Jabba Paint Dilemma

smoked · 12-28-2007, 05:05 AM

I have finished a sculpt of jabba the hutt, but after getting to the part involving the paint I am really stumped. I have looked at the pics and have tried to paint it similar to these references....
http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Ja...Sideshow-l.jpg
and
http://k43.pbase.com/u11/jesse/uploa...bbaTheHutt.jpg

What I have tried so far is no where near these and am starting with basic colors red, green, blue, yellow, brown, white, etc. I have tried various mixes of colors, but just can't get the right tones. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

RickDTM · 12-28-2007, 09:10 AM

Smoked - I would start w/ a nice beige tone and build your green colors over the top of it. Do you have an airbrush or are you attempting to brush paint Jabba?

smoked · 12-28-2007, 06:51 PM

Rick, thanks for the reply. I have both brush and airbrush, but was working with a brush. Do you or anyone have a good place to look at properly mixing colors? I tried the beige before your post,but it keep turning out to be a weird oatmeal color when wet and drying to a orangey light brown. It may be an issue with me not having a plain brown and all I have is a brown velvet and burnt umbar, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

RickDTM · 12-28-2007, 07:39 PM

If you want to custom mix your colors, I would recommend investing in a color wheel. Good ones can be had from any art or craft store.

If you want to stick to brush painting, I would recommend using Liquitex Unbleached Titanium as your base coat. You can also thin this for airbrushing. It is a really nice beige color right out of the tube, no mixing required. If you want to make it even easier, Krylon makes an Almond color in a rattle can I use all the time.

If you want to make life really easy, invest in some Lifetone Freestyle paints. They are airbrushable out of the bottle and come in various shades of color. I would recommend Sandstone for the beige color, and any of their transparent green shades can be used over the top making blending the varying shades of color a breeze.

smoked · 12-28-2007, 09:04 PM

Rick thanks for the advice. I am not sure which route I will go, but you have given me several really good starting points. I keep thinking about going the last route and getting various colors of the lifetones and maybe a few of the liquitex paints to build up a collection so that I can use what I need at the time. Currently I am using delta ceramacoat, and I am finding that it isn't the best for all projects. One last question. Jabba is a vary dull texture with highlights over most of the body, but like the human eye he has very very glossy liquid look to the eyes. Is there any trick you know of to achieve this without just paining the eye texture and then masking off the eyes to paint a glossy clear coat over?

RickDTM · 01-02-2008, 03:11 PM

It's tricky, but you could paint in the highlights one would see in the clear coat. Adding a catchlight on one of the edge of the iris will help, and you will need to brighten the lower edges of the eyeball to complete the illusion.

To be honest, I would just use either two part clear epoxy, several coats of Future Floor Wax, Testor's Top Coat, or Tamiya Clear to add the shine to his eyes. The above mentioned method will work, but is problematic at best.

panzercreations · 01-03-2008, 09:09 PM

Vallejos Hemp color is a good match for the base color. adding some green or white will help with the highlights and shadows too. part of the Vallejo air series #23. works straight from the bottle in your airbrush.

smoked · 01-04-2008, 04:19 AM

Thanks for all the help guys, I have finished the paint job, but I am currently working on the throne for jabba and his little friend, before I post some pics. I have the throne built and the first layer of primer to see all the issues and I will work those out. I will then do a final primer and then the final paint job for the throne. Once that is complete I will get some pics of the whole setup for you guys.