P2 Cannon Cleanup And Paint

Art Andrews

Community Owner
Community Staff
I picked up a cannon that is cast from original (according to the seller, a first gen casting). It is in pretty rough shape (not sure if it is the casting or that the original itself is this rough) so I am doing minimal cleanup on it before painting it. I am trying not to go crazy with it, but there are issues like the cannon barrel has a slouch in it an a little of little boogers and other ugliness. Anyway, here is what a raw casting looks like vs my first pass (mine is in black).

One thing I would like to try to do is paint this myself but I am struggling with the color and combinations to get a close to screen accurate look.

On the prop itself, the color appears very gold/copper, but in some of the photos from the movie the top part appears gold/copper while the gun itself appears to have a more silver tint to it. Thoughts?

p2-cannon.jpg


p2-cannon-cleanup-01.jpg


p2-cannon-cleanup-02.jpg
 
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This isn't going to be especially helpful, but I don't think anyone has ever managed to replicate the screen colours of the P2 armour. The armour, disc, hero bio...they've stumped pretty much everyone. I think Larry Kidd has tried pretty much everything, and come up short. I've tried metal coatings, cold casting, alclad...nothing looks right. I think Rob has suggested some kind of plating, but that's an expensive 'test'.

If I had time I'd probably experiment more with alclad and transparent colours, so you might want to try with that. Either way, good luck!
 
I've got the same casting and had the opportunity of seeing the first test casting firsthand and compared it to the original. For the most part, all imperfections are on the original.

I now have a copy and am pretty excited to have a piece of P2 history. As for the painting of it, I guess I'm going to go this route:

Predator44.jpg



As for the armor itself, I think it's tricky and asked a similar question about how it might have been painted long ago. I wondered if inks might have been used as the base black. It just looks "different" than normal weathering. See the forearm below.

Predator72.jpg



And here''s what I ended up doing with my helmet. The corrosion is much more subtle in person. Darn my flash.


I used a couple of different colors for the base. Didn't stop at basic black. And I drybrushed 2 or 3 different bronze and coppers, with a very thin black wash in some areas and then retouched up the highspots. Again, the corrosion looks off in the pics, but I'm very happy with how the thing looks in person, especially the transition from the dark under coat to coppery main color. I might use yet one more color on the highspots . . . i.e. something that can be buffed to a shine, but I'd experiment first on something else before screwing up what I've got going on now.
 
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You know... now that I am looking at that piece, it looks a LOT like the gauntlet from Cowboys & Aliens. I am going to see if I can find out how that was painted and take a similar approach. As I recall, it utilized some very expensive paint.
 
Sometimes the armor looks plated, while other times it looks painted. The P2 disk really looks plated in the above pic. Does anyone have access to any of the costume folks who would have worked on P2?
 
It isn't "flat" but there is no actual detail on the underside. From what I can see, there was only a single flat bar that holds the cannon, so I am just drilling and tapping a hole in the center of the cannon to mount it to bar stock.
 
So, here is my progress after initial paint and some weathering. I painted the cannon glossy black, then gold, then copper. I went pretty thick with the copper to smooth out the surface even more.

Now, I could be wrong, but to me, the carapace looks slightly lighter on the hero cannon than the rest of the cannon details, so, I took liquitex transparent burnt sienna and brushed it over all of the cannon except the carapace, then went back over it with raw umber. I lathered it on generously then took a sponge wedge and dabbed it back off and smoothed it out a bit.

These photos represent that work. As you can see, the weathering is still wet.

From here, my plan is to buff the cannon, to remove some of the weathering from the high spots, then to add a heavy black wash to the entire cannon, including the carapace which will further bring out the details.

I don't know how truly screen accurate this is, but overall, I am liking the direction.

Let me know your thoughts.

predator-p2-cannon-initial-paint-01.jpg


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Put a black wash on the whole cannon tonight as well as raw umber and transparent burnt sienna in the creases of the [background=rgb(24, 24, 24)]carapace. The whole cannon is looking a little dark right now, but once the black wash had dried, my hope is that I can buff the high spots and give it the final look I want. I might need to do one more heavy black wash after that to achieve the exact look I want, but overall, I am pretty happy. Will post pics soon.[/background]
 
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Alright... I think I am pretty happy with it and consider it "done." I finished it out with #0000 fine steel wool to cut through some of the grime and being back a bit of the shine. I think a lot of the dirt really helps distract from the roughness of the piece and even works with it.

Let me know what you think.
predator-2-p2-plasma-cannon-finished-01.jpg


predator-2-p2-plasma-cannon-finished-02.jpg
 
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This is a comparison of my casting to the original stunt casting that it originated from. Hmmm... I might have to go back and do one more black wash on the [background=rgb(24, 24, 24)]carapace. I want to make sure it remains lighter than the rest of the cannon, but looking at these photos, it might be slightly too light.[/background]

predator-2-p2-plasma-cannon-compare.jpg
 
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Alright... went back and added additional weathering to the [background=rgb(24, 24, 24)]carapace.... NOW I'm done.[/background]

predator-2-p2-plasma-cannon-finished-03.jpg
 
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Awesome paint up Art! The weathering looks spot on! (y) I gotta get my hands on a P2 Cannon for the collection. So cool! :cool:
 
That's a fine looking cannon you got there! :D
Informative thread too, good to know what tricks and ways there is to paint something like this.
I would imagine the steel wool scraping off the paint, but it doesnt look like it caused any damage at all. Did you only remove the top layers of paint with it or...?
 
I would imagine the steel wool scraping off the paint, but it doesnt look like it caused any damage at all. Did you only remove the top layers of paint with it or...?

I put the copper on VERY thick and then layered the sienna and umber as well as the black washes, so the steel wool (which is very fine, not coarse) was used to cut back down through the grime layers to bring out highlights and to make the details stand out more.
 
im going to try and sculpt this for my p2 style suit!... what is the size in length and width as to get it in proportion !.. any help would be helpful!..
 
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