Joey's ESB Build

[jdrussell2]

jdrussell2
So I use an airbrush, which allows for better control over the rattle cans. In fact, I used an airbrush for pretty much my entire Fett. The knee darts painting scheme (Red and Black) seems the same as the ROTJ version. I simply used masking tape and taped off everything except the exposed metal on the knee darts. It was actually pretty quick to do.

I’m using an airbrush as well for everything for the same reason. What kind of paint did you use? I’m using enamel paints for pretty much everything but I’m not sure if they’ll grab onto the aluminum as I need it to. Any kind of specific paint recommendation?

 

[Irongladiator]

jdrussell2
For mine I simply used the following Vallejo paints...

I also mixed the Vallejo paints with...

...this allows for it to be at a good consistency to be shot out of the airbrush.

I gave the paint 24 hours to cure then followed up with this....

....and two years later, no issue.


Cheers,
-Iron

 

[robotzo]

It should be pretty easy to mask with some tape, at least for me. It should just wrap around no problem. Maybe scuff it up a little with some sandpaper so the primer bonds better before you paint

 

[Irongladiator]

Maybe scuff it up a little with some sandpaper so the primer bonds better before you paint

robotzo
In hindsight, that is actually a great suggestion though. But again to date.....for me, two years and multiple troops under my belt.....no issue with my paint.


-Iron

 

[robotzo]

robotzo
In hindsight, that is actually a great suggestion though. But again to date.....for me, two years and multiple troops under my belt.....no issue with my paint.


-Iron

That's good to see. I am always worried about paint not bonding properly lol and bare metal is always scary

 

[jdrussell2]

Hello again, everyone! I'm back with some short updates before I go and paint some pieces. Here is my current look for the cod/kidney pieces. The shade of green is about to change, so keep that in mind.

First I hit both pieces with a couple layers of Humbrol #11 and masked off the damage for the first coat of yellow. After drying, I did my yellow layer with Humbrol 154 to give that yellow layer a solid base.

I'm rather curious to see how today goes as I will attempt to get all of my armor pieces painted. Those pieces will include chest pieces, backplate, collar, and shoulders. Wish me luck!

 

[jdrussell2]

Now, I went the Sherman-Williams route for getting enough green enamel paint for Boba. With that being said, I took my best reference back and got this Hunter Green looking shade. I'm not too happy with how it turned out. I went back and picked a different shade of green that looked better on a good reference photo. That color ended up being called Billiard Green which has more of that dark Pine Green to it. I'll take plenty of pictures of the new pieces with these repainted as well.

The Humbrol Maskol really does a great got with getting good natural chipping look. Using a compass point to scratch the Maskol off and add fine lines is a huge help as well.

My green didn't go on like I thought it did which is why you can see the yellow coming through. The new layer of green will cover this up and make everything nice and smooth.

 

[jdrussell2]

Also, I got my soft parts in! This Boba is going to end up being about 90% of pieces being from Daz over at Bobamaker. I also included a picture of all my armor parts that I currently have. Forgot to mention the shin tools as well. I'll paint those after I get all of these pieces done since I'll have to do more paint swapping. The flight suit feels great and is nice and snug. The flak jacket is nice and light with plenty of fluff to it so the armor pieces will sit nicely on it. The gloves are a tad big but they shrunk a bit when I threw them in the wash. I'll be using acrylic paints to weather these pieces today and I'm excited to get the full soft parts look done!

As far as new pieces go, I had already ordered my helmet, jetpack, Pulce-40, holster, and side pouches. All coming from Bobamaker. They should be here in the summer months so I should have plenty of time to paint when they get here.

 

[jdrussell2]

So, I made a lot of progress this week since the elements decided to bless me. I weathered my flightsuit, flak jacket, and gloves. I also was able to paint my chest, back, and collar armor pieces! I've been both excited and nervous to finally get to this part. The only reason being is I wanted my green to look a certain way in relation to 501st and movie references. I'll go through my process for weathering my soft parts and then get into the fun armor parts.

 

[jdrussell2]

For the soft parts I used acrylic paints as they're easier to mix and they're much cheaper. The two colors I used are Burnt Umber & Black (after getting some burnt look I mixed black to give a darker tone.) You can get them at Target for about a dollar. I went in with Burnt Umber first to give an almost toasty look as if its been burned.

After getting a good base down, I mixed in some black to darken everything. I went pretty light at first (always better to do not enough than too much to start) and decided I'd go back in and make it even darker after getting a few different light sources on it.

I did some light weathering around the sleeves as I saw in some screen references. Nothing too crazy, but just enough that people can see when they're within picture posing distance.

Going back in and darkening everything a little more was definitely the right move. It is easy to think you have enough weathering until you go to take pictures and it looks like you haven't done anything. This go around I got the lower parts of the flightsuit especially since it is pretty filthy in the movie. Getting good weathering on the pockets and that area definitely blends as well. Finally, I tested my steady drawing hands by weathering the gloves very lightly in the grooves of the pads as well as around the fingers. Boba uses his hands all the time like the rest of us... You can't tell me those things are always spotless

This was pretty cut and dry. I think this is one of the more fun parts to weather because you don't necessarily have to follow references super closely. Take a look and go to work. I'm pretty happy with how all these came out and I'm excited to make everything look just as dirty and abused. Onto the armor pieces!

 

[jdrussell2]

Here we go! Onto the armor! My approach to this was very deliberate and careful. Since this green shade is very distinctive but also varying depending on what references you look at, I was curious to see how these came out. Now, I will say this about the varying greens we see: there is definitely a few shades/values of Boba that you can get and go "ya, that looks right" and there's also that will make you kinda turn your head in uncertainty. I wanted to get that good, consistent look of green that is hard to deny. These pictures are the ones I went off of to get my green shade.

 

[jdrussell2]

First things first, you have to give every piece a good silver base to start the layering process. This is Humbrol #11 and I did 2 coats. I painted the shoulder pieces since I had them, but I am planning on painting those tomorrow so stay tuned for that! After the silver, I masked off the damage based off of some closeup pictures from The Builder on TDH. His pictures are fantastic.

 

[jdrussell2]

Then it was into getting the yellow down. Since there are only 2 pieces that have yellow damage, I just painted those to save more for my shoulder painting. This is Humbrol #154 and I did 2 layers. Slow and smooth. The patient part is next!

 

[jdrussell2]

I'll share with you all an error I made out of excitement of getting the green exactly how I wanted it. I did a test run on a yellow strip to see how it will look on top of the yellow. I'll let you look and guess what my mistake was...

If you're asking yourself "where is the masking for the yellow damage?" then you're asking the right question! While it was a small part, there is a good bit of yellow damage on that part. So, I'll go back in tomorrow and just tape of the area and cut out some pieces to add that yellow. No biggie, but if I was just a little more patient I could've nailed it the first time. Patience is a virtue!

 

[jdrussell2]

After realizing my mistake, I went and added the yellow damage masking in and filled in the rest. This green looks GORGEOUS and really intense under the natural light. It does tone down some after it dries which gave me more room to play with varying values of the green shade I came up with.

 

[jdrussell2]

After looking at that one painted piece for a solid 15 minutes, I decided to paint the rest as well
Everything came out super consistent and looking beautiful. After they were all setup and drying, I got my cod and kidney armor pieces to compare. I wasn't happy with the shade of the green I got with those so they'll get sanded down, masked, and repainted.

You can see the difference in accuracy is night and day. The cod and kidney pieces had more of a light forest green while Boba is more of a pine forest or billiard green looking. I'm much happier with this outcome and look than before.

 

[jdrussell2]

I let all the pieces dry for a few hours and then used my compass point and removed all the masking. This is where you see Boba start to come to life. You'll see some different things in different pictures so I'll elaborate on each one. You can see in the first picture that the paint tones down quite a bit after it dries (which is what I wanted).

You can see little grains in the paint here. This is a perk of painting outside for me. It adds some depth and texture to the pieces for me. The details are everything when it comes to Boba and while I do want to be as a close to the movie as possible, I also want to add some realistic aspects to this kit. I think little things like this do that just perfectly.

You can see some scratches in the bottom left part of this armor piece which was not intentional, but definitely looks good. The right side of this piece was the one that was supposed to have more yellow damage on it. We'll get there.

I haven't figured out how I'm going to attack painting the clan crest onto this piece, but it's all ready for it whenever I do.

The collar piece speaks for itself.

The back plate is not complicated at all. Just some minor weathering. I know it can be easy to skip over a part like this since you'll have a jetpack on top of it, but the details are everything and integrity is a good way to stay honest

 

[jdrussell2]

So you guys don't have to scroll up and down, here is a comparison of my references to my painted pieces. Not 100% accurate, but again, this green changes in every shot.

 

[jdrussell2]

Good afternoon, fellow Hunters and Hunt-ettes! Back with another update for you all. Today I accomplished a few things. I repainted my cod and kidney armor so I have all the same shade of green on every armor piece and I managed to paint my shoulder pieces! The repaint was easy. Just a matter of masking off the damage (again), pouring in the right ratio of paint to thinner, and painting away. The shoulders weren't too hard either except achieving that nice burnt orange can prove to be difficult. However, I prevailed yet again. I won't go through the repainting process and instead just hop into the shoulders.

Here we go!

 

[jdrussell2]

We'll start with the right shoulder. First things first with painting anything Boba, gotta mask the damage off first. This angle is a bit off because I did a time lapse of painting and didn't get a front view with the masking on, but I'm sure you all get the point...

I put on my first initial layer of orange oh so smoothly. This is Humbrol #82 for anyone wondering. It doesn't look quite right when you put it on initially, but it's actually the satin finish at the end that gives it a crispy burnt orange.

So, I tried to jump the gun & get my burnt orange look BEFORE the end and tried mixing in some brown with my orange to get it. It didn't do much. Especially since you have to end up weathering with brown anyways for this piece. After that, I went in with some Humbrol #182 and lightly weathered around the masked areas. It looks a little too light, don't ya think?

I thought so too. So, I added some black to my brown and went back over the weathered areas again. This time I went into the inner parts of some of the lighter brown to make it seem like the armor got hit directly in one place and bounced off giving it that dark initial mark and a fade to a lighter shade. Less is always more here. The orange piece isn't nearly as weathered as its yellow counterpart so no need for me to go crazy.

Then, after letting them sit for a bit, I peel off the masking, scratch some additional fine points into the paint with my compass point, and spray a light coat of satin finish. This is the burnt orange shade I was referencing earlier. The finish really brings everything up and makes it pop. My only grief here is scratch towards the bottom is too wide which was a mishap in masking. Had some drop off and land there so I just went with it. Still looks solid!