After recently getting my fantastic DS ESB bucket, I'm now working to finish up my ESB Vader. The first task I have is reviving a second hand set of half (and poorly) painted (what so far I believe to be) SPFX set of armor. This thread will chronicle my attempt to take this set of armor from beast to beauty.

The one caveat being that I won't be reworking any fiberglass or doing any sculpting (God Forbid). The set is a bit wonky and I imagine the mold might have been on it's last legs resulting in a fairly ugly pull. Mind you perhaps I'm wrong on that! (Experts here please speak up)!

I'm now down to making sure I don't make the rookie mistake of mounting the bells upside down - and I could use many members second opinions on this to ensure I get it right!

Many thanks and please bear in mind I'm pretty new at this.


- 'guts

So in researching on my own, looks like Duplicolor enamel might also work - gunmetal grey and black.

Spot putty for hole filling and sandable primer from an automotive store are my thinking before priming.

I'm also wondering about soda blasting the (badly) 1/2 painted chest armor, then wet sanding, hole filling, sanding, then hitting it with sandable primer and sanding before the painting.

Finally I'm thinking after spraying a buff then final clearcoat.

Thoughts on this plan?

Many thanks for any replies!!

I have recently found some good colors - mind you, I haven't tested the gunmetal yet as my paint testing helmet is peeling, due to the various brands of paint reacting to each other, so will have to sand it down to get rid of that first, but the black is AWESOME from what I can see.

Using MOTIP Autolack Acryl
Black: 46830
Gunmetal: 51050

Your plan so far regarding how to finish up the armor before painting sounds good. I haven't tried that soda blasting, but sounds like an intriguing way to strip paint - seeing as it is used on boats it must be fairly gentle to the surface. Then filler and sanding and then primer before painting. Be sure to let the black cure for at least a few days - perhaps a week or two - before taping off to apply the gunmetal.

Thanks No Humor Man! Appreciate the tip.

Update: Since I had a lovely surprise job "handed to me" *cough* late last week that forced an all-nighter and a weekend full of work I took the day off and made some decisions. I couldn't get a reasonable soda spray quote so I decided I'd go old school - and probably the best route... wet sanding. So I hit the auto supply stores and picked up some grey sandable duplicolor primer, a couple of sanding blocks, and 10 pieces of various grits of paper from 800 up to 2500. I even picked up a tube of putty for pinholes should I hit any (and for a side project I may work on over the winter).

Today I got rid of most of the paint on one side of the shoulder armour. The inherited paint job on the second hand armour set was a lot worse than I first realized. Not only did it look like the original owner didn't do a great job sanding prior to painting - they also hit the entire half of the armour with silver (without masking) and just painted a coat of the black on top the silver. So not only are there layers, the edges are full of crap layered over irregular paint drips (as if a bad masking tape job was used to mask the black portions when the armour was hit a second time.

For some reason there are paint shatter cracks of the black (likely because of being painted directly over the silver coat). Shouldn't be a problem... just more elbow grease required than expected.

I'll up some pics sometime later today or tomorrow at some point.

Thanks again for the help all that sent advice my way!

- 'guts

Pics. After first pass with 800 grt.

Looking good so far.

Thanks again NHM,

Today I needed to get away from my dang laptop for awhile and continuing to wet sand was a good excuse .

So I've now done a first pass at 800 grt of the 1/2 painted side. In sanding today though I noticed a few things - I originally thought the other half of the armor was just black gelcoat, but I'm now wondering if it is a black (non-sandable) primer. Guess I'll find out soon enough.
The second thing I noticed was how excessive spray just pooled into the recesses of the armor edging. I was really concerned about accidentally knocking down detail versus just removing paint layer/buildup and prepping the surface. That's why I chose the 800 grt. I'm now wondering if I should have started with a 1000 in the recesses of the "u" loop detail. I think I managed to keep detail - but it was a struggle given the excess paint pooling.

So. Black non-sandable primer it was on the second half.

Well 800 grt first pass on the chest is done. Now the question is to do another pass with 1000 or to hit it with the sandable duplicolor primer and then attack with 1000 then 2500 grt.

Opinions?

Hmm also wondering if I should pause and do the bells next and then prime and sand the works...

Anyways pics...

Do the lot together.

Taking NHM's advice today I hit the bells with an 800 grt pass.

Next, once dry I've got 3 pinholes/chips, including two on a raised edge (on one bell) and another near the back right shoulder blade of the chest. I've got a tube of filler putty ready to go, then more sanding to get those 3 chips taken care of.

I was thinking I should do the mounting/strapping of the bells to the chest - just to get that installed correctly before priming and doing the final sands. I've decided to attempt the wooden block with a bolt through a thick leather strip method. Which I saw as a bell attachment method in a thread here on TPD. I'll just have to figure out how thick to go on the small wood blocks that get mounted to the underside of the chest and bells. I've had the leather for quite a while - very thick and fairly stiff so it should act well as a hinge.

Opinions or ideas about block size for the attachment mounting - welcome and appreciated!

Here's the bells... Still wet from wet sanding.

Looking good. Did that soda blasting thing you talked about work at all on the non-sandable primer side? I still think you should do more work on that side to get all the paint or at least most of it off.

Hey NHM,

All that was wet sanding - couldn't afford/work out a soda blast. So all elbow grease. I did go over that side you commented on again though.

I finally did a number of duplicolor sandable primer passes today!!

Here we go... First before priming...








And now after... (Keep in mind after a few days I'll hit the armor with 1000 and 2500 grit wet sanding)...

Oh... Now that it's cleaned up can anyone ID the armor? I'm not good at ID'ing armor and the previous owner didn't pass along the maker. My (terrible) guesses were either Portumac or SPFX. But again... I'm lousy at the armor ID game.

Thoughts and opinions welcome!

- 'guts

Oh... that turned out wonderful. Job well done. Personally I wouldn't go too crazy with the high grit sanding - even the ESB/RotJ armor was rough and bumpy.

My first thought is SPFX armor, however, it would be easier to determine if you took a picture from the shoulder pads side, to show the shape of the neck gap - opposite side than the below picture.

Thanks NHM! Here are some additional views for identification aid:







Thanks!