AGUILAR HIDDEN BLADE AND GAUNTLET PROP MAKEOVER – PART 3
In this third Prop Makeover we continue to improve the appearance of the Ubiworkshop Aguilar Gauntlet (from the Assassin’s Creed Movie) by painting the hidden blade. You can find the Aguilar Hidden Blade and Gauntlet on Amazon and eBay. Additional resources can be found below.
Note: With many of the plastic hidden blade replicas, I have found that after some time there several knockoff options available. While they may look and function the same, be aware that it may not actually be produced by Ubiworkshop.
In the previous two videos (Part 1 and Part 2), we went through various processes of weathering and adding battle damage to this Aguilar gauntlet. In this video, we will finish our work by improving the look of the metal on the hidden blade.
First I start this whole process by remove the blade from the gauntlet and disassemble it. this will ensure I will not get any paint onto the gauntlet now that we have it looking pretty good. I will be very careful doing this. With plastic that is very thin like this, it is possible to strip the holes therefore making it very hard to reattach the blade to the gauntlet. This was a common problem with the Edward Kenway Hidden Blade.
With the hidden blade off the gauntlet, I will begin by painting on the silver on the gauntlet. But before I paint, it is good idea to do some surface prep here. There are plenty of ways to do this, but I am going to use a product called Simple Green. It is a good de-greaser and will pull off any loose dirt or oils providing me with a clean surface. I then paint using this heavy body silver. Since I am going to have this look distressed, I don’t have to get perfect coverage, but I am not going to be lazy either. I am simply painting to my own taste.
With the silver done, I will move onto the gold. I like to use a mixture of gold and bronze to get an aged gold look. I used this same technique when painting my Alexios and Iron Man helmets as well as my Alexios Gauntlets. I will put down a base layer of the heavy body gold, then, while it is still wet, I will top it with a light layer of bronze. I then can go back with the gold until I am happy with the result.
The spinning wheel gives the most difficulty, as you need to be careful not to paint off the circle. And at any given moment, a good portion of it is hidden behind the decorative overlay.
I then re-paint the turquoise stones that provide a pop of color on this hidden blade. The paint I am using gives a nice metallic shine to it, which I think is a benefit to the color and adds some character here.
With base painting is complete, I will seal what we have done and give it an extra bit of shine with a gloss varnish. If you do the same, you will want to give your paint some time to dry before applying this varnish. Then allow it to dry for 24 hours before continuing.
I should note, that it is pretty difficult to showcase reflective surfaces in photos and on video without looking like your object is glaring or blown out. But to my eye, the surface does have a drastic improvement in its metallic look – but to be honest, I would still like to see more.
I then move on to add back the distressing (or weathering) on the blade. Since we have already shown off how to use the shoe polish, and I want to really control my details, I am simply using watered down black acrylic paint to distress the hidden blade. I apply the black paint liberally and wipe away with a damp paper towel.
When the distressing is done, I go back and hit all the sharp edges with their corresponding paint color. Using a stiff bristle brush, and a very light amount of paint, I will carefully drag my brush across the hard edges. Do this slow and build up the layers. This will provide that small pop of color back to the highest portions of the prop making sure those details are nice and crisp.
Again, this is an extremely small detail that is hard to see on video, but it is one of those little details additions that helps pull everything together for an overall beautiful result.
The last thing to do is reassemble the blade and re-attach it to the gauntlet. Again, I will be careful with this process as I do not want to strip out any of the screw holes.
And that finishes off our mini series on how to improve this Ubiworkshop Aguilar Hidden Blade and Gauntlet.
The materials I used for this project be found here:
Simple Green: Amazon
Silver Paint: Amazon
Basics Bronze Paint: Amazon
Heavy Body Gold Paint: Amazon
Black Paint: Amazon
Metallic Turquoise: Hobby Lobby
Gloss Varnish: Amazon
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