Silesti Makes

Build

I did a fair bit of digging around for design and model files and eventually found a couple on Thingiverse. There were some issues though, the original model had been chopped up from a Pepakura file and was.. well a little bit dodgy, another user had done some MeshMixer magic and turned them into decent printable files but even then there are some issues of alignment and gaps and some surface artefacts of the conversion process.

The model was in multiple parts so after printing it was all about the alignment and gluing. Then the usual sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding priming, sanding, priming loops.

I made the decision pretty early on that I’d use proper hardware for this build and sorted out the screws and bolts I needed along with the big nuts for the helmet centre. The key add-ons though were the flexi pipes across the sides. These are actual Gas mask pipes which I got from Amazon and cut to length. The viewports are a piece of safety visor cut and hot-glued into place.

Finish

After the filling a priming, I wanted to create some layering in the paint, a sort of metal-painted-silver and re-painted kind of look. So I put down a base of silver paint by brush in a couple of layers rubbed back with some 240 grit paper and then used some liquid mask on some edges and high points with another couple of layers of silver over the top. Peeling the mask off did give me the look I was after, although it’s a little too subtle to show up on photos – oh well!

The ‘dirt’ was a dusting of red primer, olive green and black spray which I rubbed back with some fine steel wool and after fitting all of the accessories – levers and lamps – I used some water soluble oil paints to give it the final bit of grubbiness.

Music

Something I’ve never done before but will be adding from now on (and probably going back and updating previous posts too – is an anthem for my work. These songs are original pieces which I believe reflect the subject so I hope that you like them!