How to texture your pack shell (Tutorial)
Posted: October 16th, 2011, 5:15 pm
Hey guys I decided to do a tutorial for everyone on how to texture your pack similar to the screen used hero packs. I've been doing a pack build for my son this month with a old V71 shell and have been doing a lot of experimenting since I already have two other proton packs and I'm not really worried about messing up. The process of texturing can be a bit complicated so hopefully this little tutorial will be helpful for the builder who wants to go the extra mile with their build. I've done this on my on my current hero build as well so I'm learning how to make this easier rather then harder. The first thing you will need obviously a pack shell....
At this point you should have the majority of your shell clean up done. I like to drill out some of my holes before paint but that's up to you.
Now well go with the main supplies you'll need
3/4 painters tape for masking. You'll want Homax water-based wall texture you could get a small can at Home Depot for rather cheap. Of course you'll want some kind of grey primer doesn't matter what kind you use. To seal your texture coat you'll want some kind of clear Lacquer I went with Ace's because it was cheap. The reason you'll want to seal your texture coat with Lacquer is because it cures more rigid then basic primer paints and it gives you a hard protective coat so your texture coat won't scrape off easily.
Now you want to start your masking process. Texturing on the hero shells and semi-hero shells tend to vary but that can be due to the resolution of photos we have. You can choose for yourself what texture format you want to go with, I decided to do a mix of all the packs in one and what I like/don't like. To mask the cycltron rings you'll want to wrap some painters tape around the side of the ring then when you have it pressed on fold the excess over the top of the ring then cover the remaining with some extra tape strips. For the powercell fins youll want to lay a piece evenly over the top and then folds the sides down around the edges.
After your masked up depending on what style and how far you want to go with it you should look something like this. Now comes the more tedious part....
First grab your Homax wall texture make sure you have the nozzle on the finest setting because you don't want big globs. A little tip to make the texture spray even finer is to let the can soak in a large cup of hot faucet water for a few mins just before your ready to spray. After spraying you should look something like this
Now I know this looks ugly but bare with me the finished result will look much more satisfying. Make sure when you spray your texture coat that you don't overspray the areas you chose. You'll only want to cover about 80% of each area. Having this in mind will help you be more careful
. Fun thing about water-based texture is if your not happy with a area or spot just get a wet rag wipe it off and respray.
Time to unmask. After you unmask then get your clear Lacquer and seal the crap out of your texture coat. I did probably 3-4 coats to get a nice hard protective coat.
After my seal coat is dried I put her back in primer. If there are some imperfections your not happy with now is your time to sand and touch up. Once your happy with the result then your ready for paint.
Here's a little detail that might help some of you who really want to replicate the look of the real packs. I used a low grit sanding drum and rubbed it against each fin to get the wood grain/sand mark look. It's best to do this when your in your primer coat.
Now it's time for the finished result
At this point you should have a nice pretty close to screen used looking proton pack shell. This might not be the easiest task but the results are worth the try. I hope this tutorial helps some of you out. I know there are various other ways to texture your pack such as hammered paint and truck liner paint which produce good results and might be easier to work with but they don't capture the screen used look like wall texture does.
Disclaimer-Individual results may vary
At this point you should have the majority of your shell clean up done. I like to drill out some of my holes before paint but that's up to you.
Now well go with the main supplies you'll need
3/4 painters tape for masking. You'll want Homax water-based wall texture you could get a small can at Home Depot for rather cheap. Of course you'll want some kind of grey primer doesn't matter what kind you use. To seal your texture coat you'll want some kind of clear Lacquer I went with Ace's because it was cheap. The reason you'll want to seal your texture coat with Lacquer is because it cures more rigid then basic primer paints and it gives you a hard protective coat so your texture coat won't scrape off easily.
Now you want to start your masking process. Texturing on the hero shells and semi-hero shells tend to vary but that can be due to the resolution of photos we have. You can choose for yourself what texture format you want to go with, I decided to do a mix of all the packs in one and what I like/don't like. To mask the cycltron rings you'll want to wrap some painters tape around the side of the ring then when you have it pressed on fold the excess over the top of the ring then cover the remaining with some extra tape strips. For the powercell fins youll want to lay a piece evenly over the top and then folds the sides down around the edges.
After your masked up depending on what style and how far you want to go with it you should look something like this. Now comes the more tedious part....
First grab your Homax wall texture make sure you have the nozzle on the finest setting because you don't want big globs. A little tip to make the texture spray even finer is to let the can soak in a large cup of hot faucet water for a few mins just before your ready to spray. After spraying you should look something like this
Now I know this looks ugly but bare with me the finished result will look much more satisfying. Make sure when you spray your texture coat that you don't overspray the areas you chose. You'll only want to cover about 80% of each area. Having this in mind will help you be more careful
. Fun thing about water-based texture is if your not happy with a area or spot just get a wet rag wipe it off and respray.Time to unmask. After you unmask then get your clear Lacquer and seal the crap out of your texture coat. I did probably 3-4 coats to get a nice hard protective coat.
After my seal coat is dried I put her back in primer. If there are some imperfections your not happy with now is your time to sand and touch up. Once your happy with the result then your ready for paint.
Here's a little detail that might help some of you who really want to replicate the look of the real packs. I used a low grit sanding drum and rubbed it against each fin to get the wood grain/sand mark look. It's best to do this when your in your primer coat.
Now it's time for the finished result
At this point you should have a nice pretty close to screen used looking proton pack shell. This might not be the easiest task but the results are worth the try. I hope this tutorial helps some of you out. I know there are various other ways to texture your pack such as hammered paint and truck liner paint which produce good results and might be easier to work with but they don't capture the screen used look like wall texture does.
Disclaimer-Individual results may vary
