ROTJ armor color?

I am almost done sanding down the edges of my armor and am starting to think about paint. Do I need to clean the armor (soap and water) to get the oils off like a model? I am doing a ROTJ style and want to knwo what appropriate colors and brands work best. I know i have seen the info here, but can't find it.





Thanks for taking the time to view.

Color specific brands I can't help you with sorry,I'm going to be soliciting a painter for mine who uses custom airbrush mixtures.

Prep work advice I can give though It looks like your chest armor is quite shiny,and you might want to give it a good sanding also,other than that if there are any resin peices you will want to wash them thoroughly before painting.

Good Luck

Steve

ARMOR: RUST-OLEUM SATIN SPRUCE GREEN 7737.
SHOULDER BELLS AND KNEE ARMOR: NAPA COMMERCIAL COATINGS CAT YELLOW #2.
I HAVE YET TO FIND THE EXACT RED FOR THE ROTJ GAUNTLETS.

What about the silver? I expect that the whole thing gets first coated in silver (Jango)?

"I HAVE YET TO FIND THE EXACT RED FOR THE ROTJ GAUNTLETS."

Krylon Rudy Brown w/ black acrylic airbrush paint sprayed over it in a 20/80% ratio (20% paint, 80% water)
Looks identical to the ROTJ Special Edition gauntlets.

the Real ROTJ original gauntlets are a little more red, and less brown.

SILVER (UNDERCOAT, BATTLE SCARS, & SCRATHCES): RUST-OLEUM METALLIC FINISH 'ALUMINUM 7715'.

Does the armor need to be prepped? (sanded, etc).

Your paint will stick alot better with a light sanding using a fine grit sandpaper. Wash it good with soapy water afterwards to get all of the dust and mold release off of it. Spray it with a coat of primer and you should be ready to go.

Is the silver a primer or do I need to apply a primer before I spary the silver layer?

Lightly sand the armor so that the paint will adhere better to the plastic. Then primer (with primer, the gray kind). Then a few coats of silver (be sure to let it dry completely before adding another coat). Use rubber cement or Vasoline after this in the spots where you will have battle damage. Then I would recommend a single coat of yellow (you can see this showing through on the MotM pics). Then a couple good coats of green. Then weather. Now go back and rub off the rubber cement/Vasoline and you will see you damage come to life. Use a dull butter knife, a plastic scraper, and or sandpaper to wear off some more green paint and add to the damage by creating more scrathes and scrapes. Then end result should be a nice set of multi-layer painted armor. Have fun!

Thanks! I can't wait to start. It would seem to me that the vaseline would give a less perfect scar, therefore making it look more realistic.

What other methods do folks use that they have gotten good results from?

I would make the suggestion to NOT use silver paint for the bare metal exposed areas. The problem with silver paint, is that's exactly what it ends up looking like - paint.

If you want to achieve a more realistic finish, I'd suggest you use Testors Chrome Spray Enamel #1290. It comes in a spraycan, so you have to carefully spray the contents into the cap, and apply it using the torn sponge technique.

Hmmm, my scars turned out okay with an aluminum base. But trust me when I say that Motorfish is a far better artist than me. I am still kicking myself for getting outbid on the jet pack he sold on eBay. It was AWESOME!

{{{{ARMOR: RUST-OLEUM SATIN SPRUCE GREEN 7737.
SHOULDER BELLS AND KNEE ARMOR: NAPA COMMERCIAL COATINGS CAT YELLOW #2. }}}}

BobaFettish, is that applicable to ESB armor also? Do you have a picture of these colors on the armor? I'm getting to the point where I'll be starting the armor. Who knew the helmet would be such a PITA...

Phil

These were the colors recommended to me by one of the original Fett prop makers. They are the colors he used on the costumes he made for Disney and Universal Studios, Florida. I can email you some pics of my armor, but I do not have a host site to post them here. The colors will work for either ESB or ROTJ.

A word of warning on the rubber cement method: when I tried that, it immediately lifted the paint beneath it. I had to wipe it all off and repaint. I talked with Boba Fettish about this, and since he didn't have any problems, it may be the difference in paint brands. I recommend testing this out before you find out the hard way that it isn't going to work. I used the liquid masking material, which is simply liquid latex. It worked quite well.

I took some advise and painted my armor spruce green. Now that it has dried it doesn't look dark enough. I'm thinking now it is more like a dark olive drab.

It is not supposed to be dark. I used RUST-OLEUM SATIN SPRUCE GREEN 7737 and it is the closest match that I have found. This is the exact color recommended to me by one of big three prop makers and he swears by it. I even gave it a light misting of gray primer to weather it a bit more. If you have the Reference CD, hold your painted pieces next to the MoM pics and you'll see how close the two colors are. Now if you are going for the action figure look.....

Do you use any other colors (ie. black or brown) to mist on the armor?

You have to be careful trying to mist black spray paint as it tends to 'spit'. I would recommend either airbrushing the black or using acrylic paints (which I used) for your weathering. I combined a little gray with it so that it wasn't so dark. The good thing with acryilic is that if you mess up, you've got the opportunity to wipe it off before it becomes permanent. I would practice this a bit before you try it on your armor.

Hey... that middle diamond type armor piece... what is in the centre of it... is it just the fabric... or is it some sort of reflextor??? or just white.... I haven't attached my armor to my vest yet... so now that I notice that.. could someone please inform me what it is... thanks

I used reflective tape for mine. It looks kinda cool when light hits it at an angle and in flash photos.

For what it's worth, this is what I've used:

Shoulder Bells:

* Several base coats of Rust-O-Leum "Aluminum" paint. Very metallic looking, yet not "flashy-looking" like "Chrome" or "Silver" paint can be.

* Mask the dents and scratches, then apply a coat of Krylon "Ivory" ("Off-White" works well too) for the primer.

* Mask the areas where you want the primer to show, then apply a solid coat of Rust-O-Leum "Farm Equipment Yellow" (designed to match "Caterpillar" brand equipment, a tad darker than the Wal-Mart "ColorPlace Caterpillar Yellow" so you don't have to use as much "Pumpkin Orange" to darken it).

* Lightly mist it with "Pumpkin Orange" from about 3 feet away to darken the yellow slightly, then lightly mist it with the Caterpillar Yellow from about 3 feet away to blend/lessen the "orangey-ness" of the Orange.

* Allow the coats to dry before the next coat is applied, of course.

* Remove masking tape and you're set.


Chest Armor:

I used Rust-O-Leum "Specialty Camouflage Paints Forest Green #1919" with a tad of Krylon "Hunter Green", though the Dark Forest Green is pretty close by itself.


Availability (or where I bought mine):

Krylon Aluminum: Wal-Mart (regular store)
Krylon Almond: KMart
Rust-O-Leum Farm Equipment Yellow: Wal-Mart (SuperCenter store)
Krylon Pumpkin Orange: KMart
Rust-O-Leum Forest Green (#1919): Home Depot
Krylon Hunter Green: KMart

Krylon dries a LOT faster than Rust-O-Leum, usually 10 minutes compared to 2 HOURS. Unfortunately, Krylon's "Farm Equipment Yellow" is designed to match "John Deere" products, and is VERY bright, and is basically unusable. I didn't try Krylon's "Aluminum" because I couldn't find it, so I used the Rust-O-Leum version because it was available.

After the paint dried and the masking tape was removed from the metal & white "primered" areas, I burnished and scratched the armor using a wooden stick. I then mixed black acrylic paint with water (1 part paint to 10 parts water) and "blackwashed" the scratches to create carbon scoring marks. The paint is so thin that it collects in the creases and crevices. Take a paper towel and blot the surface of the armor LIGHTLY to remove any excess, but allow the paint to "pool" in the nooks and crannies. The big cut in the armor is about 1/8" deep, and the two round impact "craters" are about 1/4" deep. For these, I heated up the Sintra and pushed into it with a dowel to create the craters. The big cut was made using a Dremel sanding drum.

It may not be movie-accurate, but I got the effect that I wanted, and in person, it's pretty convincing and a lot more 3 dimensional.

Of course, there are a million ways to paint these parts, and a million brands/colors/types of paint that you can use to get similar results. These were what I used. I hope it helps someone.

I keep losing this list so I figured I post it in a thread by itself. Hope this helps some of you out there. Personlly I've never liked using airbrushes so that means I must make off the shelf stuff work for me. That is until I paint my final Fett helmet it must be perfect!

Here are the colors that I used to paint my ROTJ Fett suit.

First for the armor plates I used Painter's Touch Camouflage by Rust-Oleum-Deep Forest Green #1919. I had to make this color darker by weathering it with artist charcoal. I painted one coat of the green then rubbed it down with a cloth that I repeatedly applied black artist charcoal to. If you overdo this you can easily undo it by sanding a bit off. I then sealed the now darker color with a semi-gloss spray. After that dries I lightly sanded with a fine to medium scotch brite pad to make the color somewhat uneven. If the color still doesn't look right to you the steps can be repeated to get it just right. For the chips and scratches in the armor I used Testors model paints and brushed the damage in. I don't remember the specific colors used but I used a light olive green for the green primer scratches and regular yellow paint muted with charcoal after it dried for the yellow primer scratches. The silver chips were made with aluminum and steel model colors.

The following colors were used for the gauntlets, shoulder bells, and jet pack.
Krylon Burgundy Satin #3503
Krylon Pumpkin Orange Gloss #2411
Wal-Mart brand ColorPlace Royal Blue Gloss #20001
Wal-Mart brand ColorPlace Flat White
Any brand Satin Clear Coat for sealant.
I used the same weathering technique described above to get the desired results. The green is the only paint that I had to completely cover with the charcoal. The other colors were just weathered with the Charcoals. Also, on the jet pack I used other color artist charcoals yellow, etc. to lighten the Pumpkin Orange on the jet pack and shoulder bells.

Yep. I used Rust-O-Leum "Spruce Green" for all the chest armor and Testors "Steel" and "Yellow Zinc Chromate" for the metal & primer colors. I airbrushed Liquitex "Mars Black" acrylic on for "carbon scoring". Then I used Testors Dull Cote as a top coat.



Be careful with the Rust-O-Leum. Unlike Krylon that dries in 12 minutes or less, *IT* takes up to 48 hours to dry! If Krylon made a color that was close, I'd switch brands in a heartbeat! After a few coats of Krylon gray primer, I put 3 coats of the Spruce Green on my armor so I'd have a really good coating. Waiting for one coat to dry before applying the next resulting in taking a full WEEK to put on 3 coats of paint. However, it's GREAT once it finally dries!

This is a link to the shoulder bells and knees colors,
http://tdh.prop-planet.com/viewtopic...c=1814&forum=4
I primed everything with Gray primer first and then sprayed with two coats of silver. I used School Bus Yellow misted with Krylon Ruddy Brown Primer.

For the armor color, I used Rustoleum Spruce Green, misted 3 feet away with flat black for a darker color. For the yellow underneath the green, I used Rustoleum Sun Yellow with a little mist of Krylon Ruddy Brown primer, but not necessary. I finished the whole armor using Matte Finish for a flat look, but that's if you want it.

Robert