Media-blasted Jollipop Copper Orange, and Matte Black Tuscan

[TuxedoCartman]

Thought I'd upload these pics for the community, in case anyone wanted to see these colors on a saber. Jollipop Copper Orange and Matte Black Tuscan, first photo taken with HDR on and the second with it off....




Here's my thoughts..

First is this: something about the Jollipop Copper Orange makes it IMPOSSIBLE to photograph correctly (well, at least with my crappy cameras). It shows up way more orange in the photos than it does in real life. Outside in direct sunlight, it's got a noticeable amount of orange in it, but in indoor lighting it's more of a mix between a buckskin brown and copper, with just a hint of burnt orange. It's certainly a bold color, but nowhere near as neon orange as what keeps showing up in all of my photos.

Second: the media blasting has a noticeable effect. I've seen other pics of the Jollipop Copper Orange that makes it look like a clear candy glaze on top of the aluminum of the saber. But the pieces I had media-blasted then Jollipopped look almost like they were manufactured out of some other type of material (which breaks up the "aluminum-tube with switches" look some sabers fall victim to). It gives the powdercoating a light metal-flake appearance too, like high-quality auto paint. Overall, I'm extremely happy with it, and glad I took a risk and ordered it this way. (There weren't a lot of good pics out there when I placed my order, and a tremendous amount of variety between the ones I could find).

And the Matte Black Tuscan? Yup... it's a flat black. Nothing more to really say about that.

Hope these can be of help to somebody!

[IndustrialAction]

Very nice colors!

[Kevin Starwaster]

Thought I'd upload these pics for the community, in case anyone wanted to see these colors on a saber. Jollipop Copper Orange and Matte Black Tuscan, first photo taken with HDR on and the second with it off....


Here's my thoughts..

First is this: something about the Jollipop Copper Orange makes it IMPOSSIBLE to photograph correctly (well, at least with my crappy cameras).

Try a cheap disposable. You know, the kind that have actual film in them that you have to take in to be developed. They'll give you a CD back with the prints (or maybe you can dispense with the prints and just get the CD)

(yeah, so instead of going with your crappy camera you'll go with a crappier one that doesn't try to autocorrect exposure and colors. Just try it.)

[TuxedoCartman]

Kevin, that's actually not a bad idea. Except I'm currently living in Japan, and while I'm sure there's a few die-hard purists somewhere in Tokyo who still use film, I have no idea where to get it or get it developed. My language skills right now are hovering around the "I be dumb. I be fire. Water please?" level of speaking.

However, for not much more than the cost of a disposable, I *could* actually go buy a decent camera (yay being in the center of electronics manufacturing for the world!) But meh... taking pictures of my saber would be the only time I'd use it, and my sabers aren't that cool... yet.

[Kevin Starwaster]

Kevin, that's actually not a bad idea. Except I'm currently living in Japan, and while I'm sure there's a few die-hard purists somewhere in Tokyo who still use film, I have no idea where to get it or get it developed. My language skills right now are hovering around the "I be dumb. I be fire. Water please?" level of speaking.

However, for not much more than the cost of a disposable, I *could* actually go buy a decent camera (yay being in the center of electronics manufacturing for the world!) But meh... taking pictures of my saber would be the only time I'd use it, and my sabers aren't that cool... yet.

Wow yeah, I guess (typical American) I took for granted that everyone could waltz on down to their local Walgreens and grab a disposable snap some shots and return to said establishment and get it developed.

[Crystal Chambers]

Good to see the media blast with PC on it. I used it with weathering before (saber in my banner) and it worked well but I haven't seen much done with media blasting except that alone. Cool stuff!

I'm guessing solid opaque colours wouldn't look any diff but I'd be curious to see how other trans colours look.

[Johannes Huber]

The media blasted jollypop orange looks really beautiful. Is there a clear coat of some sort over it as well or is that all coming from just the transparent powder coating when it's over media blasted pieces? I ask because it looks like some of the color behavior is based on an interaction between the light reflection from the media blasting, with its multiple reflective angles, and refraction through the jollypop (due to transparency) and/or clear coat (if there is one). You are quite right that this is very similar in concept to how some multi stage "metal flake" car paints are created. (It would also explain why getting an "accurate" and consistant photo of its color is going to be very tricky since by its nature it will reflect light in different ways based on environment and light source). Either way it looks really great and expands the looks possible from the presently available powder coatings enormously. Thanks for sharing it.

Johannes

[TuxedoCartman]

Johannes, I'm 98% certain there's no clear-coat on the Jollipop pieces, that the gloss just comes from the transparent powdercoating. And god, it was incredibly frustrating trying to take pictures; I'm using the camera on my iPhone 4, which is (for a cel phone) a pretty decent camera most of the time. But you could actually see the phone's sensors trying to make sense of what it was looking at, because the light and color saturation was bouncing around all over the place while I was trying to take the photo, and not once did it *really* look like what I had in front of me. The aluminum, Matte Black pieces, and background are all very faithful to real life... but it had a nervous breakdown over the Jollipop.

Still, I hope between the two photos I took and my personal description of the color, people considering it will have a decent idea of what to expect. There are some pretty good pics of the Jollipop Copper Orange on a couple of sabers out there, but neither of them had the media-blasting done first, and I believe that made a huge difference in the outcome.

@Crystal Chambers: The saber in your banner is incredible. I thought you had gone with a matte white finish on it, but that was media blasted? It's gorgeous, and I agree that more people need to consider it as an option. It's a subtle touch that makes a big difference overall.

[Crystal Chambers]

Thanks.....you're right about my overlay. Just the MHS underneath was media blasted and weathered....the overlay was an entirely different weathering process.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your build....and of course more experimental finishes from members here in general.

[Ronan]

Set you WB to a neutral grey card. Make sure its being exposed to the same light source. The picture will come out 99% like you see with your eyes.

Edit: Most camera will let you set a custom WB, do that, point it at a neutral grey card, and voila. Keep shutter speed up.