The High Rollers' "Lucky Seven" gets Kustomized!
By Mark Stansell
Photos by Mark Hoke and Dustin Scheie
Additional progress shots can be found here.
As custom painters we are always looking forward to the next project, and if you are like me you are hoping that your next job will be out of the ordinary. I know every custom job is unique, but I'm talkin' about something a little more. Flames are cool, but I really enjoy those jobs that have a style, or color combination, or mural concept that no one has ever seen before. I also get excited about doing custom paintwork on different objects. Our bread and butter at MARKS Kustom Paint is motorcycle sheet metal, helmets and car hoods, but we are always happy to have the occasional surfboard or golf club to shake things up. This summer however, we were in for an awesome surprise.
The H60 Sierra.
When we got a call to go down to the Coronado Island Naval Base, we were stoked to say the least. If you are ever in San Diego, you have to drive over the Coronado Bridge and catch a glimpse of one of the best views in Southern California, but what we were about to see was even more exciting. It was a H60S Helicopter, and she was awesome! The "Lucky Seven" is a working Navy aircraft that is also used to represent squadron HSC-85 "High Rollers" at air shows and various events. This was certainly a unique opportunity for us and we couldn't wait to get started.
The Beautiful View From the Coronado Bridge.
After a few phone calls and emails, we got an idea of the design and artwork style the men we were working with wanted. It was a stylized version of the squadron insignia. The squadron used to fly the H-3 Sea King helicopters, so for their emblem they used a king of spades holding a trident. With the squadron named the High Rollers, they wanted to carry over some aspects of the original name, so they added a pair of dice displaying 5/3 and 5 (for 85) to the original artwork. Benjamin Ayala, one of the guys in the squadron, took the original artwork and stylized it into a design to be used on the tail section of the Lucky Seven. Once we figured out how to fit Ayala's design within the constraints of the aircraft via our computer graphics skills, we submitted a couple ideas for approval and were off and runnin'. My partner Mark "tats" Bedney and I, headed down south to take a look at what we were hoping would be our next "vehicle kustomization". Upon pulling up to the hangar and being escorted out onto the tarmac by LT. Louis Marroquin, we were truly excited just to get a chance to see an aircraft like this, let alone to get an opportunity to paint one! After a quick tour of the aircraft, we took a couple of measurements, and snapped off a few digital pictures for reference, and it was back to the shop.
Mark Bedney talks with LT. Luis about the size of the graphics across the tail rudder.
On the ride home we strategized about how to execute this job. "How long do you think this is going to take? We aren't going to be able to clear coat this thing, what paint should we use? How do we price it? Hey, we are going to have to set up a mobile shop for this, they can't exactly fly it up to our place and land on our roof." After we finalized our plan of attack, and were given the thumbs up, we loaded up the trucks with tables, paint, airbrushes, paint guns, hoses, razor blades, and plenty of tape and masking paper, and set off for a three-day whirlwind adventure.
Unlike most of our other projects, which are usually car hoods and motorcycle tank murals, this job didn't call for finely detailed artwork. This design had to read well from a distance. It is after all, over 17 feet from the ground to the top of the tail rotor and the rudder measures 18 feet across. Very few people will be able to see it up close; it flies at almost 20,000 ft high!
From projecting the artwork in order to scale the size, to a computer-driven plotter to cut out the lettering and spade symbols, to hand-cut cardboard stencils, to good ol' freehand airbrushing, we had to use almost every trick we knew to accomplish this job.
Day 1
The first day on the job involved figuring out where we were going to set up our ad-hoc mixing station and get busy prepping this chopper for a face-lift. An obvious big task lay ahead of us. "Hey, how are we going to get up there to work on this baby?" Fortunately we were provided with killer mobile scaffolding designed for the maintenance techs that work on these bad boys. We were all set up and ready to rock! As we began scuffing the surface and laying out the design, we realized that we were going to be checked up on periodically by various maintenance technicians and mechanics for the duration of the project. Everybody wanted to stop by and see what we were doing.
The guys wanted to make sure we were taking good care of their baby.
A shot of the mobile scaffolding designed for maintenance on the aircraft.
By about 2:00am that first night, we had gotten what we considered a lot of work done, including a symmetrical layout of the graphics, masking the entire design on both sides of the tail as well as the lettering across the back tail rudder, and our base white sprayed. Since we used catalyzed enamel, we needed way more dry time than we are used to with urethane, so we packed it up for the evening. Tomorrow we should be ready to really make some visible progress.
Day 2
When we arrived the next morning, we had the feeling that not everyone shared our sentiment concerning how much we had accomplished the night before. All that was done was a big patch of one color and a bunch of paper and tape everywhere. "Don't worry guys, we know what we're doin'." I don't know why, but I am still surprised when I try to explain a project to a client, or show them some progress shots, and they can't envision the final outcome. I guess that's what makes me an artist and them an appreciator thereof. Well, that's okay. That just makes the final revelation of the artwork that much more exciting. Anyway, since our white base was good and ready from the night before, we covered the entire layout with transfer tape and began mapping out the various elements of the design. We tried to work progressively by color so that we could minimize the number of times we had to clean out the guns, and make sure that we could safely go on to the next color while not disturbing the previous one that was still flashing off.
I hope they recognize how much work it has been just to get the white base done.
It's always a good practice to spend some time up front "engineering" and planning out your project. Determining which steps to do in what order can really make or break a project. Less work, in less time, and with less material usage, equals happier customers and greater profits. A little planning can not only lessen the number of times you have to clean out your guns, reducing the amount of time and material used, but also, reduce the number of times of masking and remasking, which minimizes tape edge buildup, and the number of steps you have to take to finish the job. There's nothing wrong with hard work, but no one wants to work harder than they have to.
We decided to first mask out anywhere that yellow was going to be used in the design with some transfer tape. After mapping out the placement of the crown and trident, and determining which letters the trident would appear to go behind or in front of across the rudder, Mark used his skills with the mini gun for a nice chrome yellow base.
Benjamin Ayala helps us translate his design to a larger format.
Mark uses the minigun to lay out a clean chrome yellow base for the crown and trident.
The trident will appear to weave in and out of the lettering across the tail rudder.
While the yellow was drying, Mark got set up to paint the base red for the three pairs of dice and I figured out where all the parts of the king character would go using cutout poster board shapes as templates. Because we wanted to do this project with a minimal material cost for the customer we used only black, white, yellow, red, and blue. From these colors we could make the many secondary colors, such as grays and flesh tones that we would need to bring this project to life. Using an approximate mix of 30% white, 30% red, and 30% yellow I came up with a flesh tone and began roughing-in the shapes of the arms and facial features.
Using a custom-mixed fleshtone, Mark begins to rough-in the arms of the king character.
Another unique aspect of this job for us was an opportunity to try out our new Colani airbrush graciously supplied by Harder & Steenbeck. This tool is like no other airbrush you have seen before. With its comfortable ergonomic shape, large 15ml paint cup, and .4 nozzle size, it was perfect for a large format job like this. Thanks to Anke Matthiessen at Harder & Steenbeck for making sure we got it in time, we love it!
The ergonic H&S Colani airbrush was used for 90% of the airbrushing work on this project.
Day 3
By the third day on the job, the design was starting to come together and we began tightening up the details and finishing it off. To give the effect of the king tearing through the card we used some transfer tape and a marker to draw out the torn edges of the card, and fineline tape to mask off the border. A little airbrushing with some black brought out the shapes and shadows to give the illusion of dimension. Continuing the shading on the beard and adding some drop shadows to the elbows and shoulders of the character brought the project to a close.
Masking the torn card effect.
A little black airbrushing brings dimension to the facial hair.
Finally after some late nights and a little too much junk food, our mission was accomplished. Our client and new friends were as pleased with the results as we were, and it was time to pack it up and head home. The "Lucky Seven" was a fun project, and will certainly stand out to me personally as one of the more unique projects I have been privileged to work on. Hopefully if you make it to San Diego you'll see her flying high above "America's Finest City" or catch her in one of the local air shows. Either way, we at MARKS Kustom Paint will remember her for many years to come.
Commander Cluxton and Mark with the Lucky Seven.
MARKS Kustom Paint would like to thank CMDR J. Cluxton, and everyone at HSC-85 for giving us a few days with "Lucky Seven", Anke Mattiessen from Harder & Steenbeck for the airbrushes, Jeff Bristow at CarQuest Refinish for helping us get the right materials, and Mark Hoke and Dustin Scheie for visually documenting our adventure.
Mark and Dustin put in a lot of hours helping us record this project. Thanks guys!
Located in Oceanside, California, Mark Bedney and Mark Stansell have combined experience in custom painting and graphics of almost 40 years. After meeting at a local "Introduction to Airbrush" class that Mark Stansell was teaching they have become collectively known as MARKS Kustom Paint for the last 2 1/2 years. Although most of their business is custom motorcycles and helmets, they will paint anything that will sit still long enough, and they are always looking for that one-of-a-kind truly "kustom" project.
Call us for a free quote on your next kustom paint project
(619) 807-1294 or (760) 519-6490
We offer high quality work at a reasonable price, and strive for excellence in honest and reliable customer service.
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