Hey Team,
I'm starting a progress Paintup for Kyle (Noir Shadow) TX-23701. I'm really excited to help him with his ESB Boba Fett build starting with his Bucket.
Airbrushed the deep sea blue. Tightened up some edges and added the dark accents. I also like to do some weathering layers in between before I lay down the silver damage. This way the silver doesn't become too too dull after all the weathering is said and done.
Started laying down some silver damage topically.
Topically adding some of the gray and light gray/blue damage.
I worked on the front damage above and around the "turning signal" arrows but I left some small details out. I'll wait until I line up the hat band and mandible damage to make sure everything is in the right place before I add those smaller details near the band.
I also worked on the iconic dent area. I'll wait to add the base gray/blue damage until after I've weathered and shaped the major dent and scratch damage. This way it will accentuate and give a bit more dimension as it appears in reference photos.
Killstripe Success!!! I'll elaborate a bit for this post since the killstripes seem to give a lot of people trouble.
For me, this part always stresses me out. I'll test the yellow on a practice swatch that has the dome green on it, but when I see the freshly painted yellow on the stripes compared to the yellow on the surrounding masking tape, it always plays tricks in my head and I start second guessing myself. Especially with fading the stripes on the end to orange. Because everything is taped off, you can't judge the color balance and contrast very well until you take off the masking tape and see the colors side by side...if you get it wrong you have to mask everything off again and make changes. Important thing is, practice, make a decision, and trust your instincts.
My method for painting the stripes is quite basic. I use masking tape that I've cut and make sure that each stripe is the same size rectangle and to scale for the helmet. after the stripes are masked off to perfect rectangles (with the exceptions of a couple that need to be mis-shaped a bit) I use masking fluid to draw out some of the damage and imperfections. I make sure to spend extra time taping off the stripes and making sure I have a really, really good seal. Then I'll airbrush a very very light mist of the yellow mix and let it dry and get tacky. Once it's dried for a while I'll go ahead and lay down the "first" coat. I find yellow paint to be the runniest most messy paint out there and will find it's way into any crack and crevice. The key is to take your time.