Bobamaker ESB helmet paint-up using Archive-X acrylics

[MartinSivertsen]

Coming along super nice! I definitely agree there's some brown in the misting but I wouldn't worry about the weathering misting until the very end, the helmet will continue to shift as you add the mandibles, cheeks and the rest of the damage. It really plays tricks on your eyes until it all comes together. I've only done one helmet (and not nearly as nice as yours so far!) but I was second guessing colors all the way to the end.

And what you don't like digging through ancient forum posts? That's half the fun!

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm getting an ESB/RoTJ SE helmet (and armor) from Minutefett next week (it cleared customs in my country today!), so I'm both considering this paint job on the BM helmet a learning experience to prepare for the MF helmet, but I also want to do my best while I'm at it. It's a very tricky paint job to replicate, and I can't wait to get to the end to do some weathering and see how it comes together!

I love reading through old threads and digging up nuggets of knowledge! The fact that everything is neatly archived for posterity is just great. I've spent countless hours so far, and will no doubt spend many more.

 

[BudaFett]

Let's get those killstripes painted! I love watching WIPs!

 

[MartinSivertsen]

Let's get those killstripes painted! I love watching WIPs!

Your wish is my command!

Moment of truth: Removing the masking, hoping no paint will get pulled up and that the yellow hasn't leaked under the tape.

It's looking great! Apart from the yellow over spray which turned out way too intense, and the tape edge created a too abrupt line. So I'll go in and fix that.

I managed to remove / paint over the over spray and will add the yellow over spray by free handing it with an airbrush instead.

The lower part of the damage on the dent got some green misted on it, but I think I can fix that without too much work.

I'm very happy to finally have something other than green, gray and silver on the helmet.

Now it's onto fix the green misting on the damage below the dent, then paint all the grey damage around the kill stripes, then the silver damage and then the brighter green damage caused by the tape pulling up paint on the original helmet. And THEN the dome is more or less finished.

I started painting this helmet on April 10th, so we're coming up on two months of painting now, with an hour here and an hour there in the evenings and weekends. What a time intensive project!

 

[BudaFett]

It's looking great and slow and steady always wins the race!

 

[Taz]

Those killstripes look amazing, I love the contrast!

 

[MartinSivertsen]

Those killstripes look amazing, I love the contrast!

Thanks a lot!

I had some time this evening to "fix" the green over spray on damage below the dent. I was sadly able to spray a tiny bit too much dark misting (1:1 Engine Black and Roof Brown) so I might even go back and try to fix it again.

I also painted the rest of the grey damage on the dome and started to paint the silver damage, only the silver damage around the back half of the kill stripes remains. Then it's on to painting light green to simulate where the tape pulled off paint below and around the kill stripes.

I free handed some yellow over spray on the front and back though, and I'm happy with that. I really have to remember that less is more.

Slowly but surely it's getting done.

 

[DrToothache]

The kill stripes look great! If you don't mind me asking - are you still using SP Armour Yellow and SP Scarlet for the kill stripes? (I think I read in one of your threads that these were the 2 that you used). Doing a repaint of mine soon.

 

[MartinSivertsen]

The kill stripes look great! If you don't mind me asking - are you still using SP Armour Yellow and SP Scarlet for the kill stripes? (I think I read in one of your threads that these were the 2 that you used). Doing a repaint of mine soon.

This is the only thread I have, and I can't recall mentioning the paint for the kill stripes , but yeah, I used SP Armour Yellow as a base coat and then added a touch of SP Scarlet to the Armour Yellow for the back part of the kill stripes. I found out that I needed a lot less Scarlet than I thought. I first went 50/50 and that was way too red, so I added a lot of Armour Yellow and went a bit back and forth until I was happy with the gradient.

A repaint sounds like a huge project!

 

[DrToothache]

This is the only thread I have, and I can't recall mentioning the paint for the kill stripes , but yeah, I used SP Armour Yellow as a base coat and then added a touch of SP Scarlet to the Armour Yellow for the back part of the kill stripes. I found out that I needed a lot less Scarlet than I thought. I first went 50/50 and that was way too red, so I added a lot of Armour Yellow and went a bit back and forth until I was happy with the gradient.

A repaint sounds like a huge project!

Oh man, of course this is your only thread! I am merging threads together in my brain. Sorry about that, I think that I need to catch up on some sleep or something. Amazing work so far. I will keep the "gradient" method that you mentioned in mind when doing this.

And I am only repainting the kill stripes, not the whole helmet - so it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[MartinSivertsen]

Oh man, of course this is your only thread! I am merging threads together in my brain. Sorry about that, I think that I need to catch up on some sleep or something. Amazing work so far. I will keep the "gradient" method that you mentioned in mind when doing this.

And I am only repainting the kill stripes, not the whole helmet - so it shouldn't be too bad.

Ah, only the kill stripes sounds more manageable, good luck!

 

[MartinSivertsen]

I had an hour to spare in the morning here so I fixed the dark over spray on the damage below the dent and painted the rest of the silver damage.

Now on to the light green tape pull damage and the white smudge.

 

[Got2bfett]

This is an amazing and detailed paint up love it. Your attention to detail and patience is most impressive. Keep up the great work , can’t wait to see more.

 

[Fettastic]

You are killing it! Really great detail. Helmet nod.

 

[MartinSivertsen]

I've been really busy these past few days, so not much time for the Fett, but I had a few hours this evening to paint the tape pull damage and the white smudge in the kill stripes.

For the tape pull damage I used the green base mix of Light Green and SP Lark Light Grey in a 4:1 mix, and mixed it in varying ratios with a 1:1 mix of Light Earth and Lettering Grey to brighten and desaturate it a bit.
The white smudge was just Reefer White.

Next up I'm not sure if I'm going to do as Superjedi does and paint the "dark color" on the cheeks and finish painting the damage on them or if I'll paint the red first, not masking the black cheek areas and letting the red over spray be covered by the black afterwards. Maybe even hand painting the black using a large flat brush to avoid having to mask the cheeks and risk the tape pulling up paint on the green or red.

Guy Cowen from Archive-X said that you could see faint traces of the red under the black, but then again, that sounds like details left for purists who want to replicate the original paint job as closely as possible, and I've already chosen to not go down that road by painting on all the damage topically.

Who knows, maybe I'll try the layered method on the Minutefett RoTJ SE helmet I received yesterday. I have a feeling I have a lot more control painting all the damage by hand topically though, but we'll see.
One thing at a time.

 

[MartinSivertsen]

I started painting the red today, finished the back first. I have used Tesa Sensitive pink masking tape and the paint is D&H Caboose at full opacity

 

[tuffstufftom]

Looks great!

 

[MartinSivertsen]

Looks great!

Thanks!

Here is the front and sides:

Next up is the black on the cheeks and then it's back on the hand painted damage again.

 

[MartinSivertsen]

I painted the cheeks with Engine Black today.

I tried to follow the natural sculpted curve of the cheeks when masking off the area for paint:

The intent was to go light but still get an even coverage, but the hard line left from the red (due to spraying the red all the way on to the masking tape instead of feathering it out) became visible through the black and I had to increase the opacity to hide it. Lesson learned for my next helmet.

The pure green red and black on the front reminds me of Boba's helmet from season 2 of The Mandalorian when it's gotten a coat of fresh paint. Not quite my kind of Boba.

When I printed the stencils to transfer the damage to the cheeks I saw that the curvature of the stencil didn't match the curve between the green and the black (and the sculpted curve) on the helmet.

Luckily I had received a lineage cast of the ESB/RoTJ SE helmet from Minutefett this week and was able to check the stencil on that one and the curve matched up very well with the sculpted curve on the original helmet

This meant two things: I highly doubt the Bobamaker helmet is based on a lineage helmet (as I've seen people on this forum suggest), as there are a bunch of things that are off compared to the original, and if I were to paint the damage on the cheeks the placement would look a bit off when the curve between the green and the black doesn't match the original.

So I decided to adjust the curve so it matches the look of the original and not the sculpted curve on the helmet. Might be controversial.

Extra detail: I had to go in with some 2500 grit sand paper to remove the "lip" where the black paint met the masking tape previously before I airbrushed black over the new curve, or else the old edge would be (more) visible.

The difference is subtle, but it's enough for me to prefer the change.

Now I can finally start painting the damage again!