TL Gohst custom -----Finished-----

Here's my first attempt at customizing, pretty simple and straight forward repaint. I puttied up the third eye of a spare TL Gohst and spray painted it w/ Tamiya olive drab 2 color spray paint. I'm a little disappointed at the sanding job I did, it felt pretty smooth and even prior to painting but due to the color I wasn't able to notice the uneveness. After painting, its much more noticeable. I didn't primer the helmet before painting but do you think it would've filled in some of the gaps and made it look smoother? Also debating if I should attempt to make the smoky eyes like on SA Germ and FB figures... Let me know what y'all think!

P.S. A wooden to-go chopstick fits perfectly in the small hole in the helmet!

I would definitely do the black spray around the eyes.

Very cool idea...I think you did a great job, man!

Black spray for sure! I'm not sure how I'd go about fixing the eye. Just put a beanie on him  

kuhwinters wrote:I would definitely do the black spray around the eyes.

Very cool idea...I think you did a great job, man!

ontheDL wrote:Black spray for sure! I'm not sure how I'd go about fixing the eye. Just put a beanie on him  

Thanks guys, I'll probably attempt the shadow eyes and if it turns out bad, strip it all, re-putty so its smoother and start all over again.

Do you have an airbrush?

How many coats of green did you do? You could always try another light coat and see if it minimizes the circle on the forehead. Then again, it looks pretty good as is.

ontheDL wrote:Do you have an airbrush?

No airbrush :/

Colossus of Destiny wrote:How many coats of green did you do? You could always try another light coat and see if it minimizes the circle on the forehead. Then again, it looks pretty good as is.

I did about two coats.

CankleBreaker wrote:I did about two coats.

That's probably enough. I don't think anymore would help at this point. So, yeah, give him a watch cap and he'll be G2G.

Was goin for the non watch cap look, hence the putty job. I'll practice painting some more before I decide to strip and re-putty & paint.

Love the color and that you filled the third eye!

Are you sanding wet or dry?

Primer can help you see imperfections that need attention before the color coat.

You could easily fix this without starting over, it already looks damn good. You need the following....

600 grit wet/dry sand paper (if you aren't familiar with it...the black stuff)
bondo spot putty or another hobby equivalent

First lightly wet sand any areas you aren't happy with. Then use putty to fill deeper areas. Wet sand the filled spots. Repeat until you are happy. Go easy with the sanding, it shouldn't take much. Once you are happy lightly wet sand the entire helmet and then spray more color.

Hope this helps. Let me know if anything doesn't make sense.

From what i can see in the pics you shouldn't need too much more work.

gregm wrote:Love the color and that you filled the third eye!

Are you sanding wet or dry?

Primer can help you see imperfections that need attention before the color coat.

You could easily fix this without starting over, it already looks damn good. You need the following....

600 grit wet/dry sand paper (if you aren't familiar with it...the black stuff)
bondo spot putty or another hobby equivalent

First lightly wet sand any areas you aren't happy with. Then use putty to fill deeper areas. Wet sand the filled spots. Repeat until you are happy. Go easy with the sanding, it shouldn't take much. Once you are happy lightly wet sand the entire helmet and then spray more color.

Hope this helps. Let me know if anything doesn't make sense.

From what i can see in the pics you shouldn't need too much more work.

I only sanded dry, I'll give your approach a try and see how it goes! Thanks Greg.

EDIT: do I need to remove the paint prior to sanding or sand directly over it before puttying again?

No need to strip the paint.

I suggest only wet sanding. Much easier to control the final results with little or no residual scratching.

I'm at this point now Greg, jus wet sanded it. It feels REALLY smooth, but I do feel a very very minor indentation. You think I should still add an extremely thin layer of filler and re-sand? Should I continue sanding the right half of the circle where you saw the imperfection from the first pics? I think I may have sanded too much tho, didn't kno exactly how much "light sanding" consisted of...

Key to sanding is go slow. Much easier to sand more than to put material back.   

I would use some filler before doing anymore sanding. Something like an old credit card makes an excellent tool for applying very small amounts of filler. You should be scraping off most of the filler with the card. After the filler has dried then wet sand again. You are well on your way to getting the finish you want.

Great look Charlie! I'm dying to see how you finish him off. Definitely try the smoked out eyes.

Good start ! Two eyes ghost looks really cool, and that military green   

Can't wait to see the rest !

[quote="Takemaru"]Good start ! Two eyes ghost looks really cool, and that military green   

Can't wait to see the rest ![/quote
Kinda looks like jack, but I jack and gohst so great look

Great color!

I think deep red bug-lenses would be a cool add-on. What do you think CankleBreaker?

artstyleclash wrote:Great color!

I think deep red bug-lenses would be a cool add-on. What do you think CankleBreaker?

I'm personally not a fan of bug eyes :/
Once I get every painted up, I'll give some sample shots w/ different colored lenses and we can all decide together!   

CankleBreaker wrote:

artstyleclash wrote:Great color!

I think deep red bug-lenses would be a cool add-on. What do you think CankleBreaker?

I'm personally not a fan of bug eyes :/
Once I get every painted up, I'll give some sample shots w/ different colored lenses and we can all decide together!   

  
Great idea.

Update: after being very frustrated w/ not gettin the smooth finish, I decided to strip off all the paint down to the bare vinyl. After doing so, I realized I didn't wet sand it as smooth as previously thot and saw areas that needed more work. Once again, wet sanded until all was smooth and level. I primered the helmet but it came on really grainy, so I'll let it dry and wet sand the entire thing before applying color. I used Rustoleom primer btw.

Update: after attempting to wet sand the grainy primer, I messed up the blend on the putty so I stripped it yet again, re-puttied and re-sanded. Current progress:





The wet sanding blended the putty smoothly as before but I think I can still see a minor dip but I'm happy w/ where its at. I applied two light coats of primer. Next step would be applying the color again. Wish me luck!

Big thanks to Greg for the tips!  

Wow, and I thought that it looked good before! Look great now!   

Yeah, looks dope. I cant even notice the dip

Looking great. Lightly wet sand it and spray your color.