Plunge Taken

[maj_hassel]

Well, after spending a few days trimming, painting and assembling my newly delivered A-Props helmet I had let it sit in its pristine state for one entire day...then came the dirt!

I haven't even trimmed the flash off of the rest of the armor and here I am, griming up my bucket. Oh well.

Anyway here's a pic of the first "mud" application. It's about 80% done, I still need to touch up some annoying clean spots. Apart from this, the general spatter pattern is complete.

This is my first attempt at going dirty so please feel free to critique.

[SethB6025]

Good job, you may want to buff the dirt off of some of the high spots, it helps to accentuate the build-up in the lines.

[maj_hassel]

Good job, you may want to buff the dirt off of some of the high spots, it helps to accentuate the build-up in the lines.

I'm assuming you're talking about the eye ridges. I was thinking that too. I also might tidy up (funny choice of words) the area at the top of the nose bridge, something's just not quite right.

Back to the muddying boards for me!

[Daetrin]

Good job, you may want to buff the dirt off of some of the high spots, it helps to accentuate the build-up in the lines. Thumbs Up

I think it depends on the weather pattern you want. Having the splotch on the helmet peak and nose bridge gives it a more "I just got blasted recently" which can look better than the "I've just been ignoring my armor" look.

What kind of look are you going for?

[RoCKo]

GOOD WORK! looks real...

what did you use for weathering?

woodland scenic colours, like Brak´s tutorial on the dented helmet?

[maj_hassel]

What kind of look are you going for?

I'm pretty much going for the "I'm a lowly private (black pauldron) so I get all the s--t jobs" look.

I might put a small blaster mark (a.k.a. carbon scoring, a.k.a. black paint) somewhere on the armor. A hit between the eyes would be too embarassing--even for a private.

So to answer your question I'm basically applying what I like to call "utility grime."

The shiny parts are still slightly annoying. I was pondering hitting certain areas with some artist's matte fix. This might protect the paint job from unforecast rain as well. Any opinions or insight on this?

Here's the helmet as it stands now, after I went back and touched some things up.

[SethB6025]

Very cool, I'd advise against the matte, even in ANH, the armor shined under the dirt. Although, it would add the rain-proof benefit. Has anyone had any luck/experience using fixatives over weathering?

[maj_hassel]

GOOD WORK! looks real...

what did you use for weathering?

woodland scenic colours, like Brak´s tutorial on the dented helmet?

Just good old poster paint (a.k.a. tempera paint). It's water soluble so if you don't like the end result you can wipe it or blot it off with a wet paper towel. It's very forgiving but don't go trooping in the rain. Tempera paint is also dirt cheap (no pun intended) and can be found in most department stores as well as craft stores.

The colors I used were basically olive green* mixed with brown and for some darker areas a little black mixed in.

*I couldn't find olive green in the stores, but it can be replicated with orange and green in roughly equal parts.

[Daetrin]

I think it looks friggin awesome as-is. Can't wait to see how the rest of it turns out.

[maj_hassel]

One thing that's nice about tempera paint is that I can paint my shoes (CA Boot) with it when I want to go dirty and wash it off (it will even come out of the fabric part) when I want to troop clean--which I'm guessing will be never again.

Okay one last picture before this thread dies...

What a difference mud makes ...I can't believe that they're the same helmet.

[avatar_man]

They aren't the same - the one on the left is a real Trooper

[TD2802]

Beneath every clean TK is a sandy itchin' to get out - at least for those of us who got up the nerve to take the plunge. Should look neato when all the armor's done.