Hello!
So I bought a Mysteria P1 bio. What I was looking for was something nice to hang on my wall in my home theatre. After reading the most excellent paint up huntorial from hez, I went with a Mysteria bio. The Mysteria bio is somewhat smaller than 1:1 screen replicas, and as such it should fit perfect for wall display in my home theatre. This is my very first bio paint up, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.
This is the bio as delivered. Pretty raw around the edges (as described before purchase). It's dremel time!
The edges need quite some trimming, but it is more fun than tedious . There was a hairline crack in the bio, but that was easily sorted with some putty...
Lateral shot of the bio showing the edge that needs some sweet lovin'
The edges have been taken care of and now the "eyes" are being drilled out.
The "eyes" are finished, as well as the gun(?) shot to the forehead. I was a bit reluctant to the hole in the head as it contradicts the whole predator-awesome-bad-a$$-hunter concept. I mean, who would be able to put a bullet in the back of a predator? Nevertheless, I ended up liking it as it gives the bio some character.
Dremel time is over and the bio is sanded and ready for paint!
Pre-fitting of the tri-laser targeting system. I decided to paint the laser system separately and attach it afterwards. I actually wanted to give the laser system a color scheme that differs somewhat from the rest of the bio. I was thinking that the predator likely is to upgrade it's weapon system continuously, whereas the bio itself is kept being used. In that way, the targeting system should look less worn than the rest of the bio...
Here we go - painting madness. This is the bio after a coat of primer. The primer used is "duplicolor" standard primer.
Sticking to hez's most excellent tutorial, I started applying a coat of black, using a sponge. The paint used was Montana Gold Shock Black (acrylic). I've never used spray paint to a large extent before, but I must say the Montana series is really, really good. The colors are as smooth as satin and they dry super fast. Highly recommended! After applying the black coat I was surprised how bad-a$$ the bio already looked. It had this "vader-esque" look that I really liked. But, on with the painting...
I was painting "from the hip", and the next step I chose was a layer of Duplicolor, with a color I personally would like to call "gun metal gray" (translated from swedish to english, however, the color name is stainless steel). The paint layer was applied with a sponge.
This step was somewhat of an experiment. I wanted to enhance the weathering of the bio by giving it an overall rusty look, so I added a coat of Montana Gold Mahogany. The coat was applied by misting all over the bio. Afterwards the bio was gently scrubbed with a scouring pad to smooth the coat out. This step turned out pretty well and, depending on the viewing angle, the browns are clearly visible.
OK, on to the next step. Time to bring some life to this bio so I added a coat of "silver". The paint used is once again Duplicolor. The bottle only says "structure", but has a silvery kind of color. This brought the bio "back to life", somewhat reducing the previous weathering steps.
Sorry, I got carried away by the fun of painting the bio. Some steps are missed. What I have done here is I sponged a layer of Montana Gold Concrete on various parts of the helmet. After that I added a coat of Montana Gold Shock black to bring back some of the areas I wanted to keep dark. At this point I'm getting close to my vision and the end result.
As a (almost) final stage I misted a coat of Montana Gold Cassis over the whole bio. This was done to add a blue extra terrestial-like sheen to the bio. After all, this bio ain't made up of metals mined from the stinking low-tech planet earth
. It's hardly visible from the picture, but as with the Mahogany layer above, the blue colors really comes through depending on the viewing angle!
Now some money shots! This is the finished bio. I sealed it with five coats (misted) of Montana Gold Clear Coat Matte. As for the visors they are made of metal mesh in front (included in the purchase). Beneath the mesh I mounted pieces of a cut up soda bottle, sprayed black on the back side. I went for personal preference rather than screen accuracy .
The back of the bio is as pretty as a predator face itself. But since the bio is solely intended for display, pretty doesn't mean jack s**t ! The battery is held in place by a cut up prescription bottle, DIY FTW!
Another artsy shot of the bio. You can see that the tri-laser is somewhat darker that the rest of the bio - as intended! I forgot to turn on the lasers (or LED's) on this shot.
Front shot of the finished bio. I'm pretty pleased considering I have only painted walls before, and nothing like models or masks. Had I started all over again with the expreience gained, I probably would have made some things different, but in the end I am more than pleased. Once again, the bullet hole is perhaps too much of an eye-catcher, but I like to think of it as this pred got wasted by an ever meaner unknown intergalactic hunter species .
Artsy side shot with the "lasers" on.
Yet another shot of the finished bio. And after this one, on the the mounting!
Oh, before mounting, another sweet shot (f 2.8 on the aperture)
As said initially, this bio was made for display only. And I'm pretty meticulous when it comes to displaying art on the wall. After all, this bio (to me) is art! So, this is the way I do it. The frame is simple, it's an IKEA "Ribba" frame. As a sidenote; IKEA, as I'm sure you know, is Swedish. The Ribba frames are named Ribba in Sweden as well. In Sweden, the word "ribba" also means erection. Aaaalright, moving on...
The ribba frames come with your standard white passepartout (sp?). That won't suffice, so I ordered a black passepartout from a local vendor. Now, the bio is mounted (with a steel wire through pre-drilled holes in the bio) on the stock back board of the frame. On the back board I have glued on black satin cloth to enhance the contrast of the bio against the background. The satin cloth also omits any reflections from light and has a luxurious look. It's kind of hard to describe (PM for detailed shots) but the passepartout is mounted in front. The back board (covered in satin cloth) is mounted in the back. In between is a "distance frame" - in lack of a better description. The "distance frame" separates the back piece with the bio from the passepartout, giving the frame as a whole a 3D look. I think it's a nice touch that gives the pice alot of depth, even if the "distance frame" is less than 1" in depth.
Side shot of the finished and framed bio ! Once again, I forgot to turn on the "lasers"...
Turning on the LED's means business!
Overall look of the finished pice to the right of my projection screen in my home theatre.
Another shot of the framed finished bio. On the left hand side I will place a P2 bio, also from Mysteria as it will be approximate the same size. Pictures of that paintup will probably follow.
That's it folks. This paintup has been made possible by all the inspiration from this forum, and in particular from hez's awesome video tutorial. I hope this post will add some inspiration to other members. As noted above, my next project with the P2 bio will commence shortly, and probably also pictured in another thread. I will also be adding some pics from my paintup of the Mysteria (no, I'm in no way affiliated with Mysteria, I just went on a shopping spree) Xenomorph alien face in another thread as that piece turned out very nice as well.
On a sidenote and not directly predator-related, feel free to check out my home theatre "building blog" at http://www.minhembio.com/calymene/267677/ (in Swedish, and apologies [=remove] if external linking is not allowed)...
/Calymene
So I bought a Mysteria P1 bio. What I was looking for was something nice to hang on my wall in my home theatre. After reading the most excellent paint up huntorial from hez, I went with a Mysteria bio. The Mysteria bio is somewhat smaller than 1:1 screen replicas, and as such it should fit perfect for wall display in my home theatre. This is my very first bio paint up, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.
This is the bio as delivered. Pretty raw around the edges (as described before purchase). It's dremel time!
The edges need quite some trimming, but it is more fun than tedious . There was a hairline crack in the bio, but that was easily sorted with some putty...
Lateral shot of the bio showing the edge that needs some sweet lovin'
The edges have been taken care of and now the "eyes" are being drilled out.
The "eyes" are finished, as well as the gun(?) shot to the forehead. I was a bit reluctant to the hole in the head as it contradicts the whole predator-awesome-bad-a$$-hunter concept. I mean, who would be able to put a bullet in the back of a predator? Nevertheless, I ended up liking it as it gives the bio some character.
Dremel time is over and the bio is sanded and ready for paint!
Pre-fitting of the tri-laser targeting system. I decided to paint the laser system separately and attach it afterwards. I actually wanted to give the laser system a color scheme that differs somewhat from the rest of the bio. I was thinking that the predator likely is to upgrade it's weapon system continuously, whereas the bio itself is kept being used. In that way, the targeting system should look less worn than the rest of the bio...
Here we go - painting madness. This is the bio after a coat of primer. The primer used is "duplicolor" standard primer.
Sticking to hez's most excellent tutorial, I started applying a coat of black, using a sponge. The paint used was Montana Gold Shock Black (acrylic). I've never used spray paint to a large extent before, but I must say the Montana series is really, really good. The colors are as smooth as satin and they dry super fast. Highly recommended! After applying the black coat I was surprised how bad-a$$ the bio already looked. It had this "vader-esque" look that I really liked. But, on with the painting...
I was painting "from the hip", and the next step I chose was a layer of Duplicolor, with a color I personally would like to call "gun metal gray" (translated from swedish to english, however, the color name is stainless steel). The paint layer was applied with a sponge.
This step was somewhat of an experiment. I wanted to enhance the weathering of the bio by giving it an overall rusty look, so I added a coat of Montana Gold Mahogany. The coat was applied by misting all over the bio. Afterwards the bio was gently scrubbed with a scouring pad to smooth the coat out. This step turned out pretty well and, depending on the viewing angle, the browns are clearly visible.
OK, on to the next step. Time to bring some life to this bio so I added a coat of "silver". The paint used is once again Duplicolor. The bottle only says "structure", but has a silvery kind of color. This brought the bio "back to life", somewhat reducing the previous weathering steps.
Sorry, I got carried away by the fun of painting the bio. Some steps are missed. What I have done here is I sponged a layer of Montana Gold Concrete on various parts of the helmet. After that I added a coat of Montana Gold Shock black to bring back some of the areas I wanted to keep dark. At this point I'm getting close to my vision and the end result.
As a (almost) final stage I misted a coat of Montana Gold Cassis over the whole bio. This was done to add a blue extra terrestial-like sheen to the bio. After all, this bio ain't made up of metals mined from the stinking low-tech planet earth
. It's hardly visible from the picture, but as with the Mahogany layer above, the blue colors really comes through depending on the viewing angle!Now some money shots! This is the finished bio. I sealed it with five coats (misted) of Montana Gold Clear Coat Matte. As for the visors they are made of metal mesh in front (included in the purchase). Beneath the mesh I mounted pieces of a cut up soda bottle, sprayed black on the back side. I went for personal preference rather than screen accuracy .
The back of the bio is as pretty as a predator face itself. But since the bio is solely intended for display, pretty doesn't mean jack s**t ! The battery is held in place by a cut up prescription bottle, DIY FTW!
Another artsy shot of the bio. You can see that the tri-laser is somewhat darker that the rest of the bio - as intended! I forgot to turn on the lasers (or LED's) on this shot.
Front shot of the finished bio. I'm pretty pleased considering I have only painted walls before, and nothing like models or masks. Had I started all over again with the expreience gained, I probably would have made some things different, but in the end I am more than pleased. Once again, the bullet hole is perhaps too much of an eye-catcher, but I like to think of it as this pred got wasted by an ever meaner unknown intergalactic hunter species .
Artsy side shot with the "lasers" on.
Yet another shot of the finished bio. And after this one, on the the mounting!
Oh, before mounting, another sweet shot (f 2.8 on the aperture)
As said initially, this bio was made for display only. And I'm pretty meticulous when it comes to displaying art on the wall. After all, this bio (to me) is art! So, this is the way I do it. The frame is simple, it's an IKEA "Ribba" frame. As a sidenote; IKEA, as I'm sure you know, is Swedish. The Ribba frames are named Ribba in Sweden as well. In Sweden, the word "ribba" also means erection. Aaaalright, moving on...
The ribba frames come with your standard white passepartout (sp?). That won't suffice, so I ordered a black passepartout from a local vendor. Now, the bio is mounted (with a steel wire through pre-drilled holes in the bio) on the stock back board of the frame. On the back board I have glued on black satin cloth to enhance the contrast of the bio against the background. The satin cloth also omits any reflections from light and has a luxurious look. It's kind of hard to describe (PM for detailed shots) but the passepartout is mounted in front. The back board (covered in satin cloth) is mounted in the back. In between is a "distance frame" - in lack of a better description. The "distance frame" separates the back piece with the bio from the passepartout, giving the frame as a whole a 3D look. I think it's a nice touch that gives the pice alot of depth, even if the "distance frame" is less than 1" in depth.
Side shot of the finished and framed bio ! Once again, I forgot to turn on the "lasers"...
Turning on the LED's means business!
Overall look of the finished pice to the right of my projection screen in my home theatre.
Another shot of the framed finished bio. On the left hand side I will place a P2 bio, also from Mysteria as it will be approximate the same size. Pictures of that paintup will probably follow.
That's it folks. This paintup has been made possible by all the inspiration from this forum, and in particular from hez's awesome video tutorial. I hope this post will add some inspiration to other members. As noted above, my next project with the P2 bio will commence shortly, and probably also pictured in another thread. I will also be adding some pics from my paintup of the Mysteria (no, I'm in no way affiliated with Mysteria, I just went on a shopping spree) Xenomorph alien face in another thread as that piece turned out very nice as well.
On a sidenote and not directly predator-related, feel free to check out my home theatre "building blog" at http://www.minhembio.com/calymene/267677/ (in Swedish, and apologies [=remove] if external linking is not allowed)...
/Calymene
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