So I painted my helmet's snout/nose...

[Bass]

...and I took pictures! I noticed that everyone offers really good advice on the 'how to' on panting the snout but I didn't skim up many progress pictures regarding it. So I figured why not take a shot at it myself, personally i don't feel it turned out too bad.

 

I'll admit, my method is probably not the sleekest, I know a lot of people suggest pin striping vinyl, which honestly seems to be the best way to go, but I'm cheap and I didn't have any on hand already. What I did have was a bunch of 1" painters tape, a stencil for round things, a hobby cutting board, and a hobby knife.

 

 

So here we have two pieces of tape side by side, I felt that was just about wide enough to get the thickness I needed. The measuring grid on the hobby board made aligning the tape a snap. It doesn't have to be 100% perfect as I was going to cut out the center anyways, I just needed it tight at the top.

 

 

Next, I needed to get the rounded top, 1 3/4" Worked the best, I tried a bit smaller at first and it just didn't fit right. This size is actually a bit bigger than I needed, but I'll get to that. I made sure to line up the center guide of the circle to the area between the two pieces of tape for symmetry, I also made sure to leave space at the top of the tape.

 

 

So here we have the guide lines traced out. The center bit will be discarded, I'm looking a the outer portion of the stencil to be what I use.

 

 

So I cut out the center bit from the picture above and was left with this. The top portions of both pieces of tape overlap a little bit to make sure I was able to get the desired shape. The thin portions of tape were pliant enough that I was able to manipulate them to where I wanted without creasing. The very bottom kind of looks like it's curved in, but I assure you they are straight down. Also I made certain that the lines were only covering roughly half of the humps.

 

In my initial attempt at this I used thicker cuts of tape and it simply didn't want to cooperate. I'd also like to note to make sure that tape is pressed down. Run your finger over it firmly several times to help prevent paint bleed.

 

 

So then I taped the sucker up and got it ready to spray the snout. Sadly there was a hole somewhere so I wound up with a black dot on a cheek, but that's what goo gone is for.

 

 

So then I sprayed it with some satin black spray I had(outside, not on the couch.) Unfortunately I got all gung ho and completely forgot to put some tape in the center where I need to glue the greeblie. Those scratches are from me trying to pull a piece of hair off the snout with tweezers. Figured the center area was a non issue. I'll strip the paint off the center anyways when i'm ready to mount the greeblie.

 

 

I used the blade of my hobby knife to fleck off the little stray bumps outside the main line and clean it up a bit after taking this photo. Still, at arm's length it looks nice enough for me to be satisfied with it. I might bust out the acrylics and my detail brushes and run a line over the outside to smooth it up, times like this it pays to have an interest in painting miniatures.

 

So there it is. Perfect? By no means, but hopefully for those visual learners out there like me this might prove a helpful starting point.

[Stroker]

Nice! I remember when I painted my MLC its was the first one I ever painted and I was scared to death!

[Bass]

I'm pretty much the same way. Most of the time the advice everyone gives is really solid, but the thought of taking the plunge is a tough hurdle to jump for me.

[Southscout]

Hands down the worst moment of my life... And I've even painted two of them!

 

But great job!

 

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