Vallejo and Tamiya paint list - full ESB build (WIP)

[BountyEwok]

Hello there!

At first I want to thank RafalFett, Jigglenomicon and all those other talented people for their 3D models, stencils, tutorials, templates etc!
I'm currently in the middle of building my first full ESB costume and all those people who post their photos and instructions on this website helped me a lot.

I bought some of the Humbrol Enamels colors but I'm not happy working with them, so I decided to go with acrylic airbrush colors, in my case Vallejo (in terms of health, price, handling and availability). But I recognized that it's hard to find the right screen accurate colors. So I started this thread to write a full list with your help.
I will update this first post as the list grows.

I'll discuss each color with you guys and correct / complete the list as time goes on.

#####

So here is the list so far:
- Last update: 03-01-2020 -


Boba Fett ESB - Vallejo - paint list:

Part	other people's advice	my personal idea	final color for my build
Helmet - Dome & Cheeks	German Uniform (920) or Tamiya TS-78	German Uniform 40% + Gunship Green 30% + White 30%	Vallejo Custom mix 60% of 920 German Uniform 20% of 895 Gunship Green 20% 70.951 White
Gauntlets & Jetpack	Gunship Green (895)	Gunship Green 40% + German Uniform 20% + White 40%	Tamiya Field Gray TS-78 spray can
Armor	Gunship Green (895)	stayed with the advice so far	Tamiya AS-17 dark green spray can
Helmet - Mandibles	Hull Red + Fire Red	Burnt Red + Flat Red	???

#####



Some explanations:

- Cheeks & Dome (base color - green):
There are a couple of "Humbrol to Vallejo" conversion charts available, but there isn't any equivalent of Humbrol 78 from Vallejo. But it's one of the most important colors, since you need it for the cheeks and dome of the helmet. Some people use Vallejo German Uniform. I painted some test objects and compared it side to side to Humbrol 78. German Uniform looks nothing like Humbrol 78: It's way too dark and it's doesn't even look very green to me. I looked at some other peoples paint jobs and original reference photos and tried to mix my own base color which also differs from Humbrol 78. I tried to achieve something like a slight "mint green". See the pictures above.

- Gauntlets & Jetpack (base color - green):
Other people noticed that the Gauntlets and Jetpack have the same color, which is brigther than the base color of the armor and even brighter than the cheeks and dome. So I tried the advice I found online (Gunship Green) which was again very dark. So I mixed my own color again. This one was very hard because it had to be similar to the cheeks and dome but brighter as well. From my point of view it shouldn't be a "mint green" but I'm not sure about that. I added more of Gunship Green to make it more saturated. See the pictures above.

 

[intwenothor]

I played around with these a few years ago; 70920 was a nice colour.
Vallejo Panzer Olive Green 1943, which is 71096, was another of theirs I looked at. That colour was also an approximate match for FS 34158 - Field Gray. As I recall, both my 70920 and my 71096 were marked with the FS 34158 number although the colours were not identical.
The Vallejo Panzer Olive green was far darker then the Model Maters Panzer Olive Green 1943 that has been popular for so many years.

Tamiya also do a Field Grey. The one worth a look is Tamiya TS 78, not Tamiya XF 65.

 

[Tfett40]

Bounty Ewok,
A few years ago I started experimenting with both Vallejo and Model Master for the same reasons. Overall, I am still using the same paints when painting other ESB Fetts. The paints are not exact matches to Humbrol, but they are close enough. Here is the thread I made for it and hopefully some might be useful. As soon as I find photos for jetpack and gaunlets, I will include them here, but I use Field Grey for them.

ESB Armor Paintup (Model Master & Vallejo Paint)

I am helping out my local Garrison buddy, GunnerD, with painting up his Fettpride Armor. When I first started airbrushing, I used a crap $90 Master Airbrush & compressor and struggled to use the Humbrol paints. I eventually switched to a Paasche Airbrush with 6 gallon air compressor. Making...

www.thedentedhelmet.com

 

[intwenothor]

You shouldn't be trying to colour match the humbrol list. Those aren't the correct colours. They're the best colours available in the humbrol line as per Terminal Fettler's colour list. For the helmet you will have better matches from MM panzer olive green 1943, Vallejo 70920 German Uniform, and Tamiya TS - 78 than you will from humbrol 78.

 

[BountyEwok]

Thank you very much for your replies!

I might give Tamiya Field Grey TS-78 a try for the gauntlets and jetpack.

But there are 3 major green base colors for the costume that need to be in balance to each other.

Maybe my eyes deceive me, but from what I can tell from reference photos the green tones of the costume should look like this:

Armor:
- a strong, dark, saturated wood green

Helmet (dome & cheeks):
- a brighter, faded mint green with a tint of turquoise / cyan

Gauntlets & Jetpack:
- similar to the helmet but even brighter, more faded and less cyan (but still a tiny bit)



When I go with Tamiya Field Grey TS-78 and Vallejo Gunship Green 70.895 (which seem to be in good balance) I can not use TS-78 for the helmet as well. So I would use my custom mix (Vallejo German Uniform 70.920, Vallejo Gunship Green 70.895 and Vallejo White 70.951). But I think that that it would be too bright in comparison to the Tamiya Field Grey. When I don't mix the colors and use Vallejo German Uniform 70.920 only it looks almost as dark as the Armor and it doesn't look green at all but more like dark grey. So that's the reason why I brightened it up.

I'm not even sure if Vallejo Gunship Green 70.895 is the perfect choice for the armor. Right now it's my reference point: So the other 2 colors need to be brighter, more faded, more blueish etc... Never had any quality helmet in my hands so I don't know how bright the helmet should be, but from what I can tell it looks very bright in comparison to the armor and almost not even green but turquoise. On photos the efx helmet also looks very turquoise and very bright but I've never seen it in person yet. Still waiting for my order and they have delivery problems due to corona virus but that's a story for another thread.

 

[Tfett40]

The gauntlets and jetpack should also have similiar colors, so having a the same base will work. The weathering (dark grey, umber or black) will change the shade slightly or signficantly, it will be a matter of personnel prefence.

 

[BountyEwok]

After following both your advices and buying a lot of colors, I made a final decision for the 3 green main colors:

I'll use:
- Tamiya Field Gray TS-78 spray can (since the airbrush version dries darker) for the gauntlets & jetpack
- Tamiya AS-17 Dark Green spray can for the armor
- Vallejo Custom Mix (Vallejo Model Color 70.920 + 70.895 + 70.951, ratio 3:1:1) for the dome and cheeks



Let's talk about the mandibles! Can't afford any more colors right now, so I have to use what I already have in stock.

So these are my colors. I thought about mixing flat red with burnt red maybe in ratio 3:1 or 1:1, but since I've never seen a quality helmet in person, I'm not sure if this is the right decision and how dark, brownish or saturated the color has to be!

I used humbrol 73 on another helmet but it looked like pink or magenta. So now I want use one of those Vallejo colors:

Please keep in mind that I'll use that green custom mix on the far left.

 

[Tfett40]

Bounty Ewok,
For the mandibles, I used a combo of Vallejo Hull Red and Fire Red. With the paints you have, I think if you play around with Burnt Red and Flat Red that you already have you can come up with a pretty decent mix. I would try using your burnt red as your base and mix in a few drops of flat and go from there. Here is what I did a few years back:

ROTJ Repaint and Modifications: Updated

Wow, I will def be following this. Everything looks great!

www.thedentedhelmet.com

 

[BountyEwok]

I've been working on my Jetpack for the past 2 weeks. Most time I spent on 3D printing. Overall the jetpack took about 200 hours of print time (I found the model on Thingiverse).
The rest was glueing the parts together, sanding and the addition of primer and filler. I used Tamiya TS-78 for the main color. I needed about 3 - 4 spray cans because the color didn't stick perfectly well in some spots.



The helmet on the left is painted with the Humbrol colors while the one on the right has the Vallejo custom mix that I mentioned before. Both helmets are identical 3D prints based on RafalFett's great design!

So what about the yellow and red of the Jetpack?
My plan for the yellow tips is to mix the colors of the shoulders in a 1:1 ratio so I would get some dark yellow with an orange tint.
For the red I want to mix the mandible color of the helmet with brown (also 1:1).

Is this a good plan or are there any other advices, especially for Vallejo colors?