Iron Man helmet GOLD repaint with metallic finish.

[rory]

Hi Everyone. I wanted to put out a general call for some color ideas. I recently received an Iron Man Mk 7 helmet, and I'm not satisfied with the gold used on it. It's too matte and lacks that polished metal look of the screen accurate helmets. I'm hoping for advice on the best gold airbrush paint to pick up to replace it with. Hot Toys has recently used a fantastic metallic gold on their Mk 7 that I'd love to match. It has a more reflective metallic finish with a somewhat muted gold tone. Any suggestions? I'm was thinking of using Alclad Mirror Gold, but it's discontinued.

Here's the helmet gold as it is now. You can see how lifeless that gold is.

Here's Hot Toys Mk 7 gold, which is really nice. It's a similar tone, and sits somewhere between a brass and a gold, with a decently mirrored surface.

I'd love to get as close to the gold of the film, though I know that was entirely cgi and shifted from scene to scene. But an average would be close enough.

 

[rory]

Hey all. Thought it'd help others to post an update. So I settled on a process to replace all the gold on this killerbody Iron Man Helmet for a more accurate finish (to the best of my abilities at least), and am well ***king pleased with the results. So first I applied a black primer to all gold surfaces, then a few coats of 2k clear glamour over the top for a glossy finish, then added multiple thin coats of Alumuluster by Imperial surfaces, until I achieved a satisfactory level of brightness and reflectivity. Which brought me to this...

Then I applied thin layers of SMS Clear acrylic lacquers, using a mix of colors to get the right khaki gold tone I wanted. I built up slow, since the look often seen in the first few films was not a very saturated gold, more of a blue gold/brassy look depending on the scene. Then a final layer of 2k Clear Glamour automotive finish, followed by subtle weathering with Tamiya Chrome Silver to give it a slightly worn authenticity.

As a first time prop repaint, I'm really happy with the results. I got some great tips from the guys at Imperial Surfaces and Off Earth on youtube.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Huge improvement over the original gold finish. I think it looks great.

 

[gregday]

This looks great. I'd love to do something similar to my mechanized AutoKing helmet coming in a few weeks and take it from silver to gold.

 

[Synz314]

I have the older release of this helmet from Killerbody that has a brushed metallic finish on the faceplate. I want to upgrade to this version for the extra features, but man that gold is awful. Great job on repainting it!