Also, some more lil updates. Got the final red layer on the rear keyholes done, also the killstripes.
[ATTACH]68581[/ATTACH][ATTACH]68582[/ATTACH]
The old grey that was on there from the original painting of that area was a little rough textured, so I steel wooled it a bit. Doing so made the layers spot through each other a little more than I like though, but it's probably not worth the bother and risk of messing things up to try to micro-mask and repaint them. This is intended to be a pretty economy paint-up, so a few smaller issues like that are ok as long as the general aesthetic isn't hurt.
[ATTACH]68583[/ATTACH][ATTACH]68584[/ATTACH][ATTACH]68585[/ATTACH]
The killstripes were a challenge to get masked up. I ended up getting a little two stripe template card made up which made things easier.
The white layer was a primer layer as I didn't want to have to do 100 layers of yellow to keep the green from showing through. For the yellow/orange gradient I tried to keep it pretty subtle, as it seems that way in most references. I'm pretty sure for the actual original prop they only used 1 color for the stripes, and the gradient comes from how thickly they painted it over the green, but it's a challenge to replicate an effect like that without knowing the exact colors and weathering they used. Also, I'm still a pretty inexperienced painter, so simple is better.
There's a few chips of bright yellow showing through the orange, due to me de-masking the stripes before the orange layer had dried and bonded properly. Not really any way to fix them unfortunatly as that's now a unique mixed orange/yellow shade that I'll never be able to approximate. Bob Ross would call it a happy accident though, as it fits alright with the chipped damage theme.
Another little thing I did was give a metallic effect to my Borden connector.
[ATTACH]68586[/ATTACH][ATTACH]68587[/ATTACH]
Since the Borden is supposed to be an actual metal piece that gets glued in, I didn't want it to just use the same fakey looking Silver 11 the rest of the helmet has. So to make it look distinct like it does in the references, I painted it with some Alclad II metallic lacquer, which gives some very realistic effects. The picture doesn't give it too much justice, as it has quite a realistic sheen in person.