Superjedi's Chest/Shoulder Armor

superjedi

Sr Hunter
Hi all!
It's been a while since I've had an "in progress" thread, but I have now entered the final stage of my costume! Yes, the end is in sight. :D
I recently got my BM torso and shoulder armor, and I'll post some pics showing my process.

First of all, I just have to say that I've had a lot of experience with models and prop replicas. I've bought a lot of resin or fiberglass products for prop making and costuming in the past few years, and this set of BM armor contains the cleanest, most well-formed pieces I've ever bought. It was literally ready to paint right out of the box. Terrific workmanship! (Thanks, Daz!)

The first pic shows all the components I bought all laid out in various stages of completion. The back and collar pieces are base-coated in Testors Dark Green. I use this to give a nice green coat so I don't have to use so much Polly S paint! (It's more expensive.)
The next pic shows the difference between the Testors Dark Green and the Polly S US Med Green. For the body armor, I didn't want it be smooth and perfect. I wanted it to look slightly uneven and oxidized. So I decided not to use my airbrush, but instead, sponge painted the US Med Green on. I used those small, very dense white makeup sponges. I just dabbed it on so I got good complete coverage, yet not perfectly smooth. I don't know if that effect will show up in the pics or not.

The ab plate and left chest plate have had the silver and yellow zinc chromate chips painted on already. On the right chest plate, I've only done the silver. You can see some pencil marks on the piece. This is how I've done the damage on all my armor so far, including my helmet.

Here's how I do my "templates." First I measure the actual piece. On the ab plate for example, I measured from the bottom edge, to the top edge, dead center. That gave me a recognizable reference.
After that, I pull up a good reference pic of the actual screen-used piece. (I have lots of pics saved on my computer.) I size the image in Paintshop until the image matches the size of the actual piece. I just hold a ruler up to my monitor and scale it up or down until it matches.
Then I take a piece of tracing paper and a mechanical pencil, and trace every chip and scratch. After that, I turn the tracing paper over and re-draw them on the other side. Now I have a stencil. I lay the tracing paper (right side up) onto my armor, and rub across my marks with the back of a paintbrush. This transfers the design right onto the armor. Then it's basically like a paint-by-number. :lol:

Hope you enjoy the pics! More to follow. . .

Eric

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Well you allready knew that I was looking forward to this thread..

(y) Wow, you've been busy over there.. You really might be done by Sunday :lol: Great work and great info as usual..

Don't forget to give lots of details about how you do the weathering :D
Lookin great so far..
 
That's a brilliant idea, and great work bro! I just ordered my BM armor last week, so I am taking LOTS of notes. Keep that info rolling in brother!!
 
Very nice!! I really like the idea of dabbing on the green with a sponge! It shows up in the glare on the ab plate, and looks really good. I'll definatly keep that in mind when I start my armor! Keep it going!

-Chris
 
Thanks everyone!
I've been working on it some more, and I'll try to get new pics up tomorrow.
UPDATE: May 14

OK, the chest pieces are pretty much done. I went back and misted them with black, and overcoated with clear flat. Then using black ink and a "pointy thing" :lol: I added the smaller scratches and streaks, as well as the spatter effect.
Here's the right chest plate and ab plate as they look now.

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UPDATE: May 17th

OK, my shoulders are pretty much done. It was a bear finding good pics of the left shoulder that weren't blocked by the cape, but I had some help from a couple of you guys. Thanks! (y)

The shoulders were airbrushed with Polly S Reefer Yellow, and once it was dry, I used Tamiya Chrome Silver and Polly S ATSF Catwhisker Yellow to do the main damage areas (just like on my knees). I used the tracing paper method to make my own stencils, and got them as close as I could on the actual pieces. These were harder to place because the curve is much more pronounced.

I used a mix of yellow-orange and red-brown pastels to do the subtle shading. I applied these with a large soft brush, and did light applications until the color was built up enough to where it looked good. Then I sealed the pastels with Testors dull coat.

After the silver/yellow damage was painted on, I went back with another yellow, Polly S Reading Yellow, which is just slightly lighter in tone than the Reefer Yellow. I used this color for all the tiny thin yellow scratches.

Then for the dark scuffs and smudges, I used a mix of Tamiya Neutral Gray and Red Brown. I just dipped a small detail brush quickly into both colors and then dabbed most of it off onto a paper towel. Then I "scrubbed" the color onto the shoulders, letting the dark color build up slowly. The long scuff on the left shoulder was tricky to get even looking. I hope I did OK.

Anyway, here's some pics of my new shoulders! The only piece I have left to paint is the back plate, and I'm hoping to get to that in the next couple of days.
Eric

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Ah. . . I didn't explain the weathering of the skull. Well, I'll fix that. :)

Weathering the chest emblem was easy since the chest plates were black-misted. I just misted over everything and liked the way it came out.

I wanted a similar effect on the shoulder decal, but since the shoulders weren't black-misted, I simply masked everything off but the decal. A few "spurts" at arm's length with Rustoleum flat black, then dull coat to seal it, and then removed the tape and that was it.

On both decals, I went back with some Tamiya flat white and a very tiny detail brush and painted the white scratches on.
 
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