So, you made some armor. You made it through the trials and tribulations of worbla and now you’re ready to make your thermoplastic stuff look like….not plastic. 

First things first: prime that stuff. Gesso or wood glue. There are many tutorials on how to seal the plastic before you start painting so I won’t bore you with that. Since I was going to paint my armor a metallic, I then slapped on some black. Color theory boring moment: metallic pigments are thin and a black base helps the color reflect back more easily. Just trust me.

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Go ahead and spray paint those babies. It might take a long time, but you can do it!

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There’s nothing wrong with the way this looks. But….the color is really flat (as in there’s no shading or added dimension). We can make this really pop. First off, go mix up a color that is about a half step away from the color you have. I mixed up some gold and copper (I just liked the way it looked) and added about an equal amount of a nice dark brown. Excuse my dirty palette. 

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Now you’re gonna start slopping this mixture onto your armor. As you’re doing this, it’s good to keep in mind where your armor would naturally get dirty. Dirt is gonna get stuck against the raised areas and will somewhat naturally get brushed off of the raised areas. I more or less just went around the designs with my paint. You don’t need to be careful necessarily. Mistakes and smudges disappear from a distance. I spread it a decent way out from the detailing with the first color. Bear with me. 

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Here is the  side by side comparison of my armor with the first color added and on the right, the flat spray paint with no shading. 

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But wait! There’s more! Add another color for shading. I then mix black with the previously made metallic. I just thought of it as another step darker. Now add that to your armor. This you want to keep much closer to the detailing. See it down there at the bottom of the little twigs?

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Now, keep going. You’re turning into a weathering machine. GOOOO!!!!

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You did it! Let those babies dry. Post your pics and bask in the glory of your awesomeness. Now, I went a step further. You can do this too if you’re so inclined. You know the Statue of Liberty, right? And she’s like made of metal but she’s that funky green color? Well, my armor is supposed to look like it’s made out of the same metal as Lady Liberty, so it should get that treatment. Here. We. Go. 

Rub n’ Buff. It’s the coolest. Get that stuff and add some paint thinner. Try to get the safe stuff and work in a ventilated room so you don’t die. Also, mix this in a disposable container b/c you’re not really gonna be able to clean it out too well. Just trust me. 

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I thought about how metal would naturally oxidize and kind of went from there. Basically, I thought about how in battle, crap would get on the armor and drip down and make it all gnarly and gross. I went with it. I literally just dripped it down my armor. 

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It’s fun. I played with it, making it drip in cool ways. I let it puddle and drip. Honestly, I didn’t want pretty shiny armor. I wanted to look like a badass warrior bitch who crawled out of the woods to beat your ass into the ground. So that’s what I went with. 

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If it gets too thick, dap it with a tissue. Don’t wipe it or you’ll just work the wax into the paint job and that’s not necessarily what I wanted b/c it doesn’t look as natural. 

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Be patient. Try to think of how these things work in the natural world and work to recreate that. Mistakes are all good though. I went ahead painted on my highlights to help them pop in pics. I sure don’t have a steady hand. And up close, it’s not pretty. But from far away, it looks real nice. Embrace your mistakes.  

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Cool. So no biggie. It’ll take half of forever, but you’ll be so tickled by how awesome it all looks. See?

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Feel free to send me any questions you might have. It’s easiest to reach me and see all the painful WIPs on my facebook page, Nerd Girl Cosplay 

Make cool stuff, guys. And seriously, love your mistakes. They’ll work for you in the end.