Mainst's ESB paint up on Animefan Premium FP lid

[superjedi]

LOL. That will be a sad day indeed. But I won't have to worry about that for a while yet.

 

[Armydad]

Where you been man? I need my fix since I finished my bucket! Get to it lol!

 

[mainst69]

Where you been man? I need my fix since I finished my bucket! Get to it lol!

LOL I'm doing some work on the weekends. Work and then playing tag in the evenings with my 4 yr old saps me! I just don't like painting when I'm all tired and dripping sweat all over my helmet. I plan on doing some keyslot work and trying to finish my back panels tomorrow though, so stay tuned!

 

[mainst69]

OK, I've finished up the back panels and started on the keyslots and upper band. Now when I say "finished" I mean that I'm "finished" for the moment and will continue to correct mistakes, and I still have to add some physical scratches, weather, pastel, greasify, etc. But some of that stuff I'm doing at a later time with other parts for continuity etc.

 

[Armydad]

Oooh! Looking good man, might go back and add the whitish grey to the back of mine now!

 

[mainst69]

Been raining, so I'm trying to stay busy and move the ball forward. So I masked out kill stripes...

Still frickin' raining...

 

[mainst69]

I got a break in the humidity and rain today so... it's time...




Got some stripes on....

I think my fade is not "faded" enough on the orange. I think I need to go back and put a little more yellow on the middle part. I'm not used to the trigger on my airbrush and it seems a little heavy to me. What do you think?

I couldn't stand it so I went on and remisted in some more yellow last night. I'm happy with the results.

I'll post a pic soon. I've unmasked so it's a done deal.

 

[Armydad]

I got a break in the humidity and rain today so... it's time...




Got some stripes on....

I think my fade is not "faded" enough on the orange. I think I need to go back and put a little more yellow on the middle part. I'm not used to the trigger on my airbrush and it seems a little heavy to me. What do you think?

I would try to pull more of the orange lightly over the yellow personally, just a tad. Just depends on if you want more yellow or orangish kill stripes.

 

[Artakha]

I would try to pull more of the orange lightly over the yellow personally, just a tad. Just depends on if you want more yellow or orangish kill stripes.

Yeah it can be hard to pull off the gentle transition.

 

[mainst69]

Well, the sun came out for about 2 hours, fairly cool for August in Texas and pretty low humidity, so I got some painting done on the helmet. Worked on the key slots, the band above the key slots and then since I had some grey thinned and brush ready tried to use it up on some different areas.
I'll try and take some pics tomorrow. Pretty beat down today, lots of squinting at reference photos. I've decided that I may have been a little arrogant thinking I could do this paint job justice. I have a Halloween deadline for this build, so I have to keep moving the ball downfield, time is running out and I have so much to do yet.
But after our little festival (Neewollah in Independence Kansas if anyone wants to come!) I think I'm going to save up and have a real painter redo it for me, it's too nice of a helmet to not have a proper paint job. Money is tight is my only problem, but maybe I can sell a guitar or something!

 

[Armydad]

Don't throw the towel in now! You're doing a great job so far! I suggest you stick to one section at a time, try not to jump around too much. Back panels, dome, mandibles, back read band/ key slots, ears, fine details last. See it through to the end!

 

[mainst69]

Don't throw the towel in now! You're doing a great job so far! I suggest you stick to one section at a time, try not to jump around too much. Back panels, dome, mandibles, back read band/ key slots, ears, fine details last. See it through to the end!

OH, I'm going to. I enjoy it too much! But my results are not coming out as I'd hoped.

 

[Mullreel]

On my first helmet I felt the same way......but as you start to finish up you will start to appreciate your own work more. Just keep going and enjoy the final product. Then paint another and get better.

 

[mainst69]

On my first helmet I felt the same way......but as you start to finish up you will start to appreciate your own work more. Just keep going and enjoy the final product. Then paint another and get better.

Sounds like a plan!

 

[mainst69]

OK, so today I wanted to move forward, but unfortunately I had to repair some mishaps. I masked out the left ear's white portion, sprayed it and man, did that green look dark afterward. It was a complete disaster. It looked like a 1990's hunter green. So, I resprayed the green and tonight I'm going to remark the U.

I think it looks pretty good on the helmet

I got the range finder ear base coated...

Borden painted and installed...

More work tomorrow....

 

[Jesster]

Looking good bro!

 

[mainst69]

I got some pics of the ears. I obviously started working on the mandibles as well. It feels like I painted all day! I had to take a break, I had a headache and my eyes were crossed from staring at ref. pics. LOL

 

[Magnavis]

Looking really good to me! Excellent work!

 

[mainst69]

Looking really good to me! Excellent work!

Thanks! I go through phases where I'm just agonizing over brush strokes, or things not scaling correctly or what have you. I just keep plugging and then I keep staring at it going "Man, that's cool!"... I'm trying to approach it like recording a song. When you have the basic tracks done and a scratch vocal you start wondering if you should even finish or not. But sometimes it turns out cooler than expected. I'm hoping for that on this.

 

[toofastrobot]

Looking good.