Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! It's finished PICS

[DL 44 Blaster]

After seeing the fantabulous job Guy Cowen did on his Han EE I just knew I had to finally get one. After many hours of studying the original two color Hero gun pics (the ones without the front grill) and trying like hell to match the original patina I'm as satisfied as I can be short of buying a real vintage Mauser.

I used Model Master "metalizer" paints + real rust (from an old tool) to weather my base gun. It is completely done and I'm now onto the daunting task of the scope bracket and scope itself, then the flash hider:cry Tell me when it's over.......

I'll be posting progress pics as I complete each item. I'm trying like anything to keep up with Guy's and I hope I can pull it off. :$ I hope you guys like the pics!

Unfortunately I'm not the best at pic taking. That being said some of the weathering, especially the "Gun Blue" washes out. I used no flash and tried for some natural light with lackluster results.

 

[DL 44 Blaster]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

Here's some higher res. pics....I took out the thumbnails.........the last two are of the REAL prop.

 

[Hirohawa]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

Looks great!

 

[Ham Solo]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

From what I can tell, it looks pretty good.

 

[cayman shen]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

Truly subtle...doesn't look like it screams "I was weathered" like so many pieces do. Nice job!

 

[Chaka]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

Looks good!

You may want to edit your high-res pix post to reflect that two of those photos are of the real prop- not your MR mod.

 

[Guy Cowen]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

Great work Steve, What a great idea to use real rust....... I wish I'd done that, may be I'll try adding some to my more recent un finnished EE. I can strongly recomend getting in touch with cking on these boards, he has come up with a genious way of doing the scope mount bar detail? One thing I love is that we have all used different techniques & methods. Sorry I never had a chance to get in touch before you started but your doing a great job on your own. Please keep us updated & if you check my posts you can see the 2 original hero blaster pics that have been put through photoshop to show a more realistic colour. Great work mate, "real rust....Genious".

 

[DL 44 Blaster]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

Looks good!

You may want to edit your high-res pix post to reflect that two of those photos are of the real prop- not your MR mod.

duly noted

Thanks Guy, for the kudos You were the inspiration for me to even attempt to tackle this as your blaster turned out fantastic! And thanks for the pic reference

 

[DL 44 Blaster]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

Here's another update.....I've weathered the scope to what I think will be finished. Maybe a couple of small tweaks, but it's essentially done. Some of the knicks and subtle weathering washed out in the pics I took....this was the best of the litter in natural light....flash was a disaster.

To start I sanded the entire scope with 1000 then stepped up to 2000 grit to give it a more "real" finish, then I polished it with "chrome polish" and then re-used the 2000 grit to barely go over it again to put some "grain" back into it. It looked like a brand new Hensoldt Wetzlar. Then the abuse began.:cool

 

[OdiWan72]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

VERY GOOD!

Markus

 

[Guy Cowen]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!!

I cant wait to see this finished, looking better & better. I hate the fact mine is unfinnished at home 1000 miles away. Has anyone else started their HAN EE weathering yet.

Any more shots you can put up yet?

 

[DL 44 Blaster]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! (update)

Another update. I think I'm finished the main gun, scope and cradle. After multiple photo shoots in various lights things change so dramatically, I'm not sure where to stop the weathering process:wacko I've actually removed a lot of the original patina to get back to black (so to speak). There is some left, but after my last photo shoot, the gun looked wayyy to grey. A couple of shots of the right side with different lighting will show you what I mean.

All of the scratches on the scope mount are real scratches. After thinking on it for a few days I decided to do the "post production" more weathered version to match the pg.91 in Chronicles. I had to do it with jewelers files to get them small enough.(my fingers ache:cry)

I still have the flash hider and grips to do.

 

[OdiWan72]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! (update)

WOW....you raised the bar again for all those who follow with weathering a Han EE!!!!

Markus

 

[Ham Solo]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! (update)

Looks awesome, man!

 

[Guy Cowen]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! (update)

Please update bud, really want to see we're you up to with this beauty?

 

[DL 44 Blaster]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! (update)

I've actually come really close to finishing. The flash suppressor is the single hardest thing. I removed all of the factory paint with a stripper.....clearly in page 88 of Chronicles the flash suppressor is more of a blackish color as were the two samples found last year by BobaDebt and "PropRunner". The pics above in post #2 of the unfinished prop (no grill) has a grayish color on it with some light rust forming. I'm at a crossroads on which color to go with. Right now it's more blackish like in Chronicles, which I like.....I'm tossing around doing it again in the grayish and deciding on a final....too bad I don't have two :lol

I did a real number on it this weekend that is a story too long to tell here. I spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday on it in large quantities. I have a little tweaking to do on it and I think I'll call it done. It was the flip flopping between wanting the rust to occur naturally to match up the real one that had me pulling my hair out. The main gun got a little tweaking from the last pics I posted here also.


Stay tuned!

EDIT:

These above two pics illustrate what I mean about the flash suppressor being more black. It seems painfully obvious that the gun has been painted black as so many SW props were.

This one above is just a photoshop of post #2 pics that shows the flash suppressor in its raw unfinished state....more grayish.

Now what to do :confused

 

[Guy Cowen]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! (update)

I cant believe it looking at these pics, makes me want to start again.I think I'll get rid of the rust on my Flash suppresor!!! AHHHHHHH Dont know what to do

 

[Anakin Starkiller]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! (update)

DL-44,

I wouldn't trust that first pic too much as far as color is concerned. Look at Ford's hair and fingernails. They are almost blue.

Dan

 

[DL 44 Blaster]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! (update)

Guy..I know what you mean:lol It's the last peice of the puzzle that has me going nuts....it's a good thing that this IS a steel suppressor as much as I've stripped, baked, acid washed, steel brushed, sanded, bleached, torched, soap washed...it's actually helped age the natural steel on the unfinished bare metal quite nicely to a medium gray.

Anakin S., I too see what you mean about the bluish "hue" in Fords hair and nails, but since it's a crappy jpg. of an old pic the colors seem to blend & bleed.....the real issue is how clearly black it is. Look at the bull barrel alone...pure satin black...no natural blueing, nicks, rust like the below pics.

MY theory,(which may be really old news as I'm usually late to these parties) is that the gun was built as is with the preliminary parts-- ie. NO painting...the gun, flash suppressor, scope, vertical mount were put on as they came from whatever source they got them from AND THEN added the horizontal bracket, with the thumbscrews. They then took pics in it's raw state...GL wanted a little extra so then came the grill, bull barrel greeblies and whatever was the "mystery" disk...then painted it to blend all the greeblies and "weathered" ala. Star Wars to GL's liking....the "mystery" disk fell off and thus the bare steel finish...hence it was painted black. Again, this may be OLLLD news since it's coming from me :lol

Beings this would be a "Heros" weapon perhaps he wanted to see what the prop dept. came up prior to green lighting a final version. Plausible :confused He must have been more involved in the ANH far more than in the following films and micro. managed certain aspects.

My stance is still that the finish on these two pics in no way match..one is blued the other is painted black. Even the horizontal bar is bare aluminum and clearly unfinished. The thumbscrews have a steel finish and the center is the one that was on the "Sitting Target" / "Naked Runner" version.

I'm just still torn on whether to do it in a more black finish, or a more gray finish....techinically my weathering of the gun more matches the pre-prod. version...the everything else matches the pg. 91 Chronicles weathering version....and since pg.91 is black and white it tells absolutely nothing about the finish of the suppressor. :wacko (pulling hair)

Just for kicks&giggles this is a picture (don't know who took it) of a real MG81....clearly a black-ish finish over the deep gray steel, no doubt made the deep gray from the intense heat from the suppression of doing its job

 

[Guy Cowen]

Re: Another "weathered" MR Han EE!! (update)

Does this help?????