Well, I've been (steadily) cramming some progress in the hopes of finishing by this weekend!
I decided to mask and spraypaint all of my armor pieces that were done, and it turned out pretty good. My favorite spraypaint ever for silver has made itself clear to me: RUST-OLEUM 2X ULTRA COVER PAINT+PRIMER ALUMINUM METALLIC
This stuff dries to the touch (not even tacky!) in like 30 seconds flat. Also, it looks super smooth and shiny when applied to armor pieces, it ends up looking like brushed aluminum when applied to well-sanded (and even poorly sanded) prints. It's nice and thick and you only need two light coats or so to fully cover a piece, so it lasts forever. Take a look!
Only problem is that it likes to scrape off pretty easily when applied over the top of other paints, but I blame that on the fact that I didn't adequately prep the surface (removing dust/cleaning/degreasing) which you absolutely should do before painting anyway. Oh well!
So I went ahead and masked and painted everything, including both arms and the shins:
They're all hanging out
And if anyone wants to see more images of the masked parts before/during painting, let me know, I have tons of reference just in case.
The next task was to weather the pieces and get a jumpstart on the thighs/torso. While I lost pictures of the thighs from masking/painting, it's basically more of the same. For weathering, I did the standard wet rag and watered down acrylics, paint/wipe/paint/wipe/etc. I slightly varied the concentration of rust red, black, brown, and tan as I went across the pieces to introduce some non-uniformity to everything.
Check out this insane comparison shot!
While I couldn't totally hide the layer shift on the left arm, it's going to be covered with a Utility anyway, as seen here (ft. fast food coupons for my temporary UGPS screen. think the drive-thru is still open on reach?)
Basically makes the layer shift invisible.
I ran out of black spray paint, so I have just been using black acrylic paint and a foam brush for the details on the torso/etc. Not only does it not leave brush strokes, but the finish is very consistent and actually somewhat resembles rubber up close when splotched on. Only problem is that I can't get it wet until I clear coat it. I'll show some more pictures later once it's weathered, too!
That's all for today! Final stages is to sand/prime/sand/paint/assemble the belt/cod and I am done!!! (for now)
Final suitup tomorrow....?
I decided to mask and spraypaint all of my armor pieces that were done, and it turned out pretty good. My favorite spraypaint ever for silver has made itself clear to me: RUST-OLEUM 2X ULTRA COVER PAINT+PRIMER ALUMINUM METALLIC
This stuff dries to the touch (not even tacky!) in like 30 seconds flat. Also, it looks super smooth and shiny when applied to armor pieces, it ends up looking like brushed aluminum when applied to well-sanded (and even poorly sanded) prints. It's nice and thick and you only need two light coats or so to fully cover a piece, so it lasts forever. Take a look!
Only problem is that it likes to scrape off pretty easily when applied over the top of other paints, but I blame that on the fact that I didn't adequately prep the surface (removing dust/cleaning/degreasing) which you absolutely should do before painting anyway. Oh well!
So I went ahead and masked and painted everything, including both arms and the shins:
They're all hanging out
And if anyone wants to see more images of the masked parts before/during painting, let me know, I have tons of reference just in case.
The next task was to weather the pieces and get a jumpstart on the thighs/torso. While I lost pictures of the thighs from masking/painting, it's basically more of the same. For weathering, I did the standard wet rag and watered down acrylics, paint/wipe/paint/wipe/etc. I slightly varied the concentration of rust red, black, brown, and tan as I went across the pieces to introduce some non-uniformity to everything.
Check out this insane comparison shot!
While I couldn't totally hide the layer shift on the left arm, it's going to be covered with a Utility anyway, as seen here (ft. fast food coupons for my temporary UGPS screen. think the drive-thru is still open on reach?)
Basically makes the layer shift invisible.
I ran out of black spray paint, so I have just been using black acrylic paint and a foam brush for the details on the torso/etc. Not only does it not leave brush strokes, but the finish is very consistent and actually somewhat resembles rubber up close when splotched on. Only problem is that I can't get it wet until I clear coat it. I'll show some more pictures later once it's weathered, too!
That's all for today! Final stages is to sand/prime/sand/paint/assemble the belt/cod and I am done!!! (for now)
Final suitup tomorrow....?