Ponte and rnbuda's SE/ESB Paint-up: May 1 UPDATE *Main Helmet Done!*
- Thread starter Ponte
- Start date
Fett 4 Real
Sr Hunter
What do u mean?
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In his comparison photo
sorry i should have been more specific i mean doesnt the cheek look like it was painted by hand or with a brush?
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I see what you're saying, and yea, it totally does look like weathering was applied in that area using a brush.
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I may also be shooting blanks here but doesn't it appear that the scratches may be possibly brush hair or one of the bristles stuck in the paint? once again just throwing ideas around.
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Fett 4 Real
Sr Hunter
SuperJedi and I both apply silver by hand with brushes so its VERY possible to achieve the look...And I see what youre saying but its also possible its from a repair or other means
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Fett 4 Real
Sr Hunter
What Im saying is its possible theyre brush strokes...could be brush strokes under the paint too though...like in the gelcoat of the fiberglass...theres so many interesting things about the helmet...
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I would say it's a wash because of the brown strokes atop of the green or whatever color that is.
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Well i'll be subscribing to this thread! I actually have been putting the crack on the right side in my paintjobs...didnt know about the buldge though...very interesting. I also usually put a dark wash over my helmets to match the promo shots and the color is close to those recent pics just from that, but im sure it can really be thought out and gotten much closer. Its hard to show because daylight and flash pictures always make the colors look lighter/washed out as Ponte mentioned before. Im definitely going to keep track of any discoveries here!
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syllander
Active Hunter
Plan to, if someone else does all the homework and figure out the color combinations. Personally I'm not as concerned with every color being adjusted for correct darkness, but at least the large area colors like the dome/cheek green and mandible red.
Personally I like the darker look.
Personally I like the darker look.
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RafalFett
Well-Known Hunter
When I first saw this post, I said to myself that the second damage is definitely a post ESB damage. While we knew for a while of the right upper cheek crack being present during the ESB shoot, the warp bulge presented by Ponte here was not visible... at least not for now. I really wanted to contradict him by searching all the available stills and screencaps to show him that this is not true, but... I found hard evidence which made me a believer:
While in the second image the left helmet bulge is not too clear (I tried to use the same helmet position and the lighting didn't helped at all), we know it's there.
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Nice work Raf (and Ponte of course). When i make some changes to my ESB helmet master, i think im going to add these details. 
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Alright, we've got some updates!
So I've been spending the past few weeks in research mode with not just getting the colors to where I want them, but figuring out the best way to attack the physical defects that need to be replicated on the helmet. With obvious differences between when the ESB was filmed and it's current Special Edition state, I decided good ol' Bondo and Milput were going to be my best bets instead of trying to heat and crack the helmet.
To get an idea of where the physical damage was going to be placed, I traced the areas off of re-sized images of the screen-used helmet. After that was transferred to the bucket, it was time to shape the imperfections using Bondo.
I used some self-adhesive foam as a physical template for the Bondo. This would help mask and guide the shape directly from the stencil...no guesswork here:
Now that the stencil has been applied, the Bondo was set onto the surface. I used a little less Bondo on another helmet as it is a PAIN to sand down (we already know that, don't we?):
After a week of sanding, re-applying Bondo, and more sanding, we're finally getting closer to the desired "bulge" for both the mandible, and the vertical hairline crack:
Just about done. It should also be known that the crack on the bulge is REALLY bad. Looking back and forth between ESB stills and Special Edition references, I now feel the crack that underlines the bulge may have gotten more pronounced as the years went on. I'll most likely soften this up since this is a hero ESB paint-up:
Two ESB's, fully primed, ready for paint-up:
So I've been spending the past few weeks in research mode with not just getting the colors to where I want them, but figuring out the best way to attack the physical defects that need to be replicated on the helmet. With obvious differences between when the ESB was filmed and it's current Special Edition state, I decided good ol' Bondo and Milput were going to be my best bets instead of trying to heat and crack the helmet.
To get an idea of where the physical damage was going to be placed, I traced the areas off of re-sized images of the screen-used helmet. After that was transferred to the bucket, it was time to shape the imperfections using Bondo.
I used some self-adhesive foam as a physical template for the Bondo. This would help mask and guide the shape directly from the stencil...no guesswork here:
Now that the stencil has been applied, the Bondo was set onto the surface. I used a little less Bondo on another helmet as it is a PAIN to sand down (we already know that, don't we?
):After a week of sanding, re-applying Bondo, and more sanding, we're finally getting closer to the desired "bulge" for both the mandible, and the vertical hairline crack:
Just about done. It should also be known that the crack on the bulge is REALLY bad. Looking back and forth between ESB stills and Special Edition references, I now feel the crack that underlines the bulge may have gotten more pronounced as the years went on. I'll most likely soften this up since this is a hero ESB paint-up:
Two ESB's, fully primed, ready for paint-up:
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