Probe Droid......arrrgghhh, repaint!

[ralphee]

Well after much deliberation, and seeing the likes of Julien, Marcel and Jason smashing out some killer paint on these things, i had to go back and repaint my initial, bloody awful efforts, i hated my first attempt, just could not get it looking as i wanted.
Soooo, i stripped the model down, sanded, buffed, replaced some parts here and there, and hit the whole thing in satin black, then a thin coat of german Grey.
From there, i pretty much painted it on the fly, mixing as i went, buffing out as i went, misting, , literally went with it, and thus far, to the eye, ive got as close as i can to what i see in the Chronicles publication. Ive used soooo little brown this time out, opting for greys, tans, some blacks, dust washes, pretty much found a book and threw it hard at it.
Its not up to the spec of Juliens i know, that model i class as the mark right now, but overall its made me happy i did go through the pain of stripping paint and kit parts.



Here is the head, next to the stark plain German grey base coat, quite a difference. So little brown was shot at the model, no more that a faint mist, yet the camera picks it up superbly now, yet, to the eye, its as grey as can be, weird.


Thanks for looking, and thanks to the guys throwing down on this model for the drive and inspiration to do this again. Gonna wrap him up soon ready for November's RPF UK meet!

lee

 

[ralphee]

Some daylight photos, got some crazy hues on this thing i didnt even fathom would happen lol!

 

[Guy Cowen]

Looks stunning mate, was great to chat today. Looking forward to actually seeing it in at your some day soon

 

[Scott Graham]

Looks great! That dark moodiness in the paint job really makes it on these probe droids.

 

[ralphee]

Guy thanks mate, i think its getting there, bit more tweaking but I'm so much happier, it had to be a full strip and repaint though, no amount of tinkering could right the creation i first made.
Scott cheers, its actually lighter in the flesh, have to say, this model is a complete PITA to paint, building one in resin or styrene is a breeze, painting one correctly, another story altogether, so i really do think its one of those models now, you have to go your own way.........now, ill have that song in my head allllll day.

lee

 

[3d-builder]

That smells like a probe droid!:thumbsup

 

[MonsieurTox]

Love it Lee !! You captured the look of the original, this one is very hard to replicate exactly, painting it with some feelings gives better result than too much thinking about how things should be done ! Great job as always.

 

[ralphee]

Julien thanks buddy, its not easy at all, TBH its you and Guy ive looked to in terms of nailing it, but you do still have to paint on the fly i guess, just started the body tonite, so I'm hoping to wrap it up in full this week and be done with the damn thing.....wanna get into that Bwing

lee

 

[MonsieurTox]

Yeah I tried to match as close as possible what I was seing in the ref pics then gave up and ending paint ting her on the fly, cant wait to see the body ! You're going to raise the bar once again on this one !

Have you stripped the paint off the legs yet ? Should be a nightmare lol

 

[ralphee]

Cant see me raising the bar mate lol, not with your build out there looking unreal, but it'll be a better job than i had done Julien. I've stripped two legs now, yes, a pain, but not the end of the world, luckily the paint was super thin and i cut into the primer in no time, its just hard going as not to break them.

lee

 

[ralphee]

Well the story so far, why, oh why do i do this :lol. Head is a bit closer now, and the body well underway, still a bit of cleaning up and fine tuning but its getting there, managed to get a good enough sheen to give it a metallic appearance, ive added a few rust washed i need to tone down, just wanted to give it some character i guess, still need to tone down the dust washed too, but after a lot of rubbing, shooting and more rubbing.........