Extreme Metal Paint on an Original Mold Predator Bio Helmet

Mr Mold Maker

Master Member
Hey folks!
I just recently finished this up and thought I’d post it here with a little write up on how I did it. This paint job is on a Bio Helmet but it could be applied to anything you want to look metal and heavily distressed. The great thing is all of the metal painting was done with no airbrush.

71EF486D-4AA9-4E34-811F-B21AF57D840B.jpeg

So here is what I’m working with. This is a Bio Helmet pulled from original Stan Winston Studio molds. Often called the P1 “Stunt” Bio.
I took it and lightly bodyshopped it, and fabricated the laser shroud and hose tube just as the effects team did in Mexico. There is some distortion in the original sculpture and I later correct that, but for now we won’t worry about it.

4509BA01-91F3-4F50-B231-CF1F416A6E3E.jpeg36CE843E-C72C-46AC-8CF6-694FC7E2DC3F.jpeg

The first step when I paint anything metal is to usually put down a metallic base coat. Often that means sanding the piece glass smooth and base coating gloss black, with a metal such as Alclad or Alumaluster airbrushed over top. In this case, knowing I wanted the finished paint to look beat to hell I went with a dark gunmetal Metallic from Duplicolor.

0759A1CC-E6B1-4C95-A42E-0AA6FD8B4BC5.jpeg

Here is when the fun stuff started happening and unfortunately I got lazy with my photo taking. I started by stippling on black, a rust color, a green patina, and on top of that, stippled on Imperial Surface Shrapnel. Shrapnel is most similar to something like Alclad Aluminum. People wrongly assume that it can only be airbrushed and only put over high gloss black bases and this simply isn’t the case. Sponging it on gives a nice aged Metallic look. From there it was a back-and-forth between the colors and the Shrapnel until I found the right mix. This photo was taken right around the middle of the process.

A457D69A-7397-46E4-BE00-FB73C3A6BB96.jpeg

The next step was to bring the shine up further in areas. To do this I used another Imperial Surface product called Alumaluster. (Alclad chrome would be comparable product) Once again I stippled the metal paint on with a sponge, this time being a lot more careful to avoid leaving distinctly “spongy” marks. I went over top of that with a few more stippling passes, shading gray, rust, patina, and then the metal base was done!
To step it up just one level higher, I added some highlights and shadows. Highlights were pink Copic ink, shadows were blue. I can’t for the life of me photograph them but they play in the light very well. Other than the Copic the darker spots which was Golden’s Shading Gray, there was no airbrush used in the painting of this helmet.
The very last thing I did was add some fine weathering to the surface. I did this by spraying a foam sanding block with silver spray paint and lightly scratching it over the surface. I like this technique because when the light is moved around you can see there is actual damage there, not just a painted silver line.

I hope this helps someone! This can be amplified or toned down, done with silver or gold, rusted or clean. Play with it and you may find something you like!

4229DD68-FCD2-4879-9AD9-0CA9F7ADFC77.jpeg537AF151-5F32-4A9C-A9EE-5D55859ACA9F.jpeg454EA64C-F39C-42F7-B98F-4F2E750F122D.jpeg102523CA-3307-4DD8-B05A-B3619A788C68.jpeg
 
Saw it on instagram and really gotta comment on this thread but this is one of the best paintjob I've ever seen on a P1 bio!
Such a Marvelous work!!
 
excellent work,
a few years ago I had a predator 2 bio-helmet but I had to sell it, I hope I can acquire one in the future

Thanks! I sold mine as well.. really miss it.
Casey McCabe is who I got my P2 from. Quick shipping, perfect casting, and one of the best dudes I’ve ever dealt with in this hobby to top it all off. Highly recommend him if you want a P2 or other bio in the future.
 
nice job! any chance you could share your painting technique of the P2 helmet? I would love to hear/see how you did that! :eek:
 
nice job! any chance you could share your painting technique of the P2 helmet? I would love to hear/see how you did that! :eek:

Many thanks! Unfortunately I don’t have photos of the whole process of the P2. The base was silver nitrate, and it was topcoated with a gold candy. From there I weathered the helmet with a variety of techniques. I believe it had something like 18-20 individual colors on it. Over kill perhaps, but I think it looked very nice. If I was to do another one, I would likely use the silver nitrate system again and weather it less so that the gold would shine through more.
 

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would you happen to have any other pic's of the finished P2 helmet? for some reason I just cant stop looking at that paint job bro!! the weathering is beautiful!! :notworthy: Ive looked at it like 12 times.... :whistle: any info helpful!! (y)
 
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would you happen to have any other pic's of the finished P2 helmet? for some reason I just cant stop looking at that paint job bro!! the weathering is beautiful!! :notworthy: Ive looked at it like 12 times.... :whistle: any info helpful!! (y)


Sorry for the low quality. I had to grab these from my Facebook page. If I can get to the computer and find the originals in high quality I will share them.
 
beauty bud, If you ever have the time, a tutorial on something this complex would be awesome. I am sure there are plenty of people that would appreciate tip's and trick's and learn the amount of time and effort it takes to do this.... (y)
 
Hey folks!
I just recently finished this up and thought I’d post it here with a little write up on how I did it. This paint job is on a Bio Helmet but it could be applied to anything you want to look metal and heavily distressed. The great thing is all of the metal painting was done with no airbrush.

View attachment 805448

So here is what I’m working with. This is a Bio Helmet pulled from original Stan Winston Studio molds. Often called the P1 “Stunt” Bio.
I took it and lightly bodyshopped it, and fabricated the laser shroud and hose tube just as the effects team did in Mexico. There is some distortion in the original sculpture and I later correct that, but for now we won’t worry about it.

View attachment 805449View attachment 805450

The first step when I paint anything metal is to usually put down a metallic base coat. Often that means sanding the piece glass smooth and base coating gloss black, with a metal such as Alclad or Alumaluster airbrushed over top. In this case, knowing I wanted the finished paint to look beat to hell I went with a dark gunmetal Metallic from Duplicolor.

View attachment 805451

Here is when the fun stuff started happening and unfortunately I got lazy with my photo taking. I started by stippling on black, a rust color, a green patina, and on top of that, stippled on Imperial Surface Shrapnel. Shrapnel is most similar to something like Alclad Aluminum. People wrongly assume that it can only be airbrushed and only put over high gloss black bases and this simply isn’t the case. Sponging it on gives a nice aged Metallic look. From there it was a back-and-forth between the colors and the Shrapnel until I found the right mix. This photo was taken right around the middle of the process.

View attachment 805452

The next step was to bring the shine up further in areas. To do this I used another Imperial Surface product called Alumaluster. (Alclad chrome would be comparable product) Once again I stippled the metal paint on with a sponge, this time being a lot more careful to avoid leaving distinctly “spongy” marks. I went over top of that with a few more stippling passes, shading gray, rust, patina, and then the metal base was done!
To step it up just one level higher, I added some highlights and shadows. Highlights were pink Copic ink, shadows were blue. I can’t for the life of me photograph them but they play in the light very well. Other than the Copic the darker spots which was Golden’s Shading Gray, there was no airbrush used in the painting of this helmet.
The very last thing I did was add some fine weathering to the surface. I did this by spraying a foam sanding block with silver spray paint and lightly scratching it over the surface. I like this technique because when the light is moved around you can see there is actual damage there, not just a painted silver line.

I hope this helps someone! This can be amplified or toned down, done with silver or gold, rusted or clean. Play with it and you may find something you like!

View attachment 805455View attachment 805456View attachment 805457View attachment 805458
First off this is so nice! Like absolutely fantastic. Well done! Second, you use pink of highlights and blue for shadows? Would it be too much to ask for you told be more specific? I've never heard of this technique before.
 
First off this is so nice! Like absolutely fantastic. Well done! Second, you use pink for highlights and blue for shadows? Would it be too much to ask for you to be more specific? I've never heard of this technique before.

Thanks.

The idea is to just lightly hit the metal surface with some color so that when it’s moving in the light you don’t just see silver. I like to hit the highest points with pink, and the lower spots with blue. Very light, you don’t want to see it when you’re looking at it directly. Think of it almost as a pearlescent effect.

This paint job as a whole is a little outdated, but I do still use this technique. I will have a Fugitive Predator bio to paint sometime in the near future and when I do, I will make a new write up, and hopefully be able to show the highlighting and shadowing a little better for you.
 
Thanks.

The idea is to just lightly hit the metal surface with some color so that when it’s moving in the light you don’t just see silver. I like to hit the highest points with pink, and the lower spots with blue. Very light, you don’t want to see it when you’re looking at it directly. Think of it almost as a pearlescent effect.

This paint job as a whole is a little outdated, but I do still use this technique. I will have a Fugitive Predator bio to paint sometime in the near future and when I do, I will make a new write up, and hopefully be able to show the highlighting and shadowing a little better for you.
Awesome! I look forward to see it in action. I kind of get what you are saying. Just a bit hard to visualize
 
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