Short4ATrooper
Hunter
I’m in the midst of an ESB helmet build. I have a BM lid on order but having never used an airbrush, I figured I’d pick up a reasonable priced 3D printed one to work on whilst I wait for my BM helmet and get my first airbrush paint job under my belt.
It’s going well for the most part, taking my time to sand, fill, sand, fill again, sand again e.t.c to get the best possible surface to paint on.
Last night I figured I’d have a go at scaling some templates to fit the helmet. This is where I ran into issues.
I followed SuperJedi’s template sizing tutorial, making sure proportions weren’t linked so that I could make it wider or taller but just could not get the templates to scale up properly. Here’s an example:
This is lined up with the bottom of the trim and the side of the key slot panel. But…
This makes this side waaaaay out of whack and it also look like the whole template is too long so it needs to be shortened
…but this side is already too short.
I’d need to warp the overall shape of each template which I can do but it results in quite a distorted final image and I’m not confident I’d be able to see the layers clearly. I think it’s probably just a case of it not being a terribly accurate helmet
So…
I’m now thinking about drawing the layers on to the helmet freehand, using the colour separated templates as reference. Im aware that this will take a long time but I can’t see any other option.
What I want to know is - is this something that can or has been done? Is there any reason I can’t do it this way?
I should also mention that this helmet is not for trooping or 501 clearance, it’s to keep me busy while I wait for my Bobamaker helmet, to practice the painting and will ultimately end up as a display piece so accuracy isn’t paramount but obviously I still want to do as good a job as I can.
It’s going well for the most part, taking my time to sand, fill, sand, fill again, sand again e.t.c to get the best possible surface to paint on.
Last night I figured I’d have a go at scaling some templates to fit the helmet. This is where I ran into issues.
I followed SuperJedi’s template sizing tutorial, making sure proportions weren’t linked so that I could make it wider or taller but just could not get the templates to scale up properly. Here’s an example:
This is lined up with the bottom of the trim and the side of the key slot panel. But…
This makes this side waaaaay out of whack and it also look like the whole template is too long so it needs to be shortened
…but this side is already too short.
I’d need to warp the overall shape of each template which I can do but it results in quite a distorted final image and I’m not confident I’d be able to see the layers clearly. I think it’s probably just a case of it not being a terribly accurate helmet
So…
I’m now thinking about drawing the layers on to the helmet freehand, using the colour separated templates as reference. Im aware that this will take a long time but I can’t see any other option.
What I want to know is - is this something that can or has been done? Is there any reason I can’t do it this way?
I should also mention that this helmet is not for trooping or 501 clearance, it’s to keep me busy while I wait for my Bobamaker helmet, to practice the painting and will ultimately end up as a display piece so accuracy isn’t paramount but obviously I still want to do as good a job as I can.