Always begin with all parts fully cleaned and primed. I use flat white auto-primer. Areas that will be polished armor should be smooth and blemish free. Here I have begun by outlining and painting shadows using Gunze-Sangyo "Mr. Metal Color" Dark Iron. 

 The second step was to apply Gunze-Sangyo "Mr. Metal Color" Stainless Steel to the entire armored surface. These coats of paint should be allowed to dry for 24 hours prior to polishing.

 After allowing to dry, a Dremel tool set on it's lowest setting and holding a soft white buffing wheel was used to polish the armor surface. The entire buffing process took 5 minutes. The surface is hard as a rock and needs no clear coat or sealant of any kind.

I now turned to the flesh. I used a mixture of Burnt Sienna (4 parts), Cad. Yellow Deep (2 parts), Cad. Red Medium (2 parts) and a touch of Yellow Ochre for my base color. This mixture is applied without thinning and spread lightly like a stain over the entire surface including the hair. 

 For my initial highlights I use a mixture of Titanium White and Cad. Yellow Deep (simply tinting the white slightly yellow). This is blended into the highlight areas while the initial coat is still wet. I have also begun lightening the eyeballs.

 After the face has dried I began applying stronger shadows as glazes using Burnt Umber. I use a thin wash of Cad. Red Deep in the eyeballs and apply Titanium White in the center, blending slightly at the edges. A base color of Cad. Red Deep has been applied to the cap and Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna to the tabard.

 The Titanium White/Cad. Yellow Deep mixture is used as a glaze in successively brighter coats to further emphasize the highlights. The eyes are painted using Burnt Umber/Cad Yellow Deep for the Iris and Coal Black for the pupil.

 At this point I began the lengthy job of creating the patterned velvet tabard by painting the highlighted basecolor using Yellow Ochre/Burnt Sienna/Titamium White with W&N Gold mixed in for a satin-like effect...............

 ..........with further highlighting accomplished by adding more Titanium White and W&N Gold to the initial mixture.

I have also given the hair a wash of Raw & Burnt Umber prior to painting the layered grey tones.

 Shadows were applied using W&N Brown Madder Alizarin as a glaze. This color is a purplish/reddish brown that is very transparent and when used as a glaze rubbed on in the shadows, freely allows the underlying colors to show through.

 These shadows are even stronger on the back where the cloth is gathered together by the shoulder armor. The shadow color is also used around the edges of the cloth where they meet the armor and mail (outlining).

 Here you can see the first layer of grey hair that has been applied using a mixture of Raw Umber and Titanium White.

You can also readily see how the facial highlights and shadows bring out the character that Augie has sculpted into this face.

 While in England for Euro-Militaire I went to the National Gallery in London and made notes on how the masters recreated patterned velvet in their paintings (Renaissance period). To duplicate their efforts I used a mixtureof.....

 Yellow Ochre and Titanium White applied horizontally in thin lines over the entire surface with no highlights or shadows. This peculiarity was noted in the paintings. As always with patterns be mindful of the lay of the cloth when planning your pattern.

 A second and third layer of Titanium White and Raw Umber (less umber and more white with each succesive layer) has been applied to bring the hair to an almost white appearance per Augie's research instructions.

 A suitable pattern was researched from a book entitled "Full Color Historic Textile Designs" by Dover Books. This pattern was applied by hand using a mixture Deep Cad. Red, Madder Lake Deep and Mars Black. The color should be a deep wine red. Be patient..........

 ..........as it takes a long time, but the finished effect is quite nice.

As I said above, there are a million choices of what to do with this tabard and I may have chosen one of the more difficult. Don't be put off by my choice.

 Here I have applied my final highlights to the hair and have started painting the mail. The first coat is a mixture of silver printers inks and W&N Lamp Black. This mixture is lightly brushed over the mail leaving the base coat of Mars Black in the crevices.

 This photo shows the final shading on the tabard from the back, using Brownish Madder. I have also started painting the leather thong ties. For this I used a mixture of Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, and Yellow Ochre with a light wash of Burnt Umber and Mars Black.

 This overall shot shows all the details to this point as well as the finalization of the distictive cap worn by Senior Officers of the period. For the deep shadows I used a mixture of W&N Magenta and Lamp Black, Highlights were Cad. Red Light. I have also applied a wash of Lamp Black to outline the seperate armor plates.

 A close up of the final finished piece showing mail lightly highlighted with silver printers inks and a touch of Mars Black. Pure silver ink would have been too bright. The ties have been highlighted with Yellow Ochre/Burnt Sienna and Tit. White and finalized with pure Tit. White.

 Here is Augie's rendition of his wonderful sculpture. You can clearly see the level of interpretation allowed with this piece. No two will look alike. Thanks Augie for sharing the picture.

 The finished project!

I hope you found this useful, stay tuned for the next in our series!