07 June 2014

Tyrion -- Painting (I): Armour - Phase 1

Phase 1 of Tyrion's armour is now done!

It has been a number of years since I have painted a major piece of armour, and I am happy--and relieved!--to report that it's just like riding a bike: just do it!

Since this is intended to be the metallic basecoat to a weathered, dark-russeted cuirass, I went with G-S Mr. Metal Iron straight out of the bottle, rather than one of my custom metallic lacquer "cocktails". For the latten trim, I went with G-S Mr. Metal Brass, applied as a series of controlled washes. PERFECT!

It should be noted that I also wanted to introduce a somewhat textured surface to represent age and grime. Thus, I applied a somewhat heavy coat of paint (rather than floating a thinned coat), which I then textured as it was setting. Do not concern yourself with overdoing it it--within rea- son!-- as any overdone areas can simply be burnished-out when polishing the lacquers. As I've always said, you have to go out of your way to screw-up with the Mr. Metal lacquers!

I will let the lacquers cure for a week before proceeding with the russeting and weathering. In the meantime, I will complete undercoating Tyrion.

As a final note, I would like to praise a new product that I recently acquired: Tamiya's Craft Cot- ton Swabs. I purchased these for the express purpose of polishing metallic lacquers, especially tight areas, and they simply shine (pun intended) in this capacity! No more scratches from cut- down Q-tip shafts, no more lint to carefully remove before continuing with your work. And at ~5- 10¢/swab, depending on your retailer, these are money well spent!

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