Ok Guys, I have a great guy who has offered to paint my primed ANH lid. I am in the UK, but want to make this Lid as nice as poss. I'd do it myself, but my eyesight is not good, and I get eyestrain after a short while. I have gloss black armour on it's way, and really wanted to do the lid kinda the same ish. I know the ANH looks battleworn, and a little less shiny, but my armour is gleaming gloss black, so I'd love to give my lid a matching finish. Any tips?? I'd even go as far as giving it the old ESB paint job, but I am going to need UK paint manufacturers, so if you chaps are up on this, I am listening intently,
Thanks in advance,
Dug

Well, it's an artistic call.

Purists try (and fail more often than not) to capture the proper handbrush-painted "worn" look (the word "worn" is subjective because it was either a very sloppy paint job, or it was deliberately done that way to look battle-worn, but bear in mind Vader boarded the Rebel Blocade Runner only after the Stormtroopers did all the hard work). But it's not necessary to do that. Some go for metallic paints and airbush them. This is purely up to you. What would you enjoy?

If the armor is all glossy, then first make sure it's the ANH scheme. If it's not, and if you feel you absolutely need to repaint it to make it correct, then at that point you might as well consider the handpainted look.

Now the handpainted look is very subjective. It can result in one of the following:

1. It may look as if it stepped right off the screen.

2. It may look like a screen used prop, with all the imperfections, dings, etc. you typically see with older props that may even have been on tour.

3. It may look like a prop with simply a bad paint job -- either because the painter was rushed or simply unskilled.

If you do up an ANH helmet in gloss black in the style of the ESB prop's paint job, and it may look spectacular (the gloss black on ESB gives it some remarkable depth). I saw photos of an SPFX glossy black ANH helmet; it didn't look like it stepped off the screen, but it looked great.

There is no law written that says you must paint it any specific way. If you're trying to recreate the screen look, then the hand painted route is the way to go. If you already paid for that better paint finish on the armor and want to match it, then it has the chance of looking quite spectacular in its own right.

This is your artistic call. Do what you feel will make you happy!

Yes but do you know which paints to use in the UK Mac ?
I see many paints named Dug all over the place but really none of them are available in the UK.
The gloss black isn't so much of a problem a good gloss black can be found pretty easily.
The gunmetal is another story the only paint i have seen mentioned that is available here is either Humbrol gunmetal or Tamiya.
Kalkamel has done his SPFX ANH helmet with Tamiya X-10 gunmetal and it looks good to me so i'm going to give that a bash on mine.
http://www.aokforums.com/thepropden/thepropden-about670.html there's pictures on that thread of it just scroll down a bit

But then again I can't recommend liquid-form paint if McMaul is artistically leaning towards a spraying solution, and vice versa. That's why I wanted to ask him these questions first before making any recommendations.

I've used Humbrol's Metalcote Gun Metal and applied it with a brush. I absolutely love it. I've not used it on a Vader yet, but I've used it for a Nerf gun, and by golly it looked like real metal. Initially it looked dull and I was worried, but I figured to buff it with kitchen towel paper, and that brought out a wonderful metallic sheen. Some may feel it's too dark and may prefer something brighter, but this is a subjective thing. When you paint it bright but you display it in a bright area, it does not look like how it appeared on the screen. If you go darker and use the Humbrol gun metalcote then you'll mimic the screen look without the set lighting. If you're outdoors, the contrast between the black and the gun metal should look quite nice! Again, this is all personal preference.

I've tried Tamiya but in spray form. I'm sure if they import it into the States, they must import it into the UK also. But I prefer the Humbrol much, much more.

Here's a UK site that appears to sell it.

http://www.netmerchants.co.uk/product.p ... tegunmetal

Humbrol also has a "Polished Steel" but I don't have a picture reference of how much brighter it is compared with the Gun Metal. If I get a chance, I'll order some and post on it some time down the road.

Anyways that link I just posted has a swatch. It's hard to tell from website swatches, but that is roughly the color I have on my Don Post Deluxe. It's a kind of warm gray.

Are either of you into airbrushing?

Anyways, Valspar -- which spun off Kustom Kolors -- offers a Galaxy Gray and Black Pearl.

The Black Pearl (aerosol can) is almost a matte black but with a very tiny bit of metallic particles. It's worth considering depending on your tastes. The Galaxy Gray is different; it wasn't available in an aersol spray can but in a glass container and so it was more suited to airbrushing.

I currently don't have airbrushing, so all I could do is study the color through the glass.

It's hard to tell, but it appears it might be a teensy bit brighter than the Tamiya Gun Metal. But anyone can take a brighter metallic gray and mix it with gun metal to lighten it up. You won't get identical results because each paint manufacturer's metallic particles will vary in size and how they refract and reflect light and so forth.

But if you absolutely want to try, perhaps we can do a swap. I'm, uh, a Pot Noodle junkie, and I can't get them here in the States. So send me a strong box of Chicken & Mushroom, and I'll send you some Kustom Kolor paints, hehehe!

Oh wait, McMaul: when you say lid, are you referring to the dome only, or the dome-plus-mask collectively?

I would say: go with the ANH paint scheme pattern... but it is your choice whether to go pristine or battle worn.

The Valspar paint is not the paint used in ANH - at least not from what I've heard, so I would not recommend it for an ANH lid, except if you like the colors used on the ESB & RotJ, then you should go with it.

I have no real recommendations for paints... as I'm still struggling myself to get the accurate ANH paints... however... some have been mentioned here which could work fine for the ANH, but I have no clue whether they are sold in the UK.

Good luck though!

Anybody got a clue wich colors DJ (Darth Jones) used on his ANH Helmet ?
The silver looks pretty dead on to me, and the Black is very close also ...

I must admit complete ignorance here, and confess I never knew vader's faceplate was kinda painted in opposite colours (gunmetal cheek, gloss black cheek, black jaw, gunmetal jaw. I've been a fan thirty years, and never noticed that one!!lol

I'll post some pics up of me armour, it is portumac ESB armour, but in just gloss black.

So it's valspar then?? Can this be obtained in the uk, and if so, where?? I want to send my bucket to my pal, with everything he needs to do the job.

I've not found anywhere selling the Valspar or Kustom Kolor as it is now called in the UK

This is the only mention I've heard of what DJ used on his... check out the thread: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=22071

So, to clarify, Valspar was used in ESB and ROTJ, or was the use of Valspar recently disproven or something? If so, it might explain the darker look Vader seemed to have, though that could simply have been lighting.

Valspar claims to have provided the paint for ALL the Star Wars movies... THAT is a false claim, as several sources have disproven that regarding the paints used in ANH. There has been no contest to their claim regarding ESB and forward, as far as I've heard... but they most definitely DID NOT provide paints for ANH.

The reason the gunmetal color looks darker in RotJ than in ESB has been attributed to lighting, as it is the same brand of paint and color used in both - again, from what I've heard.