So this is going to be a long post.
I started painting today, and got quite good progress. I used Tamiya Enamel paints, and don't really have a sequence of painting, using both topical and layering, as well as toning and misting, dry brushing and oil washes.
For this helmet, I'm not trying to get every scratch replicated, but more the feel of the original bounty hunter: weathered, unkept, and functional.
So on with the painting. After a final primer and sanding down and primer again, I applied the base coat of Flat Brown with about 40% black. I like a very dark base to give me the depth later:
After the base was applied, I toned it with Flat brown (without Black) to give it some depth. It will turn out much lighter at this stage, but I know I will be toning it with various darker layers later. This is a shot of the toning in progress, showing the top half with the base coat and the lower half toned:
This is after the first toning. As I said, it is light, but I wanted to make sure there was the greatest contrast between this and the base coat:
The next toning layer was Red Brown, now bringing the colour back up, but also showing hints of the lighter tone underneath:
The paint chips were hand painted using Red Brown with 40% white added:
Next, Sky Grey was used to mist the back portion of the helmet:
After Sky Grey, I used German Grey to further tone the dark areas:
Then Black was used directly to mist certain areas of the helmet to give it a little of that burnt / charred effect:
When that was completed, it was time to hand paint the silver paint chips and scratches. I used Flat Aluminium for this:
The top rim was also sprayed with Flat Aluminium:
The ears were also sprayed with Black, and dry-brushed with Flat Aluminium:
Now the whole helmet was dry-brushed with Flat Aluminium, and then misted with German Grey to dull down the bright silver colours. The 2 black vinyl strips were also added:
Using my Silhouette Cameo, the stencil mask for the right of the helmet was cut and positioned for spraying with Hull Red:
I chose this very dull colour intentionally to have a worn and faded effect:
The left side done too:
The back was a little more tricky as the line is not straight:
I am pretty satisfied with the progress today. Here are the photos so far, after they were sealed with a matt Clear Coat:
The next step will be to apply washes to give it even more depth, and more dry-brushing and toning before I call it complete for this part of the helmet.