Mandalorian Armor Project 11: Painting and Weathering

Before I started priming the armor, I used the palm sander to give the plates a quick scouring. The slightly roughened surface keeps the primer adhered to the PVC. Since this was the base layer of my paint job,  I definitely wanted good adhesion to the plates.  

My next step was to apply my silver undercoat. I used Rustoleum's Ultracoverage paint/primer, which worked much better than the first type of silver used. Unfortunately, the silver layer isn't as thick as I thought. When I started to sand and weather the top layer of paint, I would accidentally sand through the silver layer underneath.

Like the body plates, each of the shoulder guards received a double coat of primer, in preparation of the silver undercoat.

The kneepads and shoulder guards were the first pieces to receive the experimental masking process. Instead of weathering these pieces with sandpaper, I decided to paint over the dents and scrapes with a thick coat of machine grease. The grease would block, or mask, the spray paint from those areas. Once I wiped off the grease, the silver undercoat was completely untouched beneath, giving the convincing impression of battle damage.

I applied the masking material to create two different types of damage. I originally applied my grease on top of the dents in the armor. This gave the impression of fresh hits that dented the armor and chipped off the paint.

The second technique was to lightly brush the grease across the surface of the plates. These long streaks created a convincing impression of grazing hits, or damage left by claws, teeth, or blades. 

Once the top coat of paint had completely dried, I would use a Q-tip to gently wipe off the grease underneath.  

The large scuffs and paint chips made the armor battle damaged, but they still required some extra detailing. 

The hard plates of the body armor would rub against one another, rubbing and distressing the paint on the inside edges. The surface of the plates would also be scuffed and worn from the regular wear and tear. I also added some scuffs that crossed over between plates, 

 

This picture does a pretty good job of of showing the different types of weathering on plates. Large battle damage and scratches looks cool, but it can easily be overdone. Weathering the edges of the plates makes each one look worn, rather than abused.

The gauntlets were my favorite part of the armor to distress. I used the grease to create battle damaged areas and used sandpaper to weather the corners and edges. 
They looked good, but I wanted more. I needed to make these look like they've been through an entire campaign on Kashyyyk. So to get the heavy scrapes and scoring on the bottom of the plates, I threw on my armor and started crawling across the floor.
And it worked really well!

I finished my plates by painting on layers of watered down acrylic paint.
This process is called brown-washing and is incredibly helpful when trying to add dirt and grime to a prop or piece of armor. I used Apple Barrel's Melted Chocolate acrylic paint and drastically watered it down. Then I applied several coats of brown with a large paintbrush, concentrating it towards the bottom of the plates. 

Weathering and distressing the soft goods of the armor was just as important as the hard parts. I spent a lot of time painting, scuffing, and dirtying my coveralls, vest, and gloves. 
When I began weathering my gloves, I started using charcoal to smudge the high points of the gloves and exaggerate the creases of the gloves. I then followed up with several coats of pure acrylic paint. I painted brown and black paints in between fingers and underneath the knuckle pads, anywhere dirt and grime would normally accumulate.




The intricate patterns of the gloves made them ideal for catching dirt. I spent a considerable amount of time painting the palms of the gloves. 

Unlike the Nomex gloves, the cotton coveralls accepted quite nicely. I used a combination of watered down browns and black paint to dirty the knees and elbows of the coveralls. Unfortunately, weathering the entire coverall by paint and brush would've taken far too long. I had a solution to this...
So I decided to do some "organic" weathering. After a weekend of intense rain, I took my coveralls to the local construction site, and threw it in the mud. And then jumped on it.
repeatedly. I probably looked really weird while doing it, but damned if it didn't work wonders. I spent the next few hours wiping off the excess dirt with a thick paintbrush.

To weather the gaiters I painted pure brown paint over the bottom surfaces, making sure to cram the dirty brown paint in between the creases of the gaiters. Again, this is where dirt and grime would accumulate when in the field.

This is a comparison photo between the weathered leg pouches (left), and the clean pouches on the right. The left pouches were painted with a series of watered down layers of black and brown paint. I also used charcoal to darken the white thread and add grime to the recessed areas of the pouches.

 In hindsight: 
1) I would definitely apply two coats of silver paint to the armor plates. This would give me extra insurance against sanding through the silver undercoat. 
2) When weathering the hard armor, I'll try using using steel wool instead of sand paper. It may give me more control of how much paint is taken off. 



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