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#352583
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....
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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
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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.

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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.

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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
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
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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 :cool:
Last edited by pchrisbosh1 on October 22nd, 2018, 5:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
needanID, alphabeta001, MasterOod and 7 others liked this
#352627
You never cease to amaze me, Chris. Every pack should be done this way. I know my all of my future packs will!

Thank you for being you!!
#352637
perfect timing. im just getting ready to paint my own shells. i was tempted to use the hammered paint, but i know some have run into problems with the outer coat cracking after several days of curing and with such a tight deadline to halloween, i didnt want to run into that problem. my only question is about the laquer. is it the same thing as clear coat or is it different? i already have most of a can of krylon satin clearcoat and im just wondering if i should use that.
#352659
ecto1321 wrote:perfect timing. im just getting ready to paint my own shells. i was tempted to use the hammered paint, but i know some have run into problems with the outer coat cracking after several days of curing and with such a tight deadline to halloween, i didnt want to run into that problem. my only question is about the laquer. is it the same thing as clear coat or is it different? i already have most of a can of krylon satin clearcoat and im just wondering if i should use that.
Lacquer cures more rigid then enamel paints which means it cures by solvent absorbtion and gets keep into the crevices of the texture hardening it to the shell . It's produces a clear like plastic protective coat that a regular Krylon or other brand clear enamel coats won't give you. Lacquer is a varnish which is used to seal appliances, heavy duty equipment, etc.. The texture i'm sure can be sealed other ways but this is the best most durable way I know of to keep the texture from scraping off easily.
#352997
At some point I might have to dismantle my pack just so I can start over with this texturing method.
Swilliam76 liked this
By Gareee
#353083
I really like this texture/paint method! I might have to try this out at some point.
User avatar
By julz
#353093
Fantastic Tutorial Cris!

We don't have that kind of spray texture here...So ill have to see if I can find soemthing else that will match :/

do you think any of these textures would match Cris?

http://www.resene.co.nz/comn/textures/index.htm
#353100
julz wrote:Fantastic Tutorial Cris!

We don't have that kind of spray texture here...So ill have to see if I can find soemthing else that will match :/

do you think any of these textures would match Cris?

http://www.resene.co.nz/comn/textures/index.htm
Hey julz some of those textures look nice but I'd really hate to recommend something I'm not familiar with or have any clue how to work with it. I would love to help you out but USPS doesn't allow the international shipment of aerosol or bottled chemicals, they only allow ground shipping for liquids. Best bet is to shop around and see if you could find any online stores that will ship internationally for a reasonable pirice. Most likely it would be a third party carrier such as UPS or Fed Ex not sure on their guidlines for liquids though.

Thanks guys I'm glad to see some of you who want to try this out please post pics of your final product when any of you decide to take on the task.
#353189
outstanding tutorial. its about time someone addressed this detail that has been left off nearly every pack replica until now.

i will definitely be using this method(and the exact products) when i redo the V71 shell i tried to texture with Homax oil-based orange peel texture which failed horribly.

thanks Chris!
#353340
ProtonCharger wrote:you can get it all at ace? im wanting the exact materials also.
I'm not really sure to be honest. Ace's website doesn't show they carry the Homax neither do they show the Krylon primer but that doesn't mean they don't have it necessarily. I got the Homax from Home Depot, primer from Walmart, and Lacquer from Ace.
User avatar
By XxEctOxX
#353451
thanks for putting this up! i will give this a try my next time around
#353946
Hey guys just wanted to update you guys with a couple close up pics of the texture on the cyclotron since I know some of you would like to see and also let you know guys know that I've been working pretty grudgingly on this pack the past few days and I've yet to have any texture scrape off

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