Blue Hatter

I don't have the game installed and running so I can't take any images of the stormtrooper and I only have the dark trooper model, but here's a video where you can see that the back of the standard stormtrooper helmet has the same black line... For some reason I kind of dig the look of the pinstripe but if y'all think it should be left off then that's what I'll do.

So I've got another question for everyone. Before I finish painting the helmet I need some opinions (which, by the way, I've altered the color of the armor a bit to make it all a bit more gray, which I think looks much better. I'll get pictures later)... On the back of the helmet for the Battlefront video game model there's a thick black line going under the vents, which I'm fairly certain is supposed to represent the ridge that's usually there on a stormtrooper helmet-- the stormtrooper models in the game have that same black line. My helmet has the ridge like on a stormtrooper helmet. Should I add the black line like the in-game model or just leave it with the "bare" ridge? I can't decide what to do. On one hand it I thought that it might look kind of neat with that extra bit of detail back there, but on the other stormtrooper helmets don't usually have that black stripe, and as I said, I'm pretty sure that the game model has it only to represent that ridge without having it actually modeled. What do you all think? Should I add the black stripe or not?

There's Sith version of the trooper, too. http://www.rebelscum.com/photo.asp?image=/2019/TVCTROSBACK.jpg

There's another Sith Trooper, a variation of the Jet Trooper... http://www.rebelscum.com/photo.asp?image=/2019/TVCTROSBACK.jpg

The more that I think about it the more I think I should just paint it over and try again. It’ll be a pain taping it all off again but it would look better in the long run. And the streaking bugs me.

Well, I badly need some opinions before I go any farther. I was trying to darken the dark blue parts of the thigh and arm armor and to also give it more of a gray hue so I mixed up some transparent graphite gray paint... I was hoping that if I was really careful that I could just brush the paint on and not have to go through setting up my air brush and spraying tent, but the paint didn't come out as smooth as I was hoping. I do think that the color looks quite a bit better now but... does the paint look too streaky? Should I repaint it and try again (using an air brush this time)? Or does it look okay? Granted I haven't weathered it yet, so I might be able to just kind of blend the streaky look with the rest of the armor via weathering, maybe making it look like some dirt drips on the lighter blue color, or something. I'd rather not have to repaint it but I will if I have to, and thankfully I only did one thigh piece. I just can't make up my mind whether it looks okay as-is with the streaks or if I should repaint the dark blue... What do you all think?

I forgot to post a picture of this one. My ARC caster is almost finished, just a bit more to do on it! Since my last round of pictures I have modified the dark blue on the arm armor and the chest/back armor a little so it looks, I think, a bit more accurate in color. I have applied a gray wash over the dark blue on the arm armor (upper arm and forearm) so that it's a bit darker and a little more gray. I applied a white wash over the dark blue on the chest/back armor to make it a little bit more pale. No pictures yet, though.

Sure thing, I can do that. I still have the cans. Heh, one of them I used the brand's entire line of matching blue spray paint on the armor. I have to wonder if they ever wondered who and why someone was buying so many cans of blue-gray graffiti spray paint of different shades?

How would I go about looking up a Pantone reference? I’ve never done that before. I looked for a good year to find paint colors and I tried everything you could think of, I even tried looking through colors of house paint. I’ve spent hours in paint stores, I’ve looked through every paint manufacturer I could find, and sent dozens of Emails out to different companies. As far as I can tell there is no “perfect” paint color readily available on the market and what I used is the closest I could find anywhere (it’s actually a graffiti spray paint), and even then what you see on the helmet isn’t the straight color, I hit it with a few coats of transparent white spray paint to lighten it up even more. I did look into getting custom spray paint made but that stuff is around $30-40+ per can and that’s just for one color while the armor actually has four different shades of blue (not to mention the gray belt and various other detail colors). I inquired at an auto body paint store but it would have cost a small fortune to get it all painted with all of the different colors that would each need to be custom mix. And even then it’s hard to say if the color would have been perfect. ...So I finally found what was as close as I could possibly get on the market and then tweaked it a little to be closer still.

No, there isn’t. This is from the old Pandemic Battlefront game from around the early 2000s.

Though I've always been an Earth Federation guy, the Gouf is definitely a sweet design. The Gouf Custom in the 08th MS Team is also killer (and the Gouf Flight Type). In the PS4 game Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 2, the Gouf Custom can really kick some butt.

Yeah, I'll definitely be cleaning up the lines and such, I've still got fair bit of cleaning up to do. The color isn't a 100% match but it's pretty darn close, the closest that I could get and that was with a mix of spray paints to just get the lightest color. It also doesn't help that every reference picture has the armor shown in a slightly different shade, some darker, some lighter, some more blue, some more gray... The color I went with was what seems to be roughly the most consistent throughout the references. And it'll look better yet once it's glossy. But comparing the helmet color to this image, for example, it's very close in color.

The MS-06 Zaku II and MS-07B Gouf? As a huge Mobile Suit Gundam nerd I will definitely take that as a compliment. ? Darn it, now I want to make an alternate version with hoses on the helmet and a curved spike on each shoulder armor. And pink lenses in the eyes.Then whenever someone asks me what I am I can just reply with "this is no Zaku, boy! No Zaku!" ?

Thanks! It's the first time that I've tried the toothpaste weathering method and it's working out pretty well... Aside from the big mess it makes.

I've got a small update. Things are moving along fairly smoothly, aside from one of the thrusters falling off of my jetpack but I figure that I'll reattach it once I finish painting it. Here's the latest pictures of my progress so far. Keep in mind that I haven't clear coated anything yet so it's all still fairly flat (it'll be hit with a gloss clear coat) and I haven't cleaned up all of the hand-painted parts yet, there's still some painted details that I need to straighten up and clean up. And the helmet is the same color as the rest of the armor, it's just weird lighting... The helmet is actually a truer representation of the color, the other pictures are brighter for some reason. I have also started to paint the boots (and boy does it make me nervous painting them)!

Looks great! Nice job!

Snaps are on, cover strips are on, and I think that everything is finally ready to be painted! Here are a few pictures of the helmet showing the ear greeblies that I modeled and 3D printed and the vent plate greeblies that were added to the forehead, cheeks and the back of the head. Considering that I completely freehanded the vent plates I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

I’m not sure what you mean by the “butt joint”. If you mean the separation between the back torso piece and the “butt piece” (same in the front) I had to split them apart because the armor want long enough for me. The torso armor was about three inches too short so I had to split them and lower the bottom sections. The separation will be hidden by the belt. The thigh armor just needs to be pulled up, I should have taped them in place better for the picture. Though I have been having a problem with having the thighs up higher... When I pull them up to about where they should be they cut into the old family jewels, which really hurts. What do people usually do about that? The back plate is cut to where the maker indicated. It probably just pulled down a bit, it might not have been taped well. My tape did not want to stay stuck to anything. I think that the angle is weird as well, but the back piece is about the same length as the front.

Thanks. It's definitely been an interesting project. The shoulder armor is proving to be harder than I had thought it would be-- raising it up and making it "float", that is. I tried something else again today and that didn't work, either. I'm thinking that I might have to try to rig up some kind of bracket system with another smaller piece of shoulder armor that attaches to it. Like a small piece of shoulder armor flat on my shoulder/upper arm, a bracket attached to it, and then the dark trooper shoulder armor attached at an angle to the other end of the bracket. Or something. So plan D and E here I come...

Yeah, like I mentioned, the rivets will be hidden by the cover strips, I just don’t have the cover strips on yet. The raised part on the forearms isn’t actually a cover strip, it’s molded onto the armor. The cover strips will go over the top of those and cover the rivets. It’s the same for the calf armor.

I was finally able to do the first test fitting of my Phase Zero Dark Trooper armor! Man, I didn't think I'd ever make it to this point. I think that everything seems to fit me alright, more or less, though I do need to pull the thigh armor up higher. And yeah, the stomach armor shifted and I didn't notice it until I saw the pictures, but it'll be secured better when it's finished, I just taped everything together for now. I'm still working on how to get the shoulder armor to float like it should, plan A and plan B didn't work out and I'm still trying to figure out what plan C will be... Aside from the stomach armor shifting, the thighs needing to be pulled up, and the shoulder armor needing to float, does anyone notice anything that should be addressed before I start painting? Oh, and the rivets will be hidden. And I haven't made all of the cover strips yet, so bear that in mind. I did finish all of the "bolts" for the chest and knees... Or the "nipples" for the chest if you prefer. ? And the aerators for the helmet. They're 3D prints. And last but not least, here's my arc caster so far...

It probably seems a bit backwards to paint the thrusters before the jetpack but I wanted to rivet them on securely and this was the only way I could think of, because I needed to get inside of the Jetpack to rivet then on, which had to be done before I put the back on. Wish me luck that I don’t mess the paint up on them now. :P I do have them covered in paper lunch sacks and taped closed so hopefully that will give them enough protection.

Here's a shot of the jetpack before I sanded it. It actually wasn't as hard to build as I thought it was going to be. Though it is loaded up with rivets to make it nice and sturdy, heh. Most of them are on the inside or on the back so they wont be seen. I used those plastic corner protectors that you put on wall corners to attach pieces to, and then to attach those pieces to the jetpack, rather than just gluing along a thin edge of plastic. I thought that it would make things much more secure that way. Unfortunately one of the rivets came off after I sealed up the back and now it's rolling around inside. Bah! I might cut a small hole in the back and try to get it out, which I was thinking of doing, anyway, just in case I ever needed to get inside of it again for some reason. Oh, and my cat, Egon, says hello.

No problem. Always happy to help.

The kit came with the jetpack, it just had to be put together. I did end up making a couple modifications to it to make it more accurate. I’m gonna try to get some pictures this weekend.