First I have to apologize to my readers for my extended break from blogging. At the start of August our new baby boy was born, so as you can imagine our house got busy!
And as part of house being busy, we’ve had some ongoing renovations and reorganizations, so my usual spot for taking photos is not available, so I hope my quick hand-held shots in my office work ok.
I did find a little time to enjoy some models, but as I didn’t have time to get into anything too complex, I decided to work on some of the new Bandai Star Wars kits.
First I went with C-3PO. The dark areas are painted with Tamiya gunmetal, and the small details hand-painted in. I did a candy coat with Tamiya clear red on top for the front and rear red wires.
The gold and chrome of the kit is good as is, but C-3PO is hardly ever clean in the movies, so I went in with my black oil paint mix as a wash for panel lines, and then to make oil stains.
I’ve always liked the Storm Trooper design. The kit is great and the white plastic looks like the white plastic armour of the actual costume, so I only painted the dark sections. I wanted a very matte black, but not a perfect black, so I went with a coat of Tamiya gunmetal followed by a light coat of thin black, and then Alclad flat on top.
Darth is practically all black, but there’s black and there’s black, so how to make it all stand out? I liked the use of the gunmetal and black on the Storm Trooper, so Darth got the same treatment. I was careful to leave the glossy black parts as is, as again, as moulded they look just great. The colour details are all hand painted with Tamiya clear colours.
Boba Fett was always a favourite, but it’s also the kit that needs the most work on the paint job. The moulded plastic colours were not that great, and of course, he requires a lot of weathering to get the look right.
The green armour is a similar green mix to colours that I’ve used before on Geara Doga, using Createx pearl green with some white and black to reduce the saturation.
The orange parts were painted first with Tamiya yellow, and then a coat of Tamiya clear orange. Before I put the clear orange on I used Tamiya weathering master to add some of the shading.
I thought that Alclad grey primer would be just perfect for the jumpsuit, and as it’s a touch “blue” it was just right, especially to give just enough contrast to the slightly warmer colour of the flak-vest.
I started the flak-vest with the same Alclad grey primer, but with great care I sprayed on the thinnest yellow and red paints to subtly warm up the shade.
For the leather belt, I started with Tamiya gunmetal, then used a very small amount of red paint with least pressure I could get away with, pulling back the trigger just slightly so the paint came out almost stippled. Before dry, I did the same with some black paint to blend up the colour. Then when dry, a coat of Tamiya clear orange turned the red/black into brown!
Of course, Boba Fett is not Boba Fett without his backpack!
The weathering was done in layers. I used Tamiya Weathering master for most of the weathering. I really like their oil-stain for shading. Some parts have a black oil wash. The chipping effects are done with a wet paint brush into the Tamiya Weathering master silver.
Here are all the Star Wars characters together, dwarfed by PG Unicorn standing behind them!
Well i love the weathered Boba Fett, if you are into Star Wars the new Y Wing got lots of praise and i think you should grt it. I am not into Star Wars but more of a Gundam fan, but even i think the Y Wing looks really good, i intend to get it and paint it too. Congrats on your baby btw!!! 🙂
When I get set back up for better photos, I’ll try to grab some more of Boba Fett because I’m really happy with how the weathering all came out.
With Star Wars, I remember building Darth’s Tie Fighter, but I’m not as keen on the space-ships as I am the figures.
Hello,
I’m quite a paint job newby and trying to get my Bandai C3PO look real. I found yours was nicely done and it just looks fantastic. May I get more detailed-step by step-hints, especially the oil stained part, from you if that’s possible.
Thanks a lot.
Vaivit
For the oil stains, I took some black artists oil paint, and mixed it in an empty paint jar with mineral spirits. You’ll want to make it pretty thin, but not so thin that there’s no density to the mix.
Then, with a fine paint brush I first made sure all the lines and crevices on the kit were filled with the black oil paint. Let it dry, and then you can use a cotton bud to wipe up any excess or areas that didn’t work right.
If you scrape up a bit of the thicker oil that ends up settling at the bottom of the paint jar, you can start doing some of the more detailed areas like around the restraining bolt.
It’s pretty easy to do, and as it wipes off again, relatively safe to practise and have fun with.
Once I had things looking right, I used a gloss top coat (Future Finish) just to seal it in.
Thanks a lot for your advice. Sounds fun.
What products from what brands do you use for the oil looking part? And what parts on the kit do you use the tamiya gun metal? By the way, any matt clear code needed to apply on the surface to make the paint stuck on the kit?
Sorry for my multiple questions. Thanks again.
Great! Can’t wait to give it a try. Thanks.
Any artists oil will work, but I happen to have Windsor and Newton.
On C3P0, the gunmetal was used on the waist section only.
The oil paint flows nicely on the glossy surface of the kit, so you don’t need any special coating to make it stick. What you will need is a top coat after you’re happy with the oil so it stays in place and doesn’t rub off.
I’m finding that artists oils are a fantastically useful paint to have for model making. They work great for panel lines, for weathering, for oil and rust effects, and they’re an awful lot of fun to use too.