Vithar
New Hunter
Hey Everyone, I'm John from Edmonton(Canada), a few months ago I purchased a budget helmet kit from Animefan and I couldn't be happier with it. Following Lewis' videos on youtube, as well as help from him and Lou (Darth Voorhees) in some PM's, I think it has turned out relatively decently so far. I am someone who is completely new to any kind of painting, so please let me know what you guys think, or if you have any advice.
I cut out the visor, sanded out the area where to visor sits to make it flat, sanded and cleaned/washed the surface and primed it with some matt grey krylon primer -as per Lou's advice. At first, the finish of the primer turned out very grainy and almost dusty feeling. You can't see it very well in the picture, but I decided give it another sand, and to re-prime it again.
I used the Chicago screw method of mounting the visor, and started on the back panel. Almost all the paints I used were humbrol, minus the black on the checks in later pictures.
I quickly learned that the dome was by far the most time consuming. So much so, that I got impatient and got the angle of the damages around the dent at the wrong angle.
Next was, for me atleast, the worst thing so far about the paint up. It doesn't show clearly in the photo, but the green turned out very grainy and rough like the primer did earlier. Also, I learned it's not a good idea to leave your helmet, without a visor in, on it's side over night, it kind of bent out of position.
I tried to smooth out the green with some 0000 steel wool but it caused some very fine marks (I think because of how rough it is), so I abandoned that. The following black on the checks, was just as coarse – I imagine due to the green underneath it. Doing the killstripes, I also learned that I misplaced several of the damages along the dome.
I think I also put way too many layers on the killstripes trying to get a good transition from the yellow to the orange, as you can quite noticeably feel them when running your fingers across.
I also messed up the scaling on the damages of the mandibles by a bit, but I'm hoping later when I continue with some of the topical damages, that I can make it look better.
I'm really happy with how the red and purple turned out on the trim, but again, I have to go at it with a brush and apply the white and some of the grey to make it look better and to try fix the scaling.
And that's where I'm at so far, I'm out of town at the moment, but I'm super worried about that grainy green, and how it will affect the weathering process, since I can't really buff it out with the steel wool, to create that scoring effect with the black. The texture also makes the green look SUPER flat in real life, I'm hoping some Testor's Dullcoat will smooth out the roughness a bit. Although I'm also worried too that using the Dullcoat combined with the coarse green, won't create that tiny amount of glossy look that I think I see in the reference pictures. I'd really appreciate anyone's advice on what they think the best course of action would be with the green. I'd really like to avoid sanding it down and re-painting it. Thanks everyone for your time in reading this!
I cut out the visor, sanded out the area where to visor sits to make it flat, sanded and cleaned/washed the surface and primed it with some matt grey krylon primer -as per Lou's advice. At first, the finish of the primer turned out very grainy and almost dusty feeling. You can't see it very well in the picture, but I decided give it another sand, and to re-prime it again.
I used the Chicago screw method of mounting the visor, and started on the back panel. Almost all the paints I used were humbrol, minus the black on the checks in later pictures.
I quickly learned that the dome was by far the most time consuming. So much so, that I got impatient and got the angle of the damages around the dent at the wrong angle.
Next was, for me atleast, the worst thing so far about the paint up. It doesn't show clearly in the photo, but the green turned out very grainy and rough like the primer did earlier. Also, I learned it's not a good idea to leave your helmet, without a visor in, on it's side over night, it kind of bent out of position.
I tried to smooth out the green with some 0000 steel wool but it caused some very fine marks (I think because of how rough it is), so I abandoned that. The following black on the checks, was just as coarse – I imagine due to the green underneath it. Doing the killstripes, I also learned that I misplaced several of the damages along the dome.
I think I also put way too many layers on the killstripes trying to get a good transition from the yellow to the orange, as you can quite noticeably feel them when running your fingers across.
I also messed up the scaling on the damages of the mandibles by a bit, but I'm hoping later when I continue with some of the topical damages, that I can make it look better.
I'm really happy with how the red and purple turned out on the trim, but again, I have to go at it with a brush and apply the white and some of the grey to make it look better and to try fix the scaling.
And that's where I'm at so far, I'm out of town at the moment, but I'm super worried about that grainy green, and how it will affect the weathering process, since I can't really buff it out with the steel wool, to create that scoring effect with the black. The texture also makes the green look SUPER flat in real life, I'm hoping some Testor's Dullcoat will smooth out the roughness a bit. Although I'm also worried too that using the Dullcoat combined with the coarse green, won't create that tiny amount of glossy look that I think I see in the reference pictures. I'd really appreciate anyone's advice on what they think the best course of action would be with the green. I'd really like to avoid sanding it down and re-painting it. Thanks everyone for your time in reading this!
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