Necro's FPH2 and Asok in ESB

Necronaut

Hunter
We had a couple warm days here in Alberta last week, so I thought I'd take advantage of them. I've had a FPH2 sitting in my closet since I received it last summer, and an old Asok/FP Budget helmet that I never really got around to working on. The Asok helm has a pretty severe crack in the left cheek from the visor halfway down the cheek. So far, it's only in the cold-cast layer and not the resin underneath.

I reinforced both helmets around the visor with a little steel epoxied between the cheeks. This should keep them from doing funky things, like warping or cracking, I hope. I then cut out the visor on the FPH2 and cleaned it up with a Dremel, just in time to lay down some Floquil Concrete through the airbrush on the rear panels of both helmets.

The next warm day, I resized the RafalFett ESB helmet paint templates to both helmets, went to town with the tracing paper and maskoid, and put down superjedi's recipe for the green: 60-70 drops of BAR Blue and an entire paint pot of Testors Model Master Acryl Euro Dark Green. After removing the masking fluid...
IMG_0538_zpsc4683fcd.jpg

IMG_0539_zps9df7dc08.jpg

By the end of the evening, I was pretty flippin' cross-eyed. :p
Try as I might, I can never get the masking fluid to peel off nicely; I get tiny flakes of the top colour all over the bottom colour! Everyone swears by the Humbrol Maskol, but I can never find it around here. I've tried a few peeling techniques, including mastic and gum erasers.

I went in with a small brush and thinned versions of the Concrete and green blend to touch up any mistakes and get rid of the random green flakes. One week later...
IMG_0542_zpsbabcc7a3.jpg

The FPH2 is on the left, and the Asok Budget is on the right. Cheers! ;)
 
It looks great so far!

When you said that you re-sized the stencils for both helmets, how much you had to modify for the FPH2 and the Asok? Are these differences major or just a few mm here and there?
 
Of course, Jc! :D I sent a FB msg to Chris at FettPride for a hollow aluminum one (and one of the new FPH2 T-visors to boot). However, I'm also eagerly waiting for Dakota's new FPH2 aluminum ear sets. Hopefully he has a space for the microswitch...

As for resizing the templates, I don't really know how much I lost as a percent; I used the Skew and Free Transform functions on PhotoShop, so therte was no straight-on width or height loss per se. I resized the Rafal templates for the Budget helmet first (it's rear panels are larger). I would say that I lost 3-5 mm in width and 1-3 mm in height.
As for the FPH2, I think I may have lost 1-2 cm (not mm!!) in width, and a few mm in height to get them to fit perfectly. As well, there was some 'stretching' I had to do to get them to fit.
I used a trial-and-error method of resizing, draft printing, cutting it out, then seeing if it would fit. I would say it took 10 or so tries per panel per helmet (40 attempts total).
 
Ah, good info. Thanks! A couple of my upcoming commissions are for FPH2s and
I was wondering what kind of size difference I'd be working with.
1-2 cm is quite a difference in width! Looks like I'll be creating a new set of stencils.

BTW, the unevenness of your dark green looks great! Nice airbrush work. (y)
 
And it was totally done on purpose, as per the AOSW Barbican ref. images. :D Thanks!

What's your go-to bank for reference ESB Helmet images, everyone?
 
What should I use for the light gray spots that are mixed into the silver areas? Should it be a transparent, translucent, or opaque layer of color over the silver?
 
What should I use for the light gray spots that are mixed into the silver areas? Should it be a transparent, translucent, or opaque layer of color over the silver?

That color should go under the silver, because it is the base color (possibly the primer), this is why it's an opaque color.
 
Agree with Rafal, but being a topical painter, I add that light gray at the end of my paint jobs.
I use a craft acrylic paint called Blue Wisp (can't remember the brand off the top of my head) and I put it on undiluted.
 
Thanks guys. I used a light blue Vallejo Model Color, heavily diluted on my first helmet for these bits. Speaking of helmets...
IMG_0549_zps3ebcb1f8.jpg

I've blocked in all of the gray parts. There's not much silver on this side of the helmet, so the finish line is in sight.

I'm considering doing the FPH2 as an ESB movie era helmet, and the Budget helmet as a more modern version at the ESB helmet, with the warts, scratches, ink & glue stains and all.
 
Got some silver up on these buckets...
IMG_0553_zps33d7b5ec.jpg

This one is the FPH2.

And here's the Asok CC:
IMG_0555_zps176d1b2b.jpg


I originally used PollyScale Piston Silver for my old GMH, but I was never satisfied with its ability to cover underlying colours. For these panels, I'm currently using the old Testors Metallic Silver. I haven't touched one of these square bottles since I was sniffing glue and building airplane models as a kid. I find that it's got a better ability to cover over underlying colours with only a single coat.

But I may be turning over to the dark side for the rest of these helmets and doing a layered painting approach, starting with silver, then gray, then green. Oh my stars!
 
Finished the FPH2 backplate as per the movie, except for the base gray inside the silver areas:
IMG_0557_zpsef244fc7.jpg


The Asok backplate has most of its scratches, but I don't have any of the base gray, gray primer, or ink stains on yet:
IMG_0560_zpse7910bbe.jpg

I used a piece of 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper to create some of the lightening and uneven-ness in the blue/gray layer of paint, as per the AOSW pics I used.
 
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