PAULH
Well-Known Member
Hello All, I'm a relatively new entrant to the hobby and have gained a lot of knowledge from what all of you post on the RPF. It's a great community to be involved with!
I thought I'd start my own thread on my build of Officer K's blaster from Elilay's recent run. It seemed to me that the trickiest part of the build would be replicating the carbon fibre grips. I've read about the different routes to achieve this, such as with vinyl film, hydro-dipping, and using a perforated rubber mat as a paint mask. But I came up with an alternative which, while time-consuming to achieve, gave me results I am more than happy with.
Initially, my plan was to use the rubber mat paint mask method but I quickly realised after getting one that It wouldn't stretch and so wouldn't conform around the finger grooves. For that approach I'd prepared the grip with automotive primer and then a few coats of Audi Phantom Black (a deep metallic black). So I ditched that ideas and did this:
After a light coat of silver, I applied 3mm automotive masking tape cut into squares in a chequer-board pattern.
Still at it some time later...
And then finally done...(sorry I didn't rotate the pic)
I then shot the whole thing with the Audi paint I'd used to start with, let it dry, and then carefully picked off all the tape squares (which also took ages).
The next step was to lightly sand it with 2500 grit paper, and then shoot it with a mist coat of the black paint, followed by six coats of gloss lacquer. Here's the finished result which I think looks pretty good compared with the actual prop.
This was after one coat of lacquer:
And here it is totally finished:
It's not evident in my pictures, but in the recent Savage/Harlocker video it looks as though the grip has a black strap down the back edge. So I masked that off and sprayed it black before I applied the lacquer. It may have been a trick of the light in the video but I think it looks good on my grip.
Just to add that before I did any painting, I drilled out the underneath and put some steel rods in to add a bit more weight. Filled, sanded, etc, etc.
As the build progresses, I'll update this thread. Of course, there's a bit more carbon to be done above the trigger guard.
Thanks for looking.
I thought I'd start my own thread on my build of Officer K's blaster from Elilay's recent run. It seemed to me that the trickiest part of the build would be replicating the carbon fibre grips. I've read about the different routes to achieve this, such as with vinyl film, hydro-dipping, and using a perforated rubber mat as a paint mask. But I came up with an alternative which, while time-consuming to achieve, gave me results I am more than happy with.
Initially, my plan was to use the rubber mat paint mask method but I quickly realised after getting one that It wouldn't stretch and so wouldn't conform around the finger grooves. For that approach I'd prepared the grip with automotive primer and then a few coats of Audi Phantom Black (a deep metallic black). So I ditched that ideas and did this:
After a light coat of silver, I applied 3mm automotive masking tape cut into squares in a chequer-board pattern.
Still at it some time later...
And then finally done...(sorry I didn't rotate the pic)
I then shot the whole thing with the Audi paint I'd used to start with, let it dry, and then carefully picked off all the tape squares (which also took ages).
The next step was to lightly sand it with 2500 grit paper, and then shoot it with a mist coat of the black paint, followed by six coats of gloss lacquer. Here's the finished result which I think looks pretty good compared with the actual prop.
This was after one coat of lacquer:
And here it is totally finished:
It's not evident in my pictures, but in the recent Savage/Harlocker video it looks as though the grip has a black strap down the back edge. So I masked that off and sprayed it black before I applied the lacquer. It may have been a trick of the light in the video but I think it looks good on my grip.
Just to add that before I did any painting, I drilled out the underneath and put some steel rods in to add a bit more weight. Filled, sanded, etc, etc.
As the build progresses, I'll update this thread. Of course, there's a bit more carbon to be done above the trigger guard.
Thanks for looking.
