EMI Villanovan Warrior - Final Assembly and Details

 Finally, the figure is attached to the base and the spear is located in the figures right hand. I first primed the spear with a thin coat of acrylic white paint. A glaze stain of Mars Brown was applied to the spear shaft and a gold base coat was applied to the spear tips.

After the first colors had dried (24 hours) I applied a wash of Burnt Umber to the spear tips and a glaze of the same color as a second stain coat on the spear shaft. After this had dried a further wash of Mars Black was applied to the spear points and full strength Burnt Umber and Mars Black applied to deeper shadows on the shaft such as around the hand and joins with the tips.

 One of the difficulties with this figure is the join between the hand and the shield. There is no locating pin on the hand and the shield would be very hard to get a good fitment simply with glue. During prep I drilled two small holes in the hand and inner shield boss. Two brass pins were glued to the hand with a rough surround to better adhere to the 5 minute epoxy I would use to attach the shield.

Here you can see the process of working from base color to finished product when painting bronze using metallic gold printers inks. The first picture is the base mix of gold ink and Burnt Umber. The second picture shows the spear with it's wash of Burnt Umber. The third shows the completed spear point after a wash of Mars Black and final highlights with pure gold inks. You can also see the progress of the spear shaft. Sometimes I use brass rod as with this figure while using actual wooden dowel, sanded to scale thickness, for larger scale figures. In that larger scale you can really see how the oil washes bring out the grain for added realism.