Finishing Up…
So after many thin layers of airbrushed paint in the form of primer, basecoat, color modulating filters, and glazes, I finally reached a color and tonal balance that looked right to my eye. I’ve collected bottles of the original Floquil colors with the thought that I could duplicate the ILM models best by starting there. Well, there are too many questions about how the Walker was painted back in 1978 or 79, so that idea went out the window right away. I resorted to winging it.
Once I was happy with the model I took a few shots, but it still doesn’t look right in front of a cardboard box so I printed out a 17x22 inch photo of a snowscape I found on the Web and used it as a backdrop:
The model is standing on a piece of foam packing sheet. Very low tech, and not that effective, but better than cardboard. Once I got into Photoshop I realized the background was too blue so the color balance is off, but it was a start. The photo gave me a good way to judge the model. What had looked finished in my hand looked wrong on screen. (I have to confess, I think the above photo might have been before I sprayed the final coat of blue filter on the hull, but I forget. Gotta take better notes!)
I noticed that the legs didn’t look weathered enough in the photo, so back I went to the bench for some more weathering with the streaking enamels. I also figured it was time to add some snow.
For snow I used white pigment from MIG. I used some white acrylic wash to turn it into a paste and poked about with a stiff brush until I had what I thought I wanted. I came back the next morning and decided I’d been a bit heavy-handed, so I brushed off the excess. Once I was really happy, I used pigment binder to make sure everything stays in place. Lastly I used some gray washes to dirty up the snow here and there.
Then I printed out another photo of a snowscape from the web and went into Photoshop to warm it up a bit and pull out the magenta. I shot several photos of the model with this extremely simple setup:
The angle and intensity of the light have so much to do with how much it just looks like a model stuck in front of a photo. That’s where the visual effects DP earns his money. I used natural daylight and bounce cards to get the lighting the way I wanted. Sometimes the fill light is too much aesthetically, but I wanted to see the details in the paintjob, so I let it go.
I also need to reshoot these on a better snow base. The foam pad really doesn’t cut it, but it was quick and I was impatient to get the model on camera.
I also took several of the shots through a Harrison and Harrison D1 diffusion filter, which is what they used when originally photographing the models for the movie. Next time I’ll use one of my vintage Nikkor lenses as well, which also match what they originally used. Anything to make the images look more like the film.
Then I took my favorite image and added the film grain effect and the scratched and fading to give the final photo that vintage feeling. I also blended the foreground into the backdrop a little bit. And so we’re back where we started this thread, with the finished MPC Walker in its vintage environment. Here's the before and after of the vintage pic:
It was a sometimes frustrating experience building this thing. I'm looking forward to something like the Fine Molds kits which will actually fit together! But I learned a lot and feel like I'll be able to do justice to a Studio Scale Walker; at least in the painting department. My build skills need the most work at the moment. Next up is the FM X-Wing in preparation for the Salzo V4.
Thanks for looking and thanks for all the comments and support!
David