Thanks guys. I try hard. Riceball I will consider the airbrush next time. I have one, but use it mostly on latex stuff. Generally I like to dirty up any armor I make. Nick wanted it only slightly dirtied. I was hesitant on dirtying the white areas. I will need to practice with it more. I am considering other armors. I have one friend who keeps joking about me making him the Hound armor.
@68HC11 I normally use Sintra. It is a pvc sign plastic. You can use just pvc sign plastic, but I use Sintra specifically because it is a little denser then the other and usually only $10 more. I generally get it from Piedmont Plastics. They are an east coast plastics company. Ge plastics also sales it. You should be able to find it any sign shop. Shipping is expensive. If you are on the west coast try ridout plastics(
PLEXIGLASS sheets, Acrylic sheet, UHMW, Lexan polycarbonate, Fiberglass sheets, Plastic Sheet & Plexiglass Fabrication, Weld-On Plexiglas® Glue, PTFE ). Anyone of them should give you a quote. Piedmont does it by email. I've worked with 3mm and 6mm plastics for armor. ON this because I wanted to be able to have better mold ability without carving first i did 3mm since I would have to layer it anyway for the front sections of the armor. I fused the pieces together with pvc glue you can get at any home building supply store in electrical or plumbing. It's use for pvc pipe sealing. They have 3 grades, each according to PSI of water going through the pipe. You can use the regular and medium and they work just as well. The high grade is really thick.. I have used it.. but only on a prop due to layering. I otherwise generally just don't use it. I also rivet them in a couple spots too to help keep pressure on and add a little detail. The hot glue spots for my fake riveting were a little too big, but I am still playing with that.
The only reason I added bond to the image on the chest was to make it a smoother transition for an etching look. Basically bevel the edge. On the shoulders I used also to cover over where I sealed the plastic pieces together and bevel it. I would like to attempt to vacuum form the whole piece. I just have to calibrate my vacuum former for a larger size. Just can't do that right now.
Generally I sand it so that it accepts paint more readily. It has a kind of skin on it and you want to sand it just lightly off so it exposes the pores. You can also spray automotive primer on it first and sand it before applying other paint. Auto primer has some metallic material in it, because the smoother you sand it the shinier it gets which helps add a metallic look to it. I use that especially on wooden props swords to make them metallic.
Then I just either find the spray paint that is close to my color or mix spray paint layers. I used an antique brazz from Valspar.. they might have a bronze now.. but I find i can make a better bronze by adjust the brass. Be sure if you do battle damage scuffs and marks do before you paint the color on. Some spray paints have a hammered texture chemical in them and that helps to give items a hammered look. For that look.. look at my Hawke armor on my profile page. you see a difference. The hammered creates pits in the paint. If I can't find a color in hammered sometimes i will either take a file or another object with small head and tap into the plastic hammered texture(my 300 armor and princess leia outfit are hand textured not posted yet, but on my website) or run my band sander for scuffs across it.(that takes some play)
I also have a few weapons I will beat my armor with.=) Then depending on the weathering look I want to give will pick a color in this case black and hand rub in black acrylic, watch it dry for a like a minute and then wipe some of it off. I will do it a section at a time, so I can determine how much weathering I want to do. I like my metals not 100% dull, but not glossy shiny. I like the worn look. So I generally use a semi-gloss spray enamel.
I have also been know if their are layers to the paint and you see the scuff chipped through the layers, i will spray partial in layers, chip it a way with an x-acto knife point and/or hand paint the other layer.(boba fett on my website. not up here yet)
If you wonder how i get some of the shaping, I do have an old, crappy youtube video series showing me work with the sintra.
Making Armor 1 - YouTube
I've been experimenting as always as well. I use oven for large sections and heat gun for edges. Always mold from center out. You can vacuum form sintra like I did.. but only on simple stuff. It will sometimes ripple in the oven. Vaccuum forming is still best done with styrene or abs plastics. They are made for that. Hope this answers some questions.=)