ESB Fett 2.0 by Necronaut

I finished this a couple nights ago, just too busy/lazy to post the pics.


I did my best to follow my own advice in the weathering process. I actually printed out my own 'guide' to try and remember exactly what I did for the weathering. However, there aren't that many good shots of these gauntlets. The ones that are available really only show the inside of the gauntlet really well. That's the part of the paint job that looks the most screen-accurate, IMHO. I did have to go outside my guide to get the same look, though. The giant gray paint smear down the insides of the gauntlets, while looking really gaudy and amateurish, is actually what was on the pics and stills from the movie. I used Testors flat aluminum enamel paint to touch up the silver and add the necessary silver marks to make them more accurate, according to the ref pics I printed off.

I am still going to repaint my green armour parts over the holidays. Those holidays are a couple weeks away and I have nothing but Star Wars on the brain, thanks to the Ep. VII teaser. To indulge myself a little and celebrate the upcoming holiday, I thought I would put up a Star Wars-themed Christmas tree in the classroom I teach in. I found a cheap Vader toy mask for the tree topper, and I picked up a 50-pack of the new Star Wars Command army men to use as cheap SW decorations. 50 figures for $20 CDN, and $25 for the mask.

After briefly inspecting them, the miniature painter in me came out swinging. I'll need to prime them before painting them up all pretty and such.

To the miniature painting stash!

Very nice Brett, put in a lot of work on these guys. Noticeable difference in these and the MoW weight wise speaking? I can tell the ABS seems to be more formed to a forearm too. Definitely look way better.

It is absolutely a night and day difference between the MoW and the RKD gauntlet on the right side. Some of that was my own making (2 layers of FG inside the MoW gaunts vs pure 0.060 vac formed ABS).

The he left side gauntlets have an aluminum flamethrower and a full metal gauntlet rocket right now. Definitely as heavy, maybe heavier than the original gauntlets. I will paint up the resin RKD gauntlet once I can open my window to airbrush the paint safely.

We have a warm spell coming up this week, so I'll be able to airbrush my gauntlet rocket. I'll also finish the silver on my Pulce sidearm while I have the aluminum paint in the airbrush.

I will ill use this opportunity to weather my gloves and flak vest. The Armor is removed, ready to get sanded down. I weathered my old Arkady vest with black and brown through the airbrush. I went in between the quilting on the shoulders, and darkened the cloth around the armor plates a touch. Should I replicate this, or try to get it to look a little more like the PrePro2 vest? It's been weathered with gray, applied in a really blotchy pattern, as seen in SW Costumes.

i just airbrushed Mr Hobby's copper metalizer paint. When it dries, you can buff the paint up with an old shirt, microfibre cloth, or eyeglass polisher cloth. I hope it's durable enough to leave this cool satin finish.


i decided to just go for that blotchy gray finish to my flak vest. I had not weathered the matching neck seal yet (both made by bat ninja shortly before his retirement) so I weathered it as well. My ESB gloves had no weathering yet either, so it all got done tonight. I airbrushed a light gray, a medium gray, and a brownish medium gray randomly over the vest. I did line the quilting on the shoulders and the quilting on the gloves, and dirtied up the glove palms and fingers.

i added some splatter to the vest, just for a little texture.

Gloves!

Here are a couple plastic parts that I finished. I finished the gauntlet rocket with the silver at the back of the rocket. As well, I finally finished up my Stormrider foam-filled sidearm. I had it painted with regular (red oxide) primer, weathered it, then painted a couple coats of gloss black where the silver paint would go. After I polished all that black paint, it kind of sat around since around May. I finally masked it up and painted it with a chrome silver Mr Hobby metalizer paint. I left it un-buffed, for the brushed look. Both parts need a little touch-up and weathering.


All my armour is now ready for primer. I sanded a piece or two every night this week by hand down to primer/bare plastic, finishing with the giant back piece tonight. As well, my Lucksy31 chest decals and stencils arrived in the mail today. I'm going to try painting the chest emblem on, but I bought backup vinyl decals, just in case.

nice side-arm! That trick of painting black beneath silver is a good one, I'd only heard of it last year. Looks sick!

I use DupliColor adhesion promoter whenever I can when I am painting over plastic. I used to use it over resin as well, but it's a habit i need to get back into, IMHO. I sprayed two coats of it a few minutes apart before laying down some red oxide primer. It dried for about 24 hours.


24 hours later, I shot all of my parts with Tremclad Silver spray. It coats really well really quickly, and creates quite a nice shine. It fools the school custodian into thinking it's aluminum or steel. I truly hope that that is a sign of how good the paint looks, and not something else... :unsure I let this harden over the course of the next five days.


Over that 5 days, I go out the paint templates from RafalFett and started masking the silver paint chip damage. I first taped down a piece of Saral transfer paper to the armour piece, then taped down the paint template. I used a ballpoint pen to trace out the damage outlines. Unfortunately, the transfer doesn't stick to the glossy smooth silver paint underneath.


The transfer is barely there. In the right light, it is sort of visible. These areas were masked in using Winsor & Newton latex masking fluid. I had the template and several reference photos around to aid me.


I made the mistake of using a small capacity airbrush to paint these armour pieces originally. It took forever to paint, and I needed to constantly refill the tiny paint cup. I decided to use a Micheal's 40% off coupon on a Badger single action siphon fed airbrush. It has an enormous color cup, perfect for large areas of paint. It only cost $18 CDN with the coupon.


I used Testor's Zinc Chromate paint on the codpiece, kidney plate, left chest, and belly plate. Not just where it will show through the paint chips, the entire piece. It's like $1 a bottle, so why not?! I am hoping that it will slightly lighten the green paint that will go over it.
The right chest, collar, and backplate are getting a Testor's medium gray coat. It's a pretty near perfect match to Humbrol 117 Gray, as used by Darth Voorhees on his summer ESB repaint (Now for sale in the Cargo Hold). I just checked, and it's really close to SP Lark Dark Gray, the recommended color from the paint stencils.
I thought that the gray paint I had chosen here would make a great 'base metal' color, but it looks like it will need a little lightening first. I'll spray that, and finish spraying the backplate tomorrow. I'll likely let these colors cure until after Christmas. I will unmask them and re-mask for the green paint stages, which will happen after Christmas.

Cheers!

Well, that didn't work. While the gray paint stuck on the silver layer okay, the yellow would scratch and peel off if you looked at it wrong. So I sanded those parts back down to bare plastic:

Warning signs that the silver paint wouldn't take layers on top started with the tracing paper residue not sticking so well. Warning sign #2 was the liquid masking agent would bead up, not conforming to the stencilled shapes on my armour pieces.
This time around, I'll try RKD's trick of a shot of DullCote over the silver layer to make everything else on top stick just a little better.
I sanded down the right chest piece because I had sprayed the dark gray first, when I probably should have done the lighter 'base metal' gray first.

Armour repaint, Take 2:

It's still Testers Yellow Zinc Chromate and Medium Gray from the rectangular glass bottles. I spent about 3 hours in the shop this afternoon, masking the battle damage for every piece.


This is Darth Voorhees' ESB green recipe: I used two bottles of Humbrol 76, 2 bottles of Humbrol 78, and an equivalent volume of lacquer thinner. This makes over 100 mL of paint, plenty enough for all of the green armour. It was airbrushed through my dirt-cheap siphon-fed single action Badger airbrush.
I love the colour! I have a crap-ton of Humbrol 76 and 78 left over, in case it needs a misting of 76 or 78 to adjust the color. I know Lou added just a tiny bit more Humbrol 76. Suggestions are welcome, members!

Cheers!

Looking good so far man. That issue terrifies me with painting a helmet and having the green not stick to the silver.

Really looking great so far Necro!

Here's the results of the repaint:

Overall, the color & tone is pretty good, but I am hoping that the weathering will darken it a little more. I spent the last couple days touching up the yellow and green, trying to match screen and Raf references as closely as possible. I'll clear-coat it and start on the weathering this weekend.


Looks like I'll need to repaint my centre diamond. It's straight up rattle-can Hunt Club Green, but it looks WAY too dark, compared to the armour. I do have some CNW Green around here... However, I'll wait until the armour is weathered before I commit to that.

Looks great Necro, defo needs the weathering, try humbroll 117 green for the centre diamond.

Thanks for the advice, Beans! I plan on clear coating the armor before I weather, but the chest needs its emblem. I want to paint it on, so I got some of Lucksy's paint stencils.


:facepalm



Sooo.... What do you all recommend for the silver under Layer?

Humbrols seem to stick together very well. So silver 11? I haven't had any issues on my AOSW paint up. No coats in between silver, yellow, and green.

So I used Humbrol silver on the right chest & centre diamond, then went as usual from there: light gray, dark grey, then the green mix. I then gloss-coated the right chest plate before applying a Lucksy decal. I did a little green paint weathering on it before sealing the decal on with some Dullcote.
Tonight, I did some black and grey airbrush weathering. Do I need to pull it back with a little more green again?

Your work and your explanations are really interesting.
I also work on ESB with Humbrol 76 and 78, but I have trouble with these green cover yellow below, you had the same problem?

You paint with airbrush at what pressure?

No, I didn't have any trouble at all with the green covering up the yellow. I used two tins of Humbrol 76, two tins of Humbrol 78, and an equal amount of paint thinner. I mixed it all in a small re-sealable glass jar, so I would be able to paint that exact Color mix at later stages, if needed. Boy, did I ever have to!
My painting airbrush is a cheap Badger single action plastic brush with a big glass reservoir. My air pressure was around 30 PSI.

For weathering, I used a Badger Patriot double action airbrush and I painted Tamiya flat black and Dark Sea Gray, around 15 PSI.

Thank you for all the information!
It helps me a bit to find a solution, maybe I used too much thinner.
Or the nozzle / needle is too fine on my dual action to paint a large area.