on a glass table top to reduce the stickiness, and masked off all 14 stripes. I just used the tape to form simple rectangles the proper size (by scaling up the referene pics I'm using, I came up with stripes that are about 25 millimeters high.) Once the basic shapes of the stripes were taped off, I used the Winsor/Newton masking fluid once again, and painted on all the chipped/missing areas on the individual stripes. Once the fluid was dry, I double checked the edges of the blue tape, burnishing down the edges really well with the back of a paint brush, and began painting them.

I used Polly Scale UP Armor Yellow, applied with a dense white make-up sponge. No airbrushing, spraying, or hand brushing! I saturated a section of the sponge and dabbed a bit off onto a paper towel, then dabbed the yellow onto the masked-off stripes. I didn't even worry about getting a good coat the first time, just wanted to get a yellow base on. After about 15 minutes, I repeated the sponging, getting more yellow coverage. Waited again, etc. and repeated this about 5 times, until there wasn't any more green showing through. I've used this sponging technique on many models before, and it gives a nice subtly "uneven" effect, unlike airbrushing.

After the Armor Yellow was dry, I ground up some pastels on a piece of sandpaper. I used a generic orange, and a darker reddish orange. I took an old, stiff 1/2" brush and used that to apply the pastels. I used the lighter orange and put that over all the stripes, then used the darker shade to go over that, slowly applying more reddish orange the further back I went. All the reference I've seen seems to show the stripes gradually getting a little "redder" the closer they get to the back of the helmet. Once I was satisfied with the tone of the stripes, I carefully removed the tape, pulling most of the masking liquid off along with it. Any remaining latex I removed afterwards. Since I burnished the edges of the blue tape, there was virtually no bleed through underneath, much to my relief. There were literally only 3 tiny areas that I fixed by gently scraping the yellow away with an old X-acto blade.

And here's the new pics!
Eric

WOW!!!!

Great...Now I need to start all over....Thanks..J/K

Great Looking Stripes...

nice

UPDATE JULY 10th
Man, I really get to make some progress on the weekends!
Most of the basic painting/damage is complete.

I finished the upper cheeks, detailing with Lark Dark Gray and silver.

The dome is just about done as well. Scratches/damage done with the same gray and silver as used on the lower cheeks. Then the small individual scratches were done with a compass point. That was seriously time-consuming. I also added the yellowish stains using Citadel Yellow Ink, and the black scuffs located around the kill stripe area with Citadel Black Ink, applied with an insanely tiny brush. LOL.

The next stage will be to use some black and dark gray pastels, and go over the entire helmet, adding some of that faded dirty look. Then a final overspray of Testors Dullcote.

New pics!
Eric

DUDE! your bucket is turning out fantastic! One of the finest I've ever seen by far. I need to get remotivated and finish my ESB bucket soon.
Again GREAT JOB.

Marrow,
Couldn't have done it without you of course!
Thanks for supplying such a phenomenal helmet!
Eric

Looking awesome. I am about half way done with mine, and some of the helmets I see rolling out are amazing, I look at mine and have to laugh.

Originally Posted by cal196

Looking awesome. I am about half way done with mine, and some of the helmets I see rolling out are amazing, I look at mine and have to laugh.

I have to agree with you Cal. These guys are giving me a complex.

Great work, Superjedi!

Originally Posted by xaoslord

I have to agree with you Cal. These guys are giving me a complex.

Great work, Superjedi!

Ack! OK, OK! I'm stripping the whole thing down and painting it lavender with little yellow flowers.
Pics to come!
Eric

WOW! That's looking excellent Superjedi! Very nice work indeed

Nice paint job!

Is it just me or are the diamonds on the front a bit mis-shaped?

Mason.

Very nice :thumbup

I went out and bought the Winsor and Newton brand and I'm not having the same affect you are. Are you using acrylic only, or spray paint as well. My problem is when I remove the masking fluid, some of the paint that was on top of it stays behind and mis-shapes my weathering. Am I doing something wrong ? Your lines are very crisp and very dead-on.... I'm needing a pointer or two.

Well done. Very nice job, one of the best painjobs I've seen.

wow thats soooo impressive

i have yet to paint my bucket
i think im kinda scared, it looks like such a tedious task

It does look bad, but after you screw up three of four times, and finally get to a different stage and see some progress, it gets easier.

Originally Posted by psberetta

Very nice :thumbup

I went out and bought the Winsor and Newton brand and I'm not having the same affect you are. Are you using acrylic only, or spray paint as well. My problem is when I remove the masking fluid, some of the paint that was on top of it stays behind and mis-shapes my weathering. Am I doing something wrong ? Your lines are very crisp and very dead-on.... I'm needing a pointer or two.

I used Testors Model Master colors for the back section of the helmet. I mixed a custom beige shade and sprayed that on. Once it was dry, I penciled the damage lines, and brushed on the W/N masking fluid. After it had dried, I sprayed the darker blue-green over it.
To remove the masking fluid, and this sounds really weird, I used a piece of tracing paper. I just rubbed it over the whole back of the helmet, and the masking fluid just rolled right off. Now, I can't say if that will work if you're using different types of paint. But it worked like a champ for me.
Eric

Originally Posted by psberetta

Very nice :thumbup

My problem is when I remove the masking fluid, some of the paint that was on top of it stays behind and mis-shapes my weathering.

I had the exact same problem, spend ages getting the masking fluid detail right then all goes to pot when its removed I did find though I only had this problem with the acrylic not the enamel

Jon
BH1195

Actually I have the same problem, I was only able to locate most of the colours for my armour in enamel, but a few in acrylic. When I masked on the acrylic, it always ended up peeling beyond where I masked.

Lesson...avoid acrylic

Tracing paper.....Thanks for the help, I'll give it a shot

UPDATE JULY 13th
Well, I don't have much hobby time during the week, but I've done some structural things the last couple of days. First off. . . I have ears! I can finally hear.
I mounted my ears by bolting them on. One of the main reasons I chose to do it this way was because the ears had a very slight bow to them. Just enough to leave a noticeable gap when held in place against the helmet.
Also, they're removeable!

I found some fairly small pan head screws that were long enough to go through the structure of the helmet and leave enough on the inside to put on a washer and nut. I decided to use 2 screws per ear, plus 1 on the upper right ear, going straight through the hole in my aluminum RF stalk.

I drilled through the helmet first, then placed each ear in position, and marked the spots with a pencil. Then, I used a round grinding bit in my Dremel to carve out a "dish" shaped hole in the back of each ear, just deep enough so the head of the screw would be just below the surface of the resin. I used some 2-ton epoxy to glue each screw into the "dish", then let it dry overnight. Afterwards, any epoxy that seeped up over the screw heads was removed using the Dremel again. Then it was a simple matter of putting the ears in position, and tightening down the nuts. If you choose a similar method, there may be a strong temptation to really crank down on the nuts. DON'T!! I just made them sort of "finger tight" using the correct size socket. With the washer in place, there's little chance of them loosening up. However, if you crank them down too tight. . . well, there goes the side of your nice FG helmet.
Pics below should show how I did this.
Eric

ya know....its people like you who i really hate... your helmet looks great. i wish i could do that. Great Job...keep up the good work.

wow..simply wow... very good detailing there!!! nice an clean!!! very very good!!!

-Throws mine in the trashcan-

UPDATE JULY 16th
Finished! *Sigh* Well, the final weathering and construction are done. I spent some time applying pastels for weathering. I used dark gray and black, applied with an old paintbrush, and really ground in in certain places to make dark looking stains. I basically went over the entire helmet, making the colors a bit uneven looking.
I followed this with an overspray of Testors Dullcote over the entire helmet, to seal the pastels and to even out the sheen of the different paints I used during the detail painting. Once the Dullcote was dry, I used some steel wool over the entire helmet, just to bring it back from a dead flat finish. Not too much, though.
The Dullcote really dulled down the little hairline scratches, making them sort of grayish looking, so I broke out the compass and went over every one of them a second time. It didn't really take very long, as they were already there, and I didn't have to take all that time trying to match the reference photos.

Once I was satisfied with the overall finish, I started on the visor. I had gotten a Bobamaker visor a while back, while I was still waiting for my helmet to arrive, and now I finally got to use it! I fitted it into the helmet temporarily with some painters tape, just to check the fit. I found the top edge could stand to be trimmed back to get it closer to the visor opening. As it was, it was sitting on some "bumps" in the gelcoat in the helmet interior which held it away from the surface. I marked the visor and cut off about 1/4" with my Dremel and a cutoff wheel. Then it sat in place almost perfectly.

To install the visor, I had read a lot of different methods, and the basic method I chose was described on TK-409's website. I got a tube of epoxy putty and some picture hanging brackets, and starting from the center of the visor (the "forehead"), I began epoxying it in place. I used a bracket, and put a blob of putty right over it, holding it in place till it dried, about 15 minutes. I worked my way outward, all the way across the top of the "T" until it was secure. Then I worked down the sides, ending at the bottom. I had to be extremely careful that I didn't get my sticky fingers anywhere on the visor. So I used a small Philips screwdriver to press down on each bracket until the putty hardened. There's a pic below showing the bracket/putty method.

Now, the ONLY remaining thing is the range finder. I probably will not use the RF that came with the helmet. It's a terrific cast, but I'm going to wind up replacing it with a hollow RF, so I can install LEDs. I'm not going to go the circuit board/battery route, but I want to put in LEDs for show.

Anyway, it's been an amazingly rewarding project! A couple weeks before I bought the M_S helmet, I almost bought a pre-painted one from eBay (not a M_S. . . it was its own "mystery"), but now I'm so glad I decided to do my own. My wife, who's not the biggest Star Wars fan in the world, says "it looks like it came from the Smithsonian."
Thanks for all the unbelievable information found on TDH. There's no way I ever would've attempted a buildup like this if it weren't for the great stuff I've seen on this board!
Pics below.
Eric

Wow. You have achieved a result on your helmet that all of us aspire to but few will reach. Well done!

It's a thing of beauty, outstanding job!

Hey I really like how you bracketed in your visor. I think I'll do that with mine. grat job!

Your helmet is definetely a means of inspiration to me!

Frank

Oh that is awesome!. Perfect. Are you going to put the wihte paint blob on the left side?

Now.. do you find yourself just LOOKING at it???
Isn't it a great feeling when these Projects finally get done.....

Great Job. AND GREAT INFO Through out....

Originally Posted by cal196

Oh that is awesome!. Perfect. Are you going to put the wihte paint blob on the left side?

It's on there, Cal. Just don't have a very close-up shot of it.
Thanks, everyone for following along with my build up!
Eric

I think you stole that helmet from the Smithsonian Kidding.

Looks awsome. You definatly have an eye for detail and have mastered the art of weathering. :thumbup

My first attempt at a custom bucket pales in comparison.



Brian

Hey Eric...Just Thought I'd bring this Thread Back up.... ...
I was trying to get Idea's on how to install a removable headliner??

Looks like you used Velcro????

Anyway Great Thread...

Hey Spidey,
Yeah, I saw this back near the top of the list, and I was like "huh??"

I did use velcro for my headliner. I bought a hardhat from Home Depot (it was like $7.00 or so) and it had the removeable adjustable headliner.
I got some industrial strength velcro and cut out 4 big squares and stuck them right onto the raw interior of the dome, making them big enough so I had some "wiggle room." Then, on the 4 prongs of the headliner, I stuck the opposing pieces of velcro. I sort of cut them to shape to fit the prongs. . . let me tell ya, cutting industrial strength velcro is a fantastic way to ruin a good pair of scissors!
I made sure to let the glue cure overnight, then stuck the headliner in, and after a couple of small adjustments, it worked like a champ!
As you can see from the dates on the thread, it's been done for just over a year, and that thing hasn't budged!

Originally Posted by superjedi

Hey Spidey,
Yeah, I saw this back near the top of the list, and I was like "huh??"

I did use velcro for my headliner. I bought a hardhat from Home Depot (it was like $7.00 or so) and it had the removeable adjustable headliner.
I got some industrial strength velcro and cut out 4 big squares and stuck them right onto the raw interior of the dome, making them big enough so I had some "wiggle room." Then, on the 4 prongs of the headliner, I stuck the opposing pieces of velcro. I sort of cut them to shape to fit the prongs. . . let me tell ya, cutting industrial strength velcro is a fantastic way to ruin a good pair of scissors!
I made sure to let the glue cure overnight, then stuck the headliner in, and after a couple of small adjustments, it worked like a champ!
As you can see from the dates on the thread, it's been done for just over a year, and that thing hasn't budged!

Sweet!! Thanks Eric...exactly what I was looking for....
Wonder if Home Depot is open this time a night?????

Alex

What are people using for the yellow/cream color on the back of the bucket. I am looking at the first couple bucket progress pics. Superjedi, your color looks great.