Hi folks.
Ive been asked a couple of times how I painted the grips on my blasters.
So I thought I would make a thread showing how I do it on mine. It is not the only way to do this, but I have found this to give great results.
It was pretty clear to me from the outset that the grips on the filming props were hand painted and not hydrodipped or wrapped in vinyl. I could be wrong, but the subtle differences in the alignment of the squares just looked human, if you know what I mean!. If I'm wrong then I would love to know the procedure, so if anyone out there has info, and is willing to share, please do.
So my way of trying to emulate the look of the grip goes like this.
First stage is to get the grip super smooth. I normally use a full gloss black for the wet sanding phase, as it shows up every little surface imperfection,once smooth finished in a matt black.
Then I use this 3M 3mm fine line tape.
You will see why it needs to be this tape later on
Apply this to the grip down the rear centre line first, I find this make it a little easier to see the spacing and if you have it centred up.
Then follow with other lines of tape at a 3mm spacing. You can use your eye for this as the small changes in distance add to the material weave look on the finished item.
Then just keep going around the grip with multiple strips until you have the thing covered. You will find as you go that the grip shapes the stripes automatically on its surface.
Then apply the next set across the lines following the direction you want them to go. I started at the bottom to get the horizontal line in first as the guide. Then followed them up and just eased the spacing adding a little more room at the back of the grip to make it follow the line of the reference a little better.
once covered you get this.
Then I airbrush some tamia silver over the masking, not bombed on, just enough to make the silver pop.
The remove the masking to reveal the half painted design.
The next part is why you need the semi transparent tape. You basically apply more lines covering every silver square in the same way as the first mask.
You can see the lighter silver squares making lines through the tape. Occasionally the squares are a fraction to small or too big, but just aim the masking through the centre point of each square and it will sort itself out when finished. Once this is done it looks the same masked up as it did the first time around. Only black should be visible.
Now do the same again with the silver. You can make this pass a little stronger or lighter, depending on how much variation you need between the weaves. You may also do it in a different shade of silver which really gives a material look to the finish. I chose the same colour as the first pass with a slightly lighter application to keep it in line with the prop.
Once you happy with the colour. Remove the masking to reveal the finished design.
This is the finished design, bar the final two paint coats.
Next up is a layer of black transparent lacquer to knock back the blingy look of the silver. I use an alclad black which works really well.
I shade the indentations for the fingers more than the outer surfaces just to bring in a little shading which makes it pop once the final coat is applied. Once your happy with your shading and depth of colour, its time for the last stage.
Next up after drying, is a two pack wet look lacquer applied with the airbrush in two thick coats to really make it slick looking.
I hope this has helped some of you out on your quest for carbon (ish) look on your K blaster's.
Happy building folks.
Ive been asked a couple of times how I painted the grips on my blasters.
So I thought I would make a thread showing how I do it on mine. It is not the only way to do this, but I have found this to give great results.
It was pretty clear to me from the outset that the grips on the filming props were hand painted and not hydrodipped or wrapped in vinyl. I could be wrong, but the subtle differences in the alignment of the squares just looked human, if you know what I mean!. If I'm wrong then I would love to know the procedure, so if anyone out there has info, and is willing to share, please do.
So my way of trying to emulate the look of the grip goes like this.
First stage is to get the grip super smooth. I normally use a full gloss black for the wet sanding phase, as it shows up every little surface imperfection,once smooth finished in a matt black.
Then I use this 3M 3mm fine line tape.
You will see why it needs to be this tape later on
Apply this to the grip down the rear centre line first, I find this make it a little easier to see the spacing and if you have it centred up.
Then follow with other lines of tape at a 3mm spacing. You can use your eye for this as the small changes in distance add to the material weave look on the finished item.
Then just keep going around the grip with multiple strips until you have the thing covered. You will find as you go that the grip shapes the stripes automatically on its surface.
Then apply the next set across the lines following the direction you want them to go. I started at the bottom to get the horizontal line in first as the guide. Then followed them up and just eased the spacing adding a little more room at the back of the grip to make it follow the line of the reference a little better.
once covered you get this.
Then I airbrush some tamia silver over the masking, not bombed on, just enough to make the silver pop.
The remove the masking to reveal the half painted design.
You can see the lighter silver squares making lines through the tape. Occasionally the squares are a fraction to small or too big, but just aim the masking through the centre point of each square and it will sort itself out when finished. Once this is done it looks the same masked up as it did the first time around. Only black should be visible.
Now do the same again with the silver. You can make this pass a little stronger or lighter, depending on how much variation you need between the weaves. You may also do it in a different shade of silver which really gives a material look to the finish. I chose the same colour as the first pass with a slightly lighter application to keep it in line with the prop.
Once you happy with the colour. Remove the masking to reveal the finished design.
This is the finished design, bar the final two paint coats.
Next up is a layer of black transparent lacquer to knock back the blingy look of the silver. I use an alclad black which works really well.
I shade the indentations for the fingers more than the outer surfaces just to bring in a little shading which makes it pop once the final coat is applied. Once your happy with your shading and depth of colour, its time for the last stage.
Next up after drying, is a two pack wet look lacquer applied with the airbrush in two thick coats to really make it slick looking.
I hope this has helped some of you out on your quest for carbon (ish) look on your K blaster's.
Happy building folks.
