Good morning folks,
I hesitate to post this as I know it's not screen accurate as a paint job and I still have some work to do (namely the screw holes and trying to mod the scope). However, I'm posting this because I wanted to show off my first semi-completed mod and as a newbie I think I can get away with it.
I have to give SlaveFive credit (or whoever did the tutorials at sci-fire) for the painting tutorials on wood graining and metalizing. The whole purpose of this project was so that I could practice these tutorials in preparation for bigger and better things. I wanted to get the hang of them so that I wouldn't ruin stuff once I move onto projects that cost me a few more dollars.
First of all, I started off with a Hasbro EE-3 and let me tell you, this thing is tremendously ugly out of the box. The mix of orange, white, and green really punches you in the mouth when you lay eyes on it. It comes with a separated weapon body and stock.
The first thing I did was sand down the stock to remove as much of the images as I could off of the stock and I decided to fill in the connector piece as it's hollow on one side. I used Locktite Repair Putty for this. Once the putty setup (only a few minutes later), I sanded it down even with the body. In preparation for primer, I rough sanded the entire stock body so that it wasn't quite so smooth, but I would up still not liking it...more on that in a minute.
Next I used primer on the stock body. I took it apart because I wanted to be able to evenly coat everything while it sat on my drop tarp all in one pass. I used Valspar primer (2 coats). I also began to prime to weapon body. What you see here is the weapon body after the first pass.
Ultimately, I wasn't happy with the smoothness of the stock, so I took my Dremel with a 60 grit sand head and removed all primer and etched the plastic. The paint I used wasn't a standard flat or semi-flat black. I decided to try a black / rust mix, which I kind of liked for this project. After I repainted the stock and body and before I touched up the etching, this is what the stock looked like:
A sample of the paint used up close. I thought it did well to make plastic look metallic.
I went through the wood graining tutorial and I learned a lot from it. The base coat of Ivory (Behr Ivory Mist to be exact) is the key as it forms the base color. I used a 1 inch goat hair brush to apply it and then continued to brush it until it was so dry that I started removing some of it and let the black undercoat show through some. Then, it's a matter of applying the medium brown, very dark brown, and cherry tones to get your desired effect. I only put a very small amount of cherry on since I accidentally put too much medium brown on to begin with.
When and if I do this again, I will be a lot more easy on the initial base color as this turned out dark. As a finished product it actually looks pretty good, but I'll try to keep it lighter initially next time. I was surprised how fast the spray toning dried, so there isn't much room for error. I will also be sure to paint the stock as a single piece next time instead of splitting it to ensure uniform tones.
I also decided to apply the same effects to the handle on the main weapon body, but that was a bit more of a challenge with rattlecans and trying to keeps colors separate. I think I did alright with it, but could certainly be improved upon next time.
Something else that I did was I added eye screws to the stock and to the weapon body just in front of the battery. I put Superglue on the threads as I screwed them in after I drilled pilot holes.
I then went through the metalizing and damage tutorial and it turned out pretty well. I will say that my sad excuse for a camera doesn't capture much of what I did, but it looks quite nice IMO. I sprayed a very small amount of bright silver on an old wash cloth and dabbed, rubbed, and bumped the paint on the high points. I made sure to keep damage in line with other segments and I tried to hit it where I figured would be likely places to bang it up.
After I finished with the damage, I muted it with the dark walnut toning in most places, but not all. I also put damage where I accidentally dinged the weapon body with the Dremel. :facepalm At least now it looks like it's supposed to be there. Notice that it's also on the stock high points.
After the damage was muted, I combined the stock with the weapon body using JB Weld and I sprayed the entire body and stock with a matte finisher to get rid of the shine. I then added the strap. The strap was from an $8 camera case from Walmart. I weathered the strap with some dirty sandpaper and wood toning. It's nice and ugly at the moment.
Overall, as someone completely new to this whole thing, I think it turned out ok. Although I'm well aware that it isn't screen accurate, I'm very happy with my first finished project and will display this thing proudly as the beginning to a great hobby.
I would like to add lenses to the scope although I'm not sure how to cut down lenses to fit inside and I really should have filled the screw holes on the stock. I will likely do both in time, but for now I thought I would share.
Be gentle folks...I am a newb afterall.
Brad
I hesitate to post this as I know it's not screen accurate as a paint job and I still have some work to do (namely the screw holes and trying to mod the scope). However, I'm posting this because I wanted to show off my first semi-completed mod and as a newbie I think I can get away with it.
I have to give SlaveFive credit (or whoever did the tutorials at sci-fire) for the painting tutorials on wood graining and metalizing. The whole purpose of this project was so that I could practice these tutorials in preparation for bigger and better things. I wanted to get the hang of them so that I wouldn't ruin stuff once I move onto projects that cost me a few more dollars.
First of all, I started off with a Hasbro EE-3 and let me tell you, this thing is tremendously ugly out of the box. The mix of orange, white, and green really punches you in the mouth when you lay eyes on it. It comes with a separated weapon body and stock.
The first thing I did was sand down the stock to remove as much of the images as I could off of the stock and I decided to fill in the connector piece as it's hollow on one side. I used Locktite Repair Putty for this. Once the putty setup (only a few minutes later), I sanded it down even with the body. In preparation for primer, I rough sanded the entire stock body so that it wasn't quite so smooth, but I would up still not liking it...more on that in a minute.
Next I used primer on the stock body. I took it apart because I wanted to be able to evenly coat everything while it sat on my drop tarp all in one pass. I used Valspar primer (2 coats). I also began to prime to weapon body. What you see here is the weapon body after the first pass.
Ultimately, I wasn't happy with the smoothness of the stock, so I took my Dremel with a 60 grit sand head and removed all primer and etched the plastic. The paint I used wasn't a standard flat or semi-flat black. I decided to try a black / rust mix, which I kind of liked for this project. After I repainted the stock and body and before I touched up the etching, this is what the stock looked like:
A sample of the paint used up close. I thought it did well to make plastic look metallic.
I went through the wood graining tutorial and I learned a lot from it. The base coat of Ivory (Behr Ivory Mist to be exact) is the key as it forms the base color. I used a 1 inch goat hair brush to apply it and then continued to brush it until it was so dry that I started removing some of it and let the black undercoat show through some. Then, it's a matter of applying the medium brown, very dark brown, and cherry tones to get your desired effect. I only put a very small amount of cherry on since I accidentally put too much medium brown on to begin with.
When and if I do this again, I will be a lot more easy on the initial base color as this turned out dark. As a finished product it actually looks pretty good, but I'll try to keep it lighter initially next time. I was surprised how fast the spray toning dried, so there isn't much room for error. I will also be sure to paint the stock as a single piece next time instead of splitting it to ensure uniform tones.
I also decided to apply the same effects to the handle on the main weapon body, but that was a bit more of a challenge with rattlecans and trying to keeps colors separate. I think I did alright with it, but could certainly be improved upon next time.
Something else that I did was I added eye screws to the stock and to the weapon body just in front of the battery. I put Superglue on the threads as I screwed them in after I drilled pilot holes.
I then went through the metalizing and damage tutorial and it turned out pretty well. I will say that my sad excuse for a camera doesn't capture much of what I did, but it looks quite nice IMO. I sprayed a very small amount of bright silver on an old wash cloth and dabbed, rubbed, and bumped the paint on the high points. I made sure to keep damage in line with other segments and I tried to hit it where I figured would be likely places to bang it up.
After I finished with the damage, I muted it with the dark walnut toning in most places, but not all. I also put damage where I accidentally dinged the weapon body with the Dremel. :facepalm At least now it looks like it's supposed to be there. Notice that it's also on the stock high points.
After the damage was muted, I combined the stock with the weapon body using JB Weld and I sprayed the entire body and stock with a matte finisher to get rid of the shine. I then added the strap. The strap was from an $8 camera case from Walmart. I weathered the strap with some dirty sandpaper and wood toning. It's nice and ugly at the moment.
Overall, as someone completely new to this whole thing, I think it turned out ok. Although I'm well aware that it isn't screen accurate, I'm very happy with my first finished project and will display this thing proudly as the beginning to a great hobby.
I would like to add lenses to the scope although I'm not sure how to cut down lenses to fit inside and I really should have filled the screw holes on the stock. I will likely do both in time, but for now I thought I would share.
Be gentle folks...I am a newb afterall.
Brad