District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror!)

[Nwerke]

Like I was ever going to be able to resist messing it up...

Made a start tonight. It's going to be the MNU gun of course, since that's the only one we have ref for at present.

First order of business, removing markings. All this lot has to come off. It is an approximation of the concept art, but it's not on the hero gun:

So some elbow grease gets you about here. Some of you will be thinking WTF?! at this point:

The concept art version has this gunmetal front end. It's got a lot of speckle overspray on it and looks kinda crap. You can improve it a lot with some wet-and-dry - compare the barrel (unmolested) with the flat shrouds (rubbed down). It blends it a lot and looks better, also gets rid of the visible masking ridges (which is the actual reason I'm doing it). Rub it down gently - I've gone through the base coat in places (doesn't matter for my purposes).

Oddly enough, these decals are correct for the film version, but NOT correct for the concept art version!

More WTF?!?! :lol All will become clear...

Again, concept art and hero prop differ here. Will mask this up tomorrow:

All silver chipping and all but two markings removed. Looks a lot meaner, doesn't it? The black is very tough and can take the abuse. The orange is a thin layer - actually it looks like they put down the black, then the stripes in white, then go over the white in orange, then shoot the orange with a black sooty overspray. Easy to go through the orange/white, but easy to repaint, also.

I think the canister looks good with the decals removed. A lot of the decals are applied wonkily anyway.

More tomorrow!

 

[zorg]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint

hes in with the chainsaw nice and early gentlemen :love

how you getting rid of the "chipping" marks and decals?

looking forward to you sorting this thing out.......


-z

 

[Nwerke]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint

Hehe. I'm kind of pleased that I found reason to cut something off (it'll get put back, just differently). I can just about hear the purists' collective gasp of horror.

Crudely - I'm literally just sanding them off. I'll be sanding the edge of the orange stripe too, as the masking line is too obvious. The whole stripe should be quite a bit narrower and there are other differences too.

The big orange marking was the right shape but upside-down and half-sized, so I'll have to mask and spray it.

Anyway, the markings and chipping all sands off quite easily and the black is good and thick, so no harm done. In fact the black needs to be mottled and patchy anyway and the whole thing - somehow - should be glossier at the same time, so it'll get hit with a lot of clearcoat too.

On tonight's menu: it gets blacker!

 

[Garthok]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint

Martyn!, I found a guy who will pay 2K for your #2 edition...oh...never mind :unsure

I think it's great you do have the courage to just jump right in and mod these, from what i have seen they always turn out better than the original. But could you please have some kind of "this post contains graphic horror images" warning in the title? :sick

Looking forward to the finished GP mate

 

[Nwerke]

Re District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning: this post contains graphic images)

I was waiting for that.

LOL. Anything for you mate!

 

[Garthok]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

You were quick to change the title mate! Too late for some of us though. by the way, I got :thumbsup from Darren!! I can't wait to see this one finished.

 

[MooCriket]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

Love the title of this thread! Cannot wait for more!

 

[Nwerke]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

Well, it did get blacker last night as promised, but I ended up high on paint fumes and forgot to take pics.

I'll try getting the stripes redone tonight and tomorrow night, that will involve a couple of clear coats and I'll need to allow drying time. Cold nights lately so pics tomorrow, most likely.

The surgery with the small canister is just to set it at a different angle. To be SA it has to be at less than ninety degrees to the surface. The canister is solid polyester resin and pegged into the fibreglass, it is RIDICULOUSLY strong.

If this represents the construction of the originals then I see what John H meant when he said his approach to props is "I make it, you try to break it". :lol

 

[franz bolo]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

The surgery with the small canister is just to set it at a different angle.

On the hero, It looks like there is a ring around the base of the canister. Will you add that?

FB

 

[Garthok]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

Martyn, any pics on the new paint job yet? Some of us are dying to see it. I got mine too. #6, I am running out of wall space tho.

 

[Nwerke]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

Urrgh, sorry gents, was feeling a bit run down over the weekend TBH. Had hoped to get a lot done but didn't make it into the shed at all. Also had visitors both days, finally moved my 3yo into the room I rebuilt for him, and spent hours grouting paving around my pool - during a storm. Not the most fun weekend all in all!

FB, there's a very slight raised area that the canister sits on. It's not a ring exactly, and it isn't even really clear if it's a fitting or a flaw, really.

Glenn, I have the thing fully de-markinged now, with the gunmetal on the canister and barrel oversprayed with black and a clearcoat to base my weathering on. Unfortunately I got more orange-peeling on the parts I did after it got cold late one night...Note to self: sticking the can down your pants for half an hour* is NOT as good as putting it in a bowl of warm water.

I'll try to get back on it tonight. I need to mask up the orange stripe and make it narrower, then extend it to the end of the barrel. I'm kind of dreading the paint chipping job, TBH. It's a BIG job on this prop!

Cheers,
Martyn

* I really tried it. It sorta works, but isn't as good. But when you have the bit between your teeth you just don't want to stop for long enough to go into the house, fiddle around with hot water and probably get shanghaied into other jobs by the wife. :lol

 

[Garthok]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

Note to self: sticking the can down your pants for half an hour* is NOT as good as putting it in a bowl of warm water.

Mate, shouldn't that be in the OT section? This section is for prop related topics..:$

 

[Funky]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

I've said it before, I'll say it again. You are the bravest man I know!

 

[Nwerke]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

What, for sticking rattle cans down my pants?

Heh. Wait till you see what I just did to the upper canister. It's *nasty*.

No seriously, it's nasty. I'll have to redo it. :lol

I'm still kidding. It DOES look terrible right now but that's because the real prop has a bloody difficult burned/glazed finish on that part - like it's been coated in engine oil and superheated a few times. I'm trying to copy it with multiple coats of clearcoat with copper, burnt iron and yellow mixed in. I should probably just unevenly airbrush some brown then clearcoat it, but my airbrush is stuffed..

Anyone got a better idea? :lol

 

[RarestRX]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

Tag for more pictures!

 

[Nwerke]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

Finally a tiny bit of progress. It's been really cold this week so I've been hiding indoors. Some nights it's got as low as, oooh, eight or nine degrees C. Yeah, I'm a big wuss. :lol There isn't much to show because I've not spent a lot of time on this in the last week or so. Had hoped to do more tonight - I found some good new reference for the paint chipping last night and hoped to start on it tonight but it's just too chilly!

Anyway:

Got the gunmetal on the big canister painted properly black. I've started filthying things up - the upper canister is getting nice and grubby here. It doesn't look this blotchy in real life, but will need another layer to smooth it out a bit even so. There's gloss clearcoat on everything, don't worry, it will get toned down a lot:

The whole deal. Front pipes also getting grubby:

Upper canister grot-in-progress:

Front of barrel - gunmetal per the concept art all a thing of the past, nice and black per the screen-used prop. Orange stripe extended, but the whole thing needs to be narrowed slightly:

Closeup of grubbified pipes. These need to be yellower.

Huh, how's this, I probably shouldn't have bothered cutting off the smallest canister. Turns out it isn't so much that it's mounted at a different angle as that the ENTIRE handle and triangular handle mount assembly was broken and crushed down a little.

Seems this happened some time between filming the 'shack' scenes and filming the 'outside the shack' scenes, where Wikus gets smacked with the gas projector by Christopher Johnson's friend. If you freeze-frame during the MNU test scenes, you can see what I mean. The big horizontal slots in the side of the gun are noticeably squashed!

 

[franz bolo]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

I probably shouldn't have bothered cutting off the smallest canister. Turns out it isn't so much that it's mounted at a different angle as that the ENTIRE handle and triangular handle mount assembly was broken and crushed down a little.

I still think there's a ring around the base of that thing. I'll see if I can get batter pics.
You can slightly see it in the RACK picture and can see it in the TEST pic.

FB

 

[Kommissar]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

i'd love to know what you used to make the canister that grubby, it looks great!

 

[Garthok]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

Curse you Martyn, every time I think I can live with my paint jobs you do this. You seriously need to get a job in that chinese paint factory teaching them how to paint these properly

looks fantastic as always!

 

[Nwerke]

Re: District 9 Gas Projector - my repaint (Warning, contains graphic images of horror

Thanks guys but this is still 90% Weta's vendor's paint job. I'm just layering a bit of dirt on top of it for the most part!

FB, you may be right: if so it is probably a repair. That whole part must have just been *smashed*, not just the handle. It's decently strong so must have taken a big hit!

Kommissar, the first coat of canister grot was part Testors clear gloss, part Testors buffing burnt iron, part Humbrol copper and gold. For the second coat I just went with Testors clear gloss and artist's oil in Burnt Umber as the upshot is about the same. The clear gloss is just to give it a bit of body.

I seriously need to find something yellower for the front pipes though.