ESB Armor Paintup (Model Master & Vallejo Paint)

[Tfett40]

I am helping out my local Garrison buddy, GunnerD, with painting up his Fettpride Armor.
When I first started airbrushing, I used a crap $90 Master Airbrush & compressor and struggled to use the Humbrol paints. I eventually switched to a Paasche Airbrush with 6 gallon air compressor. Making that change was a huge improvement, so if you are starting off, I would skip the Master Airbrush and save up for Paasche and compressor. I have come to like using Vallejo Air Paint and Model Master Acrylics paints. They are much easier to work with then Humbrol in my opinion. Since most paintups are with Humbrol Paints or Rattlecan, I thought I would share this paint up using the Model Master and Vallejo Air. The total cost for the paints was around $160



For the prepping, I just give a light wet sand to all the armor piece and clean up any rough edges. I primer the armor with Testors Primer Spray Can and then use Testors Gloss Metallic Silver Spray Can.

 

[Tfett40]

The first thing I tackled were the shoulders.
For the orange I did a mix of Vallejo Light Orange (70.911) and Vallejo Airblack. (Mix about 3/4 of the orange with approx 3 drops of black. Add a few drops of Vallejo airbrush thinner). Once I got the color I liked, I masked off the damaged with humbrol maskol and applied orange.

Once orange was dry, I added the weathering using Vallejo Air Black with thinner.

For the right left shoulder, I used Model Master Zinc Chromate as the yellow base and used Lucksy31 decal

I used a combination of Vallejo Neutral Grey and Metallic Aluminum for the tropical damage brushing and weathered with black.

 

[Tfett40]

For the knees, I used the same Orange mix as I did for the right shoulder.

For the weathering I used a combo or Vallejo Air Base Grey (71.097) and Black Air.

 

[clmayfield]

That left shoulder looks good. I like the effect on it. It basically looks like what happens when a yellow car is sideswiped by a white car and leaves some white paint remnants behind. I failed at that effect, but i think you succeeded.

 

[Tfett40]

That left shoulder looks good. I like the effect on it. It basically looks like what happens when a yellow car is sideswiped by a white car and leaves some white paint remnants behind. I failed at that effect, but i think you succeeded.

clmayfield It takes time and lots of practice to figure out what works for you and how to use your tools. You did great for your first time, it is not easy .

 

[NikTrooper]

Looks good. WIll be interesting to follow this. Especially interested in what you're going to be using for the armor plates.

 

[VIARPE]

Just gonna say this real quick... You da real mvp. Will try to do something similar with my paint job! : )

 

[Tfett40]

After spraying the armor silver and masking, I decided to go with Zinc Chromate for the yellow damage, which many others have done before. The Model Master Reefer Yellow was way too bright. I experimented by using putting 3 drops of Neutral Grey into the Reefer Yellow and mixed. Luckily, it was a near perfect match to Zinc Chromate so the Reefer Yellow did not have to go to waste. So if you cant find Zinc Chromate, mixing the Reefer Yellow could be an option.

Now that the masking part is done, it was time to lay down some green. I took some advise from Lane's (Raizo Fett) paint up and decided to go with Model Master paint mix of Euro 1 Dark Green and Medium Green. After playing with the paint and comparing it with my current armor color. I opted for a full bottle of Euro Dark Green mixed with 1/3 bottle of Medium Green....so 3 to 1 ratio? Here was my result:

 

[Artakha]

...this is such a teaser!! When's the big reveal?

 

[ConvergenceProp]

Interested to see how this comes out. Been playing around with similar colors for a while trying to find something I like

 

[Tfett40]

le1120 and KenChan sorry about the tease. Here you go

After the green dried, I added the crest decal (by Lucksy31 ), so it can get weathered with the rest of the armor. I painted on the same green paint I used for the armor for the decal. I also peeled back the maskol for the grey damage on the right chest plate in order to weather it as well to blend in nicer.

I did not really document the weathering much but I basically used Vallejo Air Black for the main weathering and Vallejo Air Dark grey for some weathering "highlights".

Removing the maskol...

The last few steps will be using a detail brush to clean up some of the silver and yellow damage, let dry and finish off with a clear coat...

 

[Artakha]

Wow that's nice.

 

[Tfett40]

The last piece of armor needed painting was the diamond center piece. I went with Tamiya Green. It dried darker than I expected, but it works.

After everything dried, I added two coats of matte clear coat and I am finally done with this one. Good to know that you can paint Fett with airbrush paints other than Humbrol enamels...gosh I hated that...

 

[Ghost_Fett]

It's looking great!

 

[Tfett40]

.

 

[clmayfield]

Great paint job! I used rattle cans on my first set of armor. I have ordered a second set now that I know how to use an air brush and can blend paints to get the colors I want.

 

[Tfett40]

Great paint job! I used rattle cans on my first set of armor. I have ordered a second set now that I know how to use an air brush and can blend paints to get the colors I want.

You will be much happier with the airbrush results. I started off with just rattlecan and now much more confident with the airbrush and enjoying the results much more.

 

[Tfett40]

I recently painted 2 more sets of ESB armor and I made some changes in my paint mixes to the shoulders and knees. In my first addition, the orange in the knees was a bit to orange and required some heavy dark weathering to tone it down. I wanted a darker orange-brown appearance, this time around. I also needed to make the right knee have a yellow-orange appearance.

Here are the results:

For the shoulder/knee orange I used a mix of Vallejo Light Orange -70.911, Vallejo Airblack and I added Vallejo Burnt Umber -71.040(Mix about 3/4 of the orange with approx 3 drops of burnt umber and 2 drops of black). Mix and test.

I sprayed both knees with the orange mix I just mentioned, however for the right knee I used an overspray of Vallejo Yellow Ochre-71.33. I then finished them off with grey and black weathering. Hope this helps out.

 

[boba87fett]

looks great!

 

[Major]

Really nice job on this