I agree....right in front is the problem area, I plan to buff it out.

The new outdoor shots look great, but the dome still seems on the small side. How far were you standing from the helmet when you were photographing it, VM?

Or is the dome supposed to be smaller with ANH?

About three feet.

Its not suppose to be smaller on ANH. This helmet (JB ESB) was sourced from a GH ANH so I dont know how much shrinkage has occured.

I think alot has to do with the angle I'm shooting from. For example the side and rear profiles look good, but the front on does not look so good size wise.

In person it looks pretty good......here is one, I had to brighten it. But the size looks good here as well.

Okay, so if you kept up with the other threads on Perspective Distortion, if you photograph it from 3 feet away, the helmet will look smaller in relation to the facemask, because at that distance anything dead center in-line with the camera lens will look larger.

You might consider standing back 5 feet and rephotograph it. That will greatly reduce the photographic distortion and you'll get proper dome-to-facemask proportions.

I'm dying to see what that would look like. Also, you might photograph it outdoors, as your camera doesn't seem to do well in low-light indoor conditions.

Nice work Vadermonkey!

I really like the shade of silevr you used. Can you tell me which brand and shade you used? Also for the black as well?

I have just got an unpainted ANH cast from spfx so I am looking for good paint brand and shades to use. Yours look spot on to me. Especially the silver which can look too dark on a lot of ANH helmets.


Cheers

JR

First, I have automotive paint that I brushed on so I would get thick brush strokes.

I went to Schucks and bought grey bumper coat and used that as a base.

I then got out my paintbrush and used aluminum paint and brushed it over blending it in. But really the aluminum color is what you see.

I then went over specific areas with a paint called metalcast smoke which is a transparent black that helps tone down bright areas....I used a combination of spraying and brushing.



I used a paint marker and drew in the black by hand finishing the whole thing with a misting of the smoke as a sealer.....I'm talking very light. After the pics you saw were taken, I buffed areas out on the face/dome that looked too rough or too dull.

After the whole thing with weathering, I gave it a light coat of turtle wax and cooked it on with a blow dryer.

Now the dome was brush painted too. I then used alot of spray clear to smooth it out before roughing it up.

All this sounds rediculous but I really like the way it turned out.

No it doesn't sound rediculous at all.

I think it just hits the spot, I have always thought that the original looked hand painted -- even the dome with gloss black just not clear coated or polished.

So can I just clarify this because it seems lots of people do it the otherway round:

- After a base coat you did an all over aluminium layer(silver)

and then after distresing that with a darker metal you went on to do the black parts? is that right?

Most people seem to do an all over black coat and the brush on some silver over it, which does give the silver that distresed look, but since most of the face is silver it seems silly to paint it all black first?

Maybe they painted a silver base coat ontop of a black gel coat originaly, which is why it has the distresed look, any thoughts?


Cheers for the info when i get round to doing some test painting i'll post some pics.

JR

Well everyone seems to think it was a gelcoat, but in fact it was not. And if you're after a "look" then you should explore everything that makes it look a certain way....in this case, beating and scratching it up etc.

Ok so we all know they added the grey out of neccesity after the black. For me I used a paint marker cause I was just too lazy to mask it off but the result was positive.



So in order heres what I did;

1.) Apply thick auto paint with a brush. I only did this for the type of brush stroke lines I wanted to achieve.
2.) Spray the face with the bumper coat.
3.) Apply the aluminum paint with a brush making it blend with the bumper coat. (of course we let the paint dry before the each coat)
4.) seal it with clear or smoke. Brush on smoke where you want it to be darker.
5.) Add wax. The wax gives it a neato look, but its a little more slippery to hold. I discovered this by accident but it has a positive result. remember not to get it on too thick....just so you know its there.
6.) If you do the black my way, do it last. I then used rubbing compound to the left cheek and buffed it with an air wheel.

This is pretty close to what i remember as I do not have specific system, I just go until I'm done. I weathered it somewhere in there but do it before the wax.

Hope that helps!

Having said all that, I expect finished pictures of your helmet for all of us to enjoy in return when you're done!!

Wow, the outdoor shots do such a world of difference! Great work, man!!

How many megapixels is your camera?

BTW, what's the origin of your helmet?

Thanks CS.

My camera is 3.2 mp

Well I converted one of my fencing masks, which came from the Rubies Statue face (1995), the dome is a JB ESB which I converted to ANH since he originally used a GH ANH to make it in the first place.

Unfortunatly, it has the mounting ring as it was taken from an ESB style mask. Maybe I'll ship it to you and have you make it bald for me......not sure what I want to do yet.

Do you size your images down, or when you pull them out of the camera are the images small? I'm thinking that you might configure your camera to a hi-quality setting, because your camera's 3.2MP capability isn't doing your props justice.

Regarding the "baldification" it's simply a matter of a good set of barber's clippers. OH WAIT, you mean the ESB mask? You know, I'm honored that you'd even consider me. I'd be more than happy to baldify whatever you send me.

PM me. I'd be up for a phone conversation. Let me know when's a good time to talk!

I will PM you on that.

As for the images, I size them down before posting cause the files are huge.

What makes you say it isn't? I have seen several examples of gelcoat that looks exactly like the armor and helmet look - it was simply not buffed to a complete smooth shine and it had the brush strokes on the surface. So, I wouldn't discount gelcoat yet - remember... the ANH was made by boat-builders, iirc... or am I wrong?


Oh... but you size them down too much, imo... all my pictures gets resized to 800 or 600 pixels in height... and then if it is too big for the forum I just post a thumbnail linking to the larger picture.

I'll PM you on the first question, as for resizing they look Ok on my computer but I'll start making them bigger.

Very nice VM...the outside shots really work. Great job.