Helmet painting tutorial using clone trooper helmet

BSD

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone... I am going to show some of you who are new and who has gotten some of my Phase 2 Clone Trooper helmets how to paint them and how to get a good paint chip look to them.. So here we go..

First thing you need to do is make sure your helmet is sanded and smoothed perfectly.. This must be done because your paint will not hide much at all.. Make sure it is as smooth as you can make it.. This does take some time and alot of sanding. I suggest using duplicolor scratch fill primer.. This does fill some of the scratches from your sand paper. After you allow it time to dry as directions tell you... You may see some areas that you wish to fix.. Go ahead and resand and then primer again.. You also may feel the need to add more body filler or spot body filler.. Just make sure you resand.. Now some painting tips.. Fist make sure the paint is coming out smooth. Spay it in the air before you put it to your helmet. Do not just hold down the can.. This will cause the paint to run.. Trust me you do not want this. So what I do is spay it in rows. What I mean is only hold the can down for about 2 seconds and make sure you keep your can away of at least 6 inches. I did about 3 layers. When you are done it should look like this.

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When you are happy with the look let it dry for about a day. Now its time to start adding painters tape. I wanted the area in the back and the teeth to stay gray.. Make sure you get good painters tape. And make sure you have a good seal.. This does take time but a good result is well worth it.

I wanted my helmet to look like it was made of steel of some sort at the base.. So I did a layer of silver for my first layer.. I used valspar metallic spray paint.. Again I used 3 layers of this paint allow plenty of time to dry. After you are done doing that now it is time to mask the areas we wish to have the paint chips. Try and think of where the helmet would be warn..I used just plain old tooth paste for this and it looks great.. I put my tooth paste at the edges and some other areas that I thought the wear and battle damage might have hit. If you do not like how the tooth paste looks make sure you wipe it off using a water downed wash cloth. You only want the tooth paste where you want the paint to come off clean. Here are some pics

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The clones also have a black coat so I wanted to make another layer using black... I used a black primer here.. I did not want the black to be shine and from what I have seen you want to use the same brand of primer as you are using for paint.. I used rustoleum black primer.

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After you have done about 3 layers of paint and you have allowed it to dry. Take a water downed wash cloth and start to wipe off the areas you put the tooth paste. Should look like this.

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Now its time to add more tooth paste to the same areas as well as making them a little thicker.. Do this because we also want black to show up as well as the silver..

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Haha its going to look good.. At this point I put more painters tape on the areas I wanted to keep black.. Besides the respirators.. So I did above the visor and in the back.. Now it is time to add our white paint.. I did not use a gloss white I used a semi gloss protective enamel.

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Ok now make sure you are happy with this coat in all areas.. Check under and over and over again.. We will not be adding more white so this is your final coat of white.. I did about 4 to 5 layers on this one. Now the same as before take a water downed wash cloth and wipe off the tooth paste.. Should look something like this..

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Awesome right? Here is a close up look.

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Ok now if you want just a grunt clone some of these next steps do not apply to you... There are many kinds of clones but I like the 501st so I an going to show you how I did this one.

First you need to make sure you get plenty of reference pics for this.. There is no template so you will need to eyeball it. After I studied the pics I used a pencil and very lightly made my marks that I was going to paint.. After you have this down to where you like it. It is time to start putting on your painters tape. I did not want to put tape on the whole helmet so I used some plastic bags to cover the other areas... Once you have your tape on where you want it is also time for more tooth paste.. If you look at the 501st there blue paint is also chipped with white under it.. So we will add some more tooth paste not only in the areas that we have already done but some new places as well... Here is what mine looked like with some blue paint on it..

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Make sure no blue will get on the white from the inside as well!

Made that mistake before! :unsure

Now same as before.. Wipe off the tooth paste and take off your tape you should get something like this..
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That is it for today.. I will show some more finishing touches later today or tomorrow on how I did my respirators and the stripes on the side.... Hope this helps some people out..
 
Looking forward to the rest of the tutorial!
Great to see not only a list of the paints used but good closeup pictures of the WIP as well.
 
Ok... So for the rest of the stuff you just need to hand paint the other black parts... I just used some model paint and a paint brush.. I used a good paint brush for this and good model paint.. It is kinda hard to get into the tight spots but it can be done.. Here is a pic from a Helmet I made for my brothers little boy for xmas.. The helmet I gave him was not as perfect as mine but he is only 8 so I didnt spend a month working on the smoothness.. But anyway here is a pic

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Now for the stripes lol this is fun.. Ok if you got your helmet from me send me a pm and I will send you the template for the vents..

So here is what you need... Get some blue electrical tape and a exacto knife..

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Now I just cut out 2 of the vents and I did print it out on some scrap card stock. Once you have the 2 cut out on the back side place your electrical tape sticky side down like this.

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The other side should look like this with the sticky side facing you.

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Now cut out the tape through the holes u cut out and make sure you cut the tape good because it will stretch and ruin your piece if you do not get all sides cut well then they will not be uniformed.

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and like I said if you got my helmets and did not sand down the vent marks on them you will have a perfect place to set these cut out vents on them perfectly.. Now you have a pretty good clean clone trooper helmet...

If you did not get your visor from me then you will need to google a welder's face shield shade 5. I got a green one. Looks black from the outside but is easy to see through.. For that you will need to make your own template and then cut it out and hot glue it to your helmet..

I will add to this tutorial how I did battle damage as well but I can not till it gets warmer out.. So subscribe and you will see when that is updated... Thanks!
 
Awesome painting tutorial dude!!!!!!!!!!

Do you have, or can you source, a silver mirrored visor? :confused

Or is it easier if I do that myself?????

Or should I just stick with a normal visor...????????? :facepalm
 
I know this is an old thread, but I'm having trouble finding blue paint recommendations. What brands or color names / numbers did you use?


Thanks-

TK92656

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
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