superjedi
Sr Hunter
Hi all!
It's been a while since I've had an "in progress" thread, but I have now entered the final stage of my costume! Yes, the end is in sight.
I recently got my BM torso and shoulder armor, and I'll post some pics showing my process.
First of all, I just have to say that I've had a lot of experience with models and prop replicas. I've bought a lot of resin or fiberglass products for prop making and costuming in the past few years, and this set of BM armor contains the cleanest, most well-formed pieces I've ever bought. It was literally ready to paint right out of the box. Terrific workmanship! (Thanks, Daz!)
The first pic shows all the components I bought all laid out in various stages of completion. The back and collar pieces are base-coated in Testors Dark Green. I use this to give a nice green coat so I don't have to use so much Polly S paint! (It's more expensive.)
The next pic shows the difference between the Testors Dark Green and the Polly S US Med Green. For the body armor, I didn't want it be smooth and perfect. I wanted it to look slightly uneven and oxidized. So I decided not to use my airbrush, but instead, sponge painted the US Med Green on. I used those small, very dense white makeup sponges. I just dabbed it on so I got good complete coverage, yet not perfectly smooth. I don't know if that effect will show up in the pics or not.
The ab plate and left chest plate have had the silver and yellow zinc chromate chips painted on already. On the right chest plate, I've only done the silver. You can see some pencil marks on the piece. This is how I've done the damage on all my armor so far, including my helmet.
Here's how I do my "templates." First I measure the actual piece. On the ab plate for example, I measured from the bottom edge, to the top edge, dead center. That gave me a recognizable reference.
After that, I pull up a good reference pic of the actual screen-used piece. (I have lots of pics saved on my computer.) I size the image in Paintshop until the image matches the size of the actual piece. I just hold a ruler up to my monitor and scale it up or down until it matches.
Then I take a piece of tracing paper and a mechanical pencil, and trace every chip and scratch. After that, I turn the tracing paper over and re-draw them on the other side. Now I have a stencil. I lay the tracing paper (right side up) onto my armor, and rub across my marks with the back of a paintbrush. This transfers the design right onto the armor. Then it's basically like a paint-by-number.
Hope you enjoy the pics! More to follow. . .
Eric
It's been a while since I've had an "in progress" thread, but I have now entered the final stage of my costume! Yes, the end is in sight.
I recently got my BM torso and shoulder armor, and I'll post some pics showing my process.
First of all, I just have to say that I've had a lot of experience with models and prop replicas. I've bought a lot of resin or fiberglass products for prop making and costuming in the past few years, and this set of BM armor contains the cleanest, most well-formed pieces I've ever bought. It was literally ready to paint right out of the box. Terrific workmanship! (Thanks, Daz!)
The first pic shows all the components I bought all laid out in various stages of completion. The back and collar pieces are base-coated in Testors Dark Green. I use this to give a nice green coat so I don't have to use so much Polly S paint! (It's more expensive.)
The next pic shows the difference between the Testors Dark Green and the Polly S US Med Green. For the body armor, I didn't want it be smooth and perfect. I wanted it to look slightly uneven and oxidized. So I decided not to use my airbrush, but instead, sponge painted the US Med Green on. I used those small, very dense white makeup sponges. I just dabbed it on so I got good complete coverage, yet not perfectly smooth. I don't know if that effect will show up in the pics or not.
The ab plate and left chest plate have had the silver and yellow zinc chromate chips painted on already. On the right chest plate, I've only done the silver. You can see some pencil marks on the piece. This is how I've done the damage on all my armor so far, including my helmet.
Here's how I do my "templates." First I measure the actual piece. On the ab plate for example, I measured from the bottom edge, to the top edge, dead center. That gave me a recognizable reference.
After that, I pull up a good reference pic of the actual screen-used piece. (I have lots of pics saved on my computer.) I size the image in Paintshop until the image matches the size of the actual piece. I just hold a ruler up to my monitor and scale it up or down until it matches.
Then I take a piece of tracing paper and a mechanical pencil, and trace every chip and scratch. After that, I turn the tracing paper over and re-draw them on the other side. Now I have a stencil. I lay the tracing paper (right side up) onto my armor, and rub across my marks with the back of a paintbrush. This transfers the design right onto the armor. Then it's basically like a paint-by-number.
Hope you enjoy the pics! More to follow. . .
Eric
Wow, you've been busy over there.. You really might be done by Sunday 
