District 9 Assault Rifle Build - Finished! (Pic heavy)

Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Definitely better I believe. looking good. I think you need to send it across the pond so I can get a better look. :lol
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Definitely better I believe. looking good. I think you need to send it across the pond so I can get a better look. :lol

Ha ha, well we have fam in Lakeland FL. We'll be road-tripping down there on our way to Texas next year with all our stuff... might have to make a quick stop in Jacksonville. ;)
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

your more than welcome my friend. but I wouldn't suggest it. I live In a very bad area. they call It sin city. and its true to Its name.
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

your more than welcome my friend. but I wouldn't suggest it. I live In a very bad area. they call It sin city. and its true to Its name.

True?! Thanks for the heads up. How do you go about keeping your prop collection safe and sound? Must make you nervous. Then again, my collection is sitting in a shipping container on a trucking yard in the rough part of the city I'm from... I guess at the end of the day you gotta resolve that it's all just "stuff". As cool as it is of course.
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

True?! Thanks for the heads up. How do you go about keeping your prop collection safe and sound? Must make you nervous. Then again, my collection is sitting in a shipping container on a trucking yard in the rough part of the city I'm from... I guess at the end of the day you gotta resolve that it's all just "stuff". As cool as it is of course.


I worry about it most days. but I worry about my real firearms falling In the wrong hands more. gotta take It as It comes...
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Ok, some good behind-the-scenes progress today! Finally found some Matt Clear (or "Clair" in French), also a nice dark metallic gun-metal grey. The grey is for the ends of the large canister and the tip of the small end canister.

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Wanted to make a stand as this thing is pretty fragile. Ultimately it'll probably hang on a wall, but not while staying at the in-laws. Ha ha.

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The U-hooks are rubber coated which is perfect. I'll paint the metal legs with some orange stripes and maybe some alien markings. The question is what to do with the base-board. Thought tread-plate could look good over the top. Considered the stick-on fake stuff, but at $20 a roll??

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Then spotted a rubber mat that could work, painted silver.

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But then flagged both of those for now and thought I'd see what's lying around my father-in-law's workshop. Stay tuned.

But the big news... Bill from Punished Props came back to me and was kind enough to send me his vector file for the alien graphics. Huge props to Bill for the hook-up. (Double pun fully intended! Lol.) Thanks Bill, so much appreciated.

Took the file to a local signage company and the stencil graphics will be ready to collect tomorrow. Stoked as!
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Sweet! What form will they be in? Stencils you tape down an spray or stickers?
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Sweet! What form will they be in? Stencils you tape down an spray or stickers?

He basically provided a vector file, so a cut line for the shapes and graphics. So they will just provide a sheet of vinyl with the graphic stencils cut into it. I'll then cut a patch around each graphic (just roughly), then stick each patch where it belongs on the gun. Then I have to remove the graphics within each patch, mask around the patch and then go ahead and paint. Not sure if that all makes sense, but I'll take some pics as I go. :)

My only real concern at this stage is that they don't have low-tack vinyl, it will just be standard vinyl. So I'll have to heat it up when removing it and hope it doesn't remove any paint. Eeek!
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Removed the masking. The lines aren't as clean as I'd like, but once weathered they will sit well and look deliberate. Pretty dam happy with my angles though as these were done mostly by eye.

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The metallic gun-metal grey is perfect! Stoked with this colour...

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Spent the rest of the evening remasking for the black butt-plate and the stripe that goes around the tail end of the gun.

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Hoping to have this finished by the end of the weekend as we're off to Toronto on Monday for a week and I really want it done before we go.
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

So much effort for so little pay-off! Lol...

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Again, not fussed about the over-runs as these will get sorted in the finishing process.

And back to more masking...

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And THREE hours later!!! Not kidding, took 3 flippin hours!

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What a mission! Sheesh! But the final colour is down...

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As hoped, the greeblies turned out pretty nice...

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So that will be it for today (I think) as I'll let the black dry properly. Plus I need to get back to script writing.

Tomorrow will be Alien Graphics and weathering before final assembly. Whoop whoop!
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Got the vinyl. As you can see it's only been cut, nothing "weeded" as yet.

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Again, big thanks to Bill Doran for the hook up!
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Looking good!, youve got me tempted to start a summer scratch build of my own!
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Thanks guys. Getting there! Spent a few hours on it last night. Ready for graphics...

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Ok, so first I cut the patch around the graphic...

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When pulling off the vinyl it left behind the inserts, this made it a trick to place on the gun, but saved me then having to "weed" them out after...

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Then masked around the patch...

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Same for the front...

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Ready for paint...

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A bunch of coats later...

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First remove the masking...

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The end result...

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I'd started with this guy which was seriously concerning as the orange paint was peeling off with the vinyl. Too many coats maybe?

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But found the white on black was better (didn't have to heat up the vinyl either), as was the black on the white cylinder...

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I had to modify the graphic for the cylinder, obviously it's a slightly different size than the one Bill had made...

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But happy with the end result...

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Finally, ready for weathering...

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Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Wow that's looking great !! - have you cleared in Mat? or are you weathering first then going over it in clear?
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Well, it's been a long night. It's 7.30AM and I haven't been to bed. Won't bother now... bring on the coffee! Funny, a week or so ago I said to my wife - "Another day should finish it." Ha ha, I've dropped at least 30 hours on it since then. Soooo underestimated this project.

I was really looking forward to weathering this. Weathering is the fun part right? Not this time! Originally I was going to just use acrylics for weathering, but after watching Bill's build using oils, I figured that was the best way to go. I'd recently finished my Riddick boot knife which I weathered first with acrylics (which was a failure), then oils which worked a treat. So I was feeling confident with the oils.

First, lay black into the crack...

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Then use the access paint by wiping it around for weathering the flat surfaces...

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Immediate disaster! The oil paint immediately absorbed into the base paint on the gun. By absorbed I mean it would sink into the white (or orange) and immediately stain it. So you couldn't move the paint around to thin it out or even feather it off. I was just there! My first thought - "oh man, I'm gonna have to repaint the gun!" followed by instant nausea.

A couple reasons why this could have happened...
First I didn't clear coat the gun before weathering. I didn't think I'd need too. The white base colour has a nice shiny finish, so I thought the paint would just slide over it. The irony of this mistake... while weathering the gun I had one of Bill's "live in the workshop" videos playing. It wasn't actually live but was the live video Bill recorded when weathering this very gun. It's about 3 hours long. So I'm weathering away listening to (and occasionally glancing at) Bill weathering this gun. Anyway, he gets an hour and a half into the weathering process and says - "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I didn't clear coat this before weathering. But I should have, so don't make the same mistake I did." ARRRRGGGHHH!!!! Ha ha. You have to laugh!
Secondly, my plan to tidy up the over-runs in the base colours was to lightly sand the overruns out. As i did this I thought, why not give the whole thing a light sand, just to weather it a bit and take the shine off. But doing so definitely made the weathering paints "grab" more.
Thirdly, Bill uses a water-soluble oil paint. I'm just using standard artist oils.
Not sure which of those 3 were responsible for my dilemma, most likely a combination of all 3?!

Ok, so now what? Well, I tried using an acrylic rather than the oils. To my surprise, it did exactly the same thing! (So maybe number 3 is irrelevant.) Same problem, the black immediately absorbed into the white. And there's that nausea again!

My saving grace - During Bill's process he mentions going back and using mineral turpentine to wipe away excessive weathering paint. So I wiped the oil with turps, it came off. Yus!!! So I thought why not try the acrylic, so I wiped the acrylic with the turps and it also came off. Yuuuussss! Now when I say it came off, the bulk of it came off, not all of it by any means. And of course the more you wipe, the more you bite into the base colours. But at least now I had a way forward. So I took a deep breath and committed, wiping the whole gun down with black acrylic, then going back and wiping away the bulk of it with turps. At first it was VERY heavily weathered. I'd always planned to have heavy weathering, but not this heavy!

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So I continued to wipe with turps which left the gun looking nice and grubby with black in the corners, etc. I then went over the whole thing with a watered-down dark brown acrylic which I had far more success with. It would wipe on and off pretty much as I have expected.

After going over the whole thing with the brown I then grabbed some yellow oil and dabbed it in places, then wiped either with a cloth or just my finger. Again, this worked as it should. It would smear and leave a nice yellow stain. Then I'd leave it built-up for highlights and alien "goop". The scope pieces were done in a semi-gloss black, so I weathered them with the yellow which dulled them off and also left highlights in the corners, etc.

And all night later, the weathering is done! I'll leave my comments to the end and let the pics do the talking for a bit...

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Ok, so it's heavily weathered which is what I wanted. But overall I think it looks like I just threw the weathering paint on there. I wanted the weathering to be far more clever than this. More deliberate. I certainly don't think the finish reflects the hour and hours that went into it. Which sucks! But it is what it is.

Next step is to clear coat it with a flat clear. I won't stick the 24 nozzles on the gun body until after it's clear coated, as clear often turns silver into grey. On that note, I'm thinking I'll have to mask the dark grey metallic on the large cylinder as the clear with dull it. Actually, for some reason it already went quite dull after painting. Maybe the air temperature in the basement is too cold. So maybe I'll just clear coat it, then respray the grey metallic. We'll see... I need more coffee....

- - - Updated - - -

Wow that's looking great !! - have you cleared in Mat? or are you weathering first then going over it in clear?

I REALLY don't want to talk about it! Ha ha ha ha...
 
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Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Hey, sorry to hear about all the troubles you went into with the weathering, but the result is actually really nice. congrats :thumbsup
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

Hey, sorry to hear about all the troubles you went into with the weathering, but the result is actually really nice. congrats :thumbsup

Thanks mate, I appreciate that. Weathering is subjective of course and while this is heavier than the Weta replica, some may even prefer it.

Forgot to mention, the whole gun will also get the silver sharpie exposed metal weathering, but again that will be after the clear coat.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

We have a family thing on today and then we're suppose to be heading away tomorrow, weather permitting (it just snowed 20cm overnight). So wanted to get this clear coated today. Got it hung, ready to paint and figured I'd just go for it. One light coat, then a couple heavier coats...

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I mean what's the worst that could happen right...

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Yup, the orange peeled!!! No bad pun intended here, but kinda ironic that they call this paint reaction "orange peeling" when the colour is mandarin orange!! Should have stuck to the the blimmin pumpkin! Ha ha. I have no idea why this happened. Especially as it was just one side. I didn't go super heavy on the paint, but I guess it was heavy enough to react? Feel free to throw your hat in at any point here.

So my options now were either laugh or cry. And yes, regardless of being in my early 40's, crying was at this point seriously considered. However, I'm not going to panic. Firstly, I've have had this happen to me before and when you sand it, you get this kinda cool broken-up paint affect. Which could actually suit the heavy weathering I've applied to the gun. Secondly, it's only on one side, so I can tidy up the peeling and then display which ever side I like the most. Well at least that's my story and I'm blimmin sticking to it! Lol.
 
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Re: District 9 Assault Rifle Build (3D kit)

oh man, really no luck on that build... I guess sanding would work fine.
I know that water based paints on top of not totally cured oil based paint will do something like that. but it seems weird it just did it on the orange. was the orange oil based?
good luck mate. Seriously, seen from here it really looks great and I'm sure that once the orange peeling fixed it will look terrific!
 
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