Slave2112's ESB Build

[Slave2112]

Last night, I began to weather the flight suit, and quickly finding out what works and what doesn't.

I'm using a water and acryllic paint mix, and rather than using an airbrush (my compressor sucks), I'm using a spray bottle I bought from Home Depot. That part seems to be off to a great start, however, I've also read that having the suit be wet helps the paint to sink in better.

So, before I got started, I put the suit and the pockets in the wash machine for a Rinse/Spin cycle. I then hung the suit on a scuba wetsuit hanger (heavy duty), and started spraying using the 501st CRL as a guide. That was helping the colors blend in, but after a while, the suit became saturated and let's just say there was a LOT of water dripping on the floor. From that, I decided to start using a rag to rub the colors into the legs manually, and that seems to have turned out much better, but much more time consuming.

This morning the suit is still damp to the touch. When it's dry, I'll post progress pics.

 

[Slave2112]

This is where I’m at. While the picture makes it look a LOT darker than it really is (there’s a super bright LED light over the top of it), I’m afraid I’ve over done it. I’ll probably toss it in the wash to get a lot of it out. (I’ve also seen posts that say you can’t really over do it, but I’m not sure.)

 

[Krewkid82]

Looks pretty heavy but fett is suppose to be weathered...definitely compare reference photos with screen caps

 

[Slave2112]

Looks pretty heavy but fett is suppose to be weathered...definitely compare reference photos with screen caps

I’ve got the pic of the flight suit from the CRL up on my iPad for reference while I’m rubbing all of that in.

Going to toss it in the washer and see how it comes out.

 

[Slave2112]

The washer took some of the darkness out, but the heavier spots of acrylic paint don't look great. After a quick YouTube search, it seems that some dishsoap and a scrubbing pad seem to be lightening the darkness quite a bit. Running it through the wash again (with detergent) to see where it goes. I may have to work on the srubbing a bit tomorrow.

 

[lowberg]

Gently dabbing with isopropyl/rubbing alcohol soaked rag may also help break up and lighten the acrylic in the heavier spots.

 

[Slave2112]

Gently dabbing with isopropyl/rubbing alcohol soaked rag may also help break up and lighten the acrylic in the heavier spots.

Thank you for that! I'm waiting for the suit to air dry before taking another look at it.

When I go back to applying more weathering, I'll definitely be using a much more watered down version of what I was doing last night.

 

[Slave2112]

Ok, so the suit is still wet, but in person the darkness isn’t as bad as it was last night. I won’t have time until tomorrow to try the rubbing alcohol, but it’s already looking better. I definitely need to use less back in the slurry I created.

<edit> The suit is dry enough, and I’m changing the pic to show more accurately what it looks like in person.

 

[Slave2112]

Hello again. I haven’t been working on this due to having family staying with me longer than planned. They took off, and now I’ve got some time again.

I was really discouraged with how the suit had come out, so I started working with all sorts of methods of pulling the paint out of the fabric. Once I got as much out that would come out, I approached it with a different method of misting and I’m a little happier how it looks in person, although the pictures still look a LOT darker than it really is. (Certain angles looks dark, while other angles just look dirty.)

I also (finally) got the jet pack from 7CS, and it was worth the wait.

 

[BudaFett]

Is it missing the other thruster cap?

 

[Slave2112]

Is it missing the other thruster cap?

A few parts fell off in shipping. I stood it up for the picture, but then glued the cap on the top of the right side, and the bottom of the left side. I also drilled the holes for (and mounted) the clips. The metal plate from inside a thruster just popped out, so I'll need to glue that back in place as well.