X-Wing Helmet Paint help

[DeLucks Designs]

Greetings!!

Total newb in the paint dept....

Well, i've got a nice Bradley X-wing helmet assembled and i'm ready to proceed to paint. Any advice? I'm gonna go for a LUKE scheme, but i'm not sure what paints to use. Do I sand 1rst, then prime, then white before adding my decals?? Any specific white as the base coat? Then after weathering, a final clear coat?



Any insights would be appreciated! Thanks.

-Scott

 

[bgraham]

I have a helmet I need to paint also. Would like a little advice also. Have read alot of post about painting but they dont give much detail. Hope someone can help... :confused

 

[greg883]

Wash everything you are going to paint first! Hot water and a little dish soap to remove any oils that may have gotten on there from your hands, masking tape, etc.

Unless there are some really deep scratches or gouges, you probably won't need to sand before the prime coat.

Since the "hero" helmets were a light gray, you might consider using a flat white as your base coat. It will show any surface flaws, white and black have no mercy in this area, and not darken the light gray.

Whenever possible, light colors go on first.

There's a theread here on theRPF about the licensed high-end replicas that were being released.

Here's my Bradley after base coats and beginning masking for colors

 

[division 6]

Instead of masking off large areas use a plastic shopping bag and just tape the edges, less waste that way.

Even if you intend to primer, lightly sand the surface (even with just a scotch brite pad) to give the primer a bit of a tooth to attach to.

The Luke helmet will require a lot of masking for the different colors and designs.
Where ever possible use paint instead of decals as they have a hard time conforming to a curved surface and will shrink and pull away over time.
for masking curved designs get some thin tape like auto detailers use or thin Tamiya tape

Other masked off areas can be hand cut with a sharp blade but be careful not to press to hard as it will cut into the surface (I had this happen on my CORSEC helmet)

 

[bgraham]

Well I now have most of the helmet painted (red leader) but have some final touch up to do...
How do I get the total "battle blasted" effect? From what I have read I maybe this should be done first, wet sanded, then painted?
Too late for that now but would still like it scruffed up a little.

 

[division 6]

Steel wool to wear the paint then misting of paint from a distance and maybe even a wash of color.

For my CORSEC I brushed on leather dye then sponged it off so it was mainly in the recessed areas.

 

[greg883]

I'm going to try acrylic over enamel for my "grime". That should let me clean off what I don't like with water (if I do it quickly) and not attack the base colors.

Couldn't find either of my $$$ Badger or Aztec airbrushes, but Harbor Freight had dual-action internal mix airbrushes on sale for - $14.99!

 

[Luke Skywalker]

Instead of masking off large areas use a plastic shopping bag and just tape the edges, less waste that way.

Even if you intend to primer, lightly sand the surface (even with just a scotch brite pad) to give the primer a bit of a tooth to attach to.

The Luke helmet will require a lot of masking for the different colors and designs.
Where ever possible use paint instead of decals as they have a hard time conforming to a curved surface and will shrink and pull away over time.
for masking curved designs get some thin tape like auto detailers use or thin Tamiya tape

Other masked off areas can be hand cut with a sharp blade but be careful not to press to hard as it will cut into the surface (I had this happen on my CORSEC helmet)

That's a pretty sick helmet, Div 6.
I'm gonna be building a blast shield helmet and an original helmet (to include alliance emblem). If it comes out half as nice as yours, I'm a happy camper.

 

[nimsil]

Nice looking Corsec buckets!

 

[LabApe]

I too am getting ready to paint an X-Wing helmet kit I got from Richies Armor, and a lot of what I am reading online about paint suggests that it should be left white and then weathered. I always thought the helmets looked more of a light gray color, as indicated by the poster above, but many of the pics I see, the helmets look white.

I'm leaning twords gray, but I'm wondering what the more experienced folk here think.

 

[tictoc]

Do an advanced search titled “x wing helmet.” Search thread titles only.

One particular thread of interest is by STEVE THE SWEDE, who I believe painted the efx x wing helmet master. The originals were raw ABS plastic according to him and GINO.

I have painted several Bradley Fett helmets and took the advice of Supa troop. I left the helmet base as simply the raw unpainted plastic. It made it much easier to weather and more convincing IMHO. Once it is finished, you can seal it with a matt coat to protect from the sun yellowing the styrene if you like.

I also painted my decals but if you want them to look really sharp, get ones from DeLucks. At first, I wasn’t convinced but I keep seeing more photos with his stuff and they make a helmet really impressive.

 

[LabApe]

Thanks. I decided to leave it bare, like you suggested. Now I have to decide if I want to do something custom for a Generic Rebel Pilot, or go with the classic Luke Paint Scheme. I'm leaning twords the former, as that will allow me some room for creativity.

 

[tictoc]

Here are two of mine. Both are raw plastic. I used a simple acrylic (layered) wash for the weathering as well as a little sponging. I am a novice painter and made some accuracy mistakes, but I was happy with my efforts.

I have never tried Luke's helmet. Too timid to pick the colors I suppose. If I do, it will be with Dark Shadow's helmet -which is the proper XL size.

Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[LabApe]

Those look really good... I think they turned out much better than mine.

http://www.therpf.com/f9/my-rebel-pilot-helmet-180621/

 

[tictoc]

The helmet looks good, don't sell yourself short!

The head is freaking me out...it's a funny but it takes away from your helmet.

 

[LabApe]

The helmet looks good, don't sell yourself short!

The head is freaking me out...it's a funny but it takes away from your helmet.

Thanks.

The Head was the only thing I had handy to display it on, its a life-size severed head Halloween decoration. I need to get around to building a couple helmet stands.