Imperial Star Destroyer hull color?
- Thread starter crowe t
- Start date
Furagu
New Member
I went to Star Wars Identities too, I noticed the same thing. All the recesses, especially between hull plates are very bright. The star destroyer looks very clean, I spent a looong time looking at the models and did not notice washes really. Somebody in a different thread (some time ago) mentioned you have to take in account that these models were made to be filmed under very bright lights, so they tend to appear lighter in the movies. Most of the detail shows up because they create shadows. The detail on all models is very crisp, and therefore shows up on film well.
You have to keep in mind too that these ships were filmed in multiple passes, so the color on the model is not nescesarily the colr the ended up on film. So you have to make a choice: do you want it to look as the model does in reality, or do you want it to look like it does in the movie. Two different things...
You have to keep in mind too that these ships were filmed in multiple passes, so the color on the model is not nescesarily the colr the ended up on film. So you have to make a choice: do you want it to look as the model does in reality, or do you want it to look like it does in the movie. Two different things...
newmagrathea
Sr Member
That makes sense. They would have lit from a single direction while shooting to create natural shadows. I think that a lot of modelers compensate for the fact that they are displaying in a well lit room by using washes in the recesses to create a shadow like look. That is why they display the ships on exhibit the way they do, to create those shadows to show the detail they way you see it in the movies. Obviously they don't use lights that are as bright because they are damaging and expensive to keep on.
soulsaman
Active Member
Newbie here!
CessnaDriver your SD looks beautiful!
I'm going to use your photos for inspiration for the Zevezda SD I'm about to start. I tried searching for that light gray FS96495 but no luck. Does it go by another name?
Also, after spraying a dark under coat and then painting over it with the light gray, did you have to do something to bring out the panel lines like yours shows?
Thanks!
CessnaDriver your SD looks beautiful!
I'm going to use your photos for inspiration for the Zevezda SD I'm about to start. I tried searching for that light gray FS96495 but no luck. Does it go by another name?
Also, after spraying a dark under coat and then painting over it with the light gray, did you have to do something to bring out the panel lines like yours shows?
Thanks!
crowe t
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the input!
CessnaDriver - Your SD is beautiful! I've used Testors FS36495 on other projects and found that it has a very slightly blue look. It's a cool gray. I might go with something slightly warmer. Although the 'cool' gray does look nice on a SD. The SW studio models were always lit more on the cool side.
CessnaDriver - Your SD is beautiful! I've used Testors FS36495 on other projects and found that it has a very slightly blue look. It's a cool gray. I might go with something slightly warmer. Although the 'cool' gray does look nice on a SD. The SW studio models were always lit more on the cool side.
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Yes you're right,, I just checked and still have the old bottles. It was seven years ago now.
The Anigrand kit panel lines were so nice, simply the dark undercoat made them stand out.
And yes I had the paint number slightly wrong as corrected in above posts.
Here's the rest of the pics. http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=22002
Hats off to anyone that lights these things, man it was a handful being a resin kit and needed some massaging.
I take some solace that in ANH there were no window lights.
crowe t
Well-Known Member
Awesome job! I like the light gray color you used. I have some Testors FS36495 and it's a very light gray, almost white color.
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
The times I've seen the SD up close during tours, one of the things I noticed is that the light gray squares and rectangles that are painted all over the hull don't necessarily correspond to either the real inscribed panel lines or the penciled in panel lines. I know my first impulse as a modeler is to use the kit panel lines as a guide and basically color them in, but on the real deal they were more random and overlapped the lines. Something to think about.
crowe t
Well-Known Member
I looked at pictures of the Avenger studio model I found online and see how some of the light gray squares/rectangles don't correspond to the panel lines. I'm still considering using the Zvezda kit's panels lines as a guide and coloring some in but I might change that thinking.
BTW, did the SD look more white or light gray when you saw it close up?
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
The base color looked very white to me, but I could see paint overspray in both black and gray (millions of tiny dots all over the hull's surface). It looked to me like they painted the entire thing white or near white, airbrushed the gray squares and rectangles using a template in random areas, made panel lines with mechanical pencil, and then knocked the whole thing down with the two-tone overspray. So the overall look was white, but the overspray dulled the glare (which I'm sure helped with the model under studio lights). I'm sure some future Gary Kerr will examine the model under a microscope and prove me wrong, but that's what it looked like to me.
crowe t
Well-Known Member
Thanks! For the Zvezda's smaller size(smaller than the 8 foot studio model) a slight off white should mostly simulate the look of the studio model with the black and gray overspray.
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
I agree. Off-white or near white should work fine. A little overspray wouldn't hurt to blend everything together, but I'd go very light -- avoid large drops or pure blacks. The gray squares were fairly faint, as I recall, and the overall look seemed very one-color. In other words, it really looked like they just spray painted the dang thing white until you got up close to see some of the faint variation.
GF
Sr Member
heres mine painted using krylon flat white primer straight out of a can, I then added many shades of grey panelling using a airbrush then misted the whole model using flat white using a airbrush to tone down all the grey panelling, you will notice that the third photo the panelling show a bit more since it was taken before I decided to further tone down the panellings.
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Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
GF, to me that looks very close to what the studio model looks like, though I would say the original is overall whiter. At least in my memory -- which, according to my wife, isn't what it used to be. ;-)
GF
Sr Member
I used straight flat white primer, again photo exposure can come into play, seeing a model in person and in photos colors will vary a bit.
GFollano
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Thank you for the nice words!
Hunk a Junk
Sr Member
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