Painting the Prop : Kit Bash Parts first

The first elements to get painted were kit bash component parts and the backing behind them so they could be masked during the main painting. This was as later after full assembly is would be difficult to paint the component parts realistically.

George Lucas very much wanted to show how things work and have the mechanics on show/

Problem Solving : Loose Flaking Paint

As mentioned in the lid structure tab, within the first paint coats it was found that on the lid there was large amounts of paint flaking and pealing off the flexible lid.

This was fixed by using wire brushes to remove the loose paint and roughen the surface before repainting as well as stiffening the structure.  

Paint Pallet Themes – White to Military Green

Paint Pallet Themes – White to Military Green.

Whilst I did originally start with a plan for worn dirty white look such as crates aimed at ice planet Hoth I moved to more of a military green which would be more generalised.

This was also chosen to be more in line with main tower prop.

To paint colour I went through various stages:

• Applying filler where requires in gaps or a thin layer over foam and textured foam to smooth it out so appeared more metallic.
  
  
• Sanding this smooth
  
  
• Primer paint be that grey, red (If ran out of the cheaper grey.) or the yellow that contains some filler.
  
  
• Spray a layer of black, especially in the nooks crannies and shadows.
  
  
• For metallic parts spray over (Often at an angle to try and keep black in nooks and crannies as possible) with light coats of metallics steel and chrome whilst trying to keep much of black to make a more metallic look rather than pure silver coat.
  
  
• In most other areas there would be a mix of metallic gold, light black such as Dirty Down Black Wash, Dirty Down Rust and Dirty Down Khaki and Copper.
  
  
• Thus, creating a mix of metallic parts in some different metals like dirty gold, copper, rust, bronze, steel etc.
  
  
• For the main  body I made this so it would be a military like dirty green, with Nato Green hairspray.
  
  
• To make it looked more worn thus wat patches with like black streaks and some worn metallic patches to look like it was colour over metal.