As a first real build and already making mistakes and going back and forth with the world's most colourful paint job, I thought I should start a build thread for my season 2 Sabine, so others can learn from my mistakes and I can be open to feedback. If you have any questions at all please let me know.
I purchased this kit from the Mandolorian Arsenal in January, but didnt get till a couple of months ago due to being forgotten over the Celebration period. The price was reasonable, but the kit does need a fair amount of love with bogging and heat forming to get it right, and i may source a range finder from elsewhere, its terrible.
For motivation I decided I wanted to start the helmet. The helmet is a resin roto cast with a roughly applied coat of silver that I ended up sanding back first and applying my own coat of silver as it had orange peeled in a few places over the helmet. I also coated the inside of the helmet in a dark colour as the resin was white and i wanted the inside to be tidy.
Part of the appeal of this costume is Sabine is an artist like myself. I opened up Photoshop to colour sample several reference shots to get close to the right colours I need, and at Bruce's recommendation I raided the local MTN spray paint shop at Albion, 7Tate and aquired most of the paint I need, 14 odd shades of paint, I still plan to get more, when the other shades I want come back in stock. I also made a trip to Ironlak for a couple of shades of grey that MTN didnt have.
After giving the helmet sufficient time to properly cure, I made a poor decision. I had applied a couple layers of matte clear coat on my base coat. In theory the decision I had made was sound, as I had thought by applying it I could protect the silver layer when I would later weather the helmet but thinking back on it, the base coat also doubled as a primer and the clear coat removed the adhesive qualities, so when it came down to painting my colours onto the helmet, it didn't stick to the helmet at all. I was able to peel easy 8 - 10cm square portitons of the coloured layer. So unfortunately it has caused me to sand back right back to the base and reapplying the base coat tonight.
You can see some of the paint had already peeled back in this picture, despite weeks of dry time between coats.
So, a mouse sander, several grits of sandpaper later, back to square one.