While I’m collecting the parts needed to begin work on my proton gun, I’m trying to do a bit of research on painting methods and whatnot, so I figured here would be a good enough place to ask them:
As far as weathering, does primer/silver/black layers work, or is it preferable to just put the silver over the black? I just don’t want things to look cheesy.
Since I don’t have a garage, I’ll be painting outside, are there any methods of keeping foreign material off my wet paint before I can get it inside to my venting room (read: bathroom) to dry? I know I’ll be sanding a lot, I’d just rather not need to sand chunks of dirt out of paint.
What brand of paints do you prefer for this sort of thing? I’ve seen a lot of different brands used, but it’s really difficult to see the subtle differences in pictures.
Do you prefer ice cream or sherbet? I’m partial to pineapple sherbet myself.
i did all my painting outside too and didn’t have any problems with debris. i used primer then flat black, i like the dull muted look, just feels ‘older’ to me. what ever you do, just make sure to use the same brand of primer and paint, there are some horror stories out there…
people do the weathering thing both ways. i think the way to decide would be test out both methods on a scrap and see which one is more comfortable for you.
Ditto with what he said about testing on a piece of scrap wood first.
I like to paint the model black and then spray a paint brush with some chrome spray paint and dab some areas of the model (pack) with the paint brush. Makes a real nice effect.
Don’t use silver, use aluminum. I used that on my ecto goggles (see ecto goggle forum for pics) at someone’s reccomendation here, and it looks perfect. But for god’s sake, don’t overdo it like I see on so many packs. I put about twice as much as I should have on my own goggles when doing it and I ended up wiping off half of it because it looked totally fake.
Also, I used a foam brush, and the trick was to get a tiny bit of paint on it and then dab it off on a paper towel to get the majority of the paint off. Then I did short light strokes at diagonals with the sharp edge concentrating on corners and other areas that would most likely come into contact with something.
A wash with aluminum paint dissolved in water might be good too. I didn’t need to do that on the goggles since wiping the paint off all the areas I screwed up on with a damp paper towel achieved that. Look in the seller’s forum for the rub-on decals, and see the example there of someone’s proton gun where it appears they did a wash effect over it. Looks neat.
for the weathering i used an aluminum colored sharpie paint pen and hit up corners and such where it would usually wear off, and every time i bumped into something and scratched it or dented it i hit it with the paint pen, it looks totally real
I went with flat black spray paint(cheapest possible), then dry brushed silver acrylic paint very sparingly to edges that receive more wear. It’s easy to get carried away, I recommend stopping occasionally to see if you ought to put more on later. I must have done a decent job weathering as a couple of great proppers complimented me on that aspect.
And I will not discuss ice cream since that it is now fall, and I do not eat it until after spring.
For what it’s worth, here’s what I did on my pack; a TON of Primer (mostly to get rid of the wood grain) and then I used a semi-gloss black. The majority of the weathering I added after my black coat with a silver sharpie.
In my opinion, depending on the lighting my weathering looks okay, but I think if I could do it again I’d probably go with either1) a proper silver/aluminum paint pen or 2)Primer/Silver coat(s)/semi-gloss black and use some sand fine grit sand paper to dirty-up the black paint.
More trouble but ultimately worth it. Plus if the black gets beatten up then, in theory at least, there’s still the silver and not say - the corners of a 2x4…
I ended up using this last method on my gun, and even without any intentional weathering it looks pretty freakin’ good just from the number of door frames I’ve walked into forgetting that a door is a Ghostbuster’s natural enemy…
Oh and for painting outside, I’d either pick a ‘no-wind’ day or set up a little tent of sorts out of an old tarp. I’ve had a ton of paint jobs messed up with shit that just happens to be blowing in the breeze.
Incidently, I’m not a huge ice cream fan. That said, I will eat the salted ice found around the mixing bowl of the ice cream maker. Hmm.
Anyways, since I’m not sitting on enough money to buy all the parts for my entire pack at once, I’m buying everything I need for the gun first, to give me something to do while someone works out a fiberglass shell. If I had a garage full of tools and a brain full of woodworking skills and knowledge, I’d fabricate my pack myself in a heartbeat, but I’m a real ■■■■■ for detail, and I know I won’t be able to do it to my standards with the space I have available to me.
Anyways, I figure I’ll give the ‘natural weathering’ approach a shot, I’ll do aluminum under black and let life take its course. Fuller’s earth is really awesome looking though, maybe I’ll have to get some of that eventually.
Oh, and pineapple sherbet is delicious any time of the year.
Richie, seriously, salted ice? You’re such a weirdo! :lol: