After watching Adam Savage’s video (see bottom of article) where he does some weathering on the Razor Crest (Hasbro Star Wars The Mandalorian Razor Crest Haslab Crowd Funded Project) I decided to give it a go. I probably watched the video 5 times before I got enough courage to start. I’m not as concerned about modding a one of a kind Star Wars vehicle as I am about just screwing it up. But, Adam’s video is very straightforward and there looked to be little chance of me making a mistake since I’ve been doing simple weathering to my Star Wars toys for awhile now.
Read more: Adding Some Colour To The Haslab Razor CrestAdam uses Rub n Buff paint, Vallejo Black Wash and air brushing throughout the video but I tried doing just the Rub n Buff portion of the video. When I move on to other areas of the ship I’ll try out the Vallejo Black Wash.
You may be asking yourself, “why would this guy modify an expensive and limited edition collectible????” Well, as amazing as the Razor Crest is it’s lacking in paint apps in a few spots, namely:
-engine compartments
-landing struts
-chin guns and rear cannon
-side ramp
Here is a look at two engine compartments on one of the Razor Crest’s rockets. There is zero weathering done to these areas and they look very plasticy. I tackled the engine compartments for this article and will weather the other sections at some point.
I used two different colours of Rub n Buff – Silver Leaf and European Gold. It was super easy to do; all that’s required are a few long crafting cotton swabs and a tiny amount of Rub n Buff.
In the video Adam uses only silver but I had the gold colour on hand as well so I would apply that in different areas. The result was a multi-coloured, multi-shaded engine compartment instead of one boring dark grey colour: It made things POP. The Silver Leaf brought out the details in the area and adding some of the European Gold , which has a dark, almost rusty appearance, added some “age” to the area. It now has a sort of three tone effect and it looks great.
This is a look at one of the two compartments: the left compartment is unpainted.
Here are some close up shots of the compartments after painting them. I love how the gold paint looks worn or even rusted in spots.
The second job I tackled was to use silver Rub n Buff on one of the included carbon freeze blocks, as Adam also did in the video. Again, this was super easy to do. I used a sponge paintbrush and a small amount of the paint and just dabbed it all over the carbonite block. The results were instantly apparent as you can see. After letting the paint dry I then buffed the entire block with a paper towel to bring out some shine. I really like how much brighter and metallic it looks now.
I may or may not paint the other blocks because I realized just how different the paint apps have been over the years on carbonite blocks and rather than have them all look the same a little variety could be nice too. Here’s a look at six different carbonite blocks, the last two being from the Razor Crest.
You can watch the entire Adam Savage: Tested video below, not only to see the techniques I tried out but he goes into alot of detail as he discusses model making and shooting models for movies. It’s super interesting just on it’s own.
Mike Tarkin.com 