Seeking guidance!

[Xiere]

Greetings to all!

I've come here to the experts, the avid fans, and those who portray (in my opinion) the most iconic and mysterious figures in the Star Wars Universe. My sincere hope is that I can learn from the best of the best to make my project top of the line.

So, a bit about myself, and what I am doing. Right now my focus is not to join the SP of the 501st. While I don't rule that possibility out in the future, my first endeavor is to join the Mercs. So why am I coming here you ask? Good question. Like most in this community, I like to have a bit of a backstory to my character - and the one I've chosen is that the Merc I am working towards portraying is a former Royal Guard, and has incorporated some iconic bits from the SPs into the armor.

My first order of business that I haven't found a perfect way to tackle is working on a paint job. I already have a custom helmet that incorporates the style of the Royal Guard helmet mixed with that of the Mandalorians. It turned out beautifully, but now I'm stuck with the task of trying to paint the visor portion to match that iconic glossy red goodness. The material I'm working on is a thick plastic, and pictured below you'll see what I'm speaking about.







My preference here is to match the glossy red color of the royal guard helmet for the visor portion. What I don't know are a few things, and I'm hoping the wonderful community here might have some answers for me.

• What shade of color would be best used to match the iconic shade of red?
  For a plastic surface what method of spray painting would you use?
  Do I want to go with a high gloss red and then a clear coat?
  Will Spray paint even be a viable option for the gloss necessary?

If you have any other comments or suggestions, I'd also love to hear them as well. Thank you very much!

[Sascha_Wilsing]

Hi.
Most use automotive paint with primer first and finish with a clear coat.
The red used is matching with the robe.

[cooldevo]

I made my helmet from a kit. I wasn't comfortable working with gloss coats, and didn't want to risk it coming out hazy so I took it to a custom painter. I brought a swatch of the outer robe fabric and he matched it as best he could and painted it with automotive paint. Picture of my helmet are in the WIP thread in the ROTJ forum.

If you aren't comfortable working with gloss coats, I'd say be careful with the temperature and humidity or it'll come out cloudy/hazy.

And, as was was mentioned, it needs to be color matched as closely as possible to the outer robe fabric you are using.

[Xiere]

One of the things I need people to keep in mind is that I am currently not making a SP costume. This is a Mandalorian Mercs costume, so I will not be having a robe like the Guards do. This color is strictly for the visor of the helmet, so I do not have a robe fabric to compare it to.

[Sascha_Wilsing]

I realized it is only for your mando.
But the best way to find the red you want is to get some swag of red velvet that you like and try to get this colour onto the helmet.

[Xiere]

So any automotive place that paints things like motorcycle helmets (I assume) is the place you would recommend? From what I know about them, their paints are normally supposed to adhere to metal, and since my helmet is plastic, I wonder if it's a specific kind of automotive painter that you recommend.

[Sascha_Wilsing]

Every automotive painter should be able to paint plastic. Think about all the plastic bumpers that are painted. As well as a lot of other parts of cars that are painted.