Soldier's Gunther von Schwarzburg 54mm - Update 1

Painting has begun on this great little figure. As I said in my last post this figure will be an "all paint" project for me. That is to say that no metallic oils or polished white metal will appear on this figure. I am attempting to rise to a challenge by Greg DeFranco to paint a knight in armor entirely in colors. I decided for my first attempt, (That is right, I am a glutton for punishment and I will do another attempt after this one - such commitment!) to work a piece that had limited areas of actual steel armor with areas of brass, leather, cloth, light, dark, rich and bold colors. This figure has a little something for everyone. The helm and bascinet are steel, along with the mail. The majority of the remaining armor is brass, red leather, cloth, etc. The surcoat is blue with gold/yellow lions rampant.

I began with the face, being the only bit of flesh on the figure and my usual starting point. I have explained my flesh mixture in depth before but quickly repeating; Burnt Sienna with a bit of medium cad red and medium cad yellow as well as a tiny touch of yellow ochre for the base color (seen above). wet on wet highlighting begins with med. cad. yellow and Titanium white, applied to create all of the basic mid tones.

This was then followed by final highlights and shadows created with glazes once the initial flesh had fully dried. For highlights a lighter mix of the yellow/white formula mentioned earlier was used after first creating shadows with Brown Madder. Further hot spots of highlight were added after the eyes were painted. As I look at the photo above it is easy to see the fact that one eye is slightly larger than the other. This is only a visual issue when the figure is blown up in photos (or when I am staring at it thru my Optivisor). In real size the difference is negligible.

I have also started the armor at this point. A black oil base color was applied to the mail coif and a lighter shade of Mars Black and Titanium White was painted on the bascinet. This was then highlighted wet on wet with more white. The rest of the tones will be created with successive layers of lighter and lighter tones to build up the highlights. These steps will be the subject of my next few posts.

I have also started the groundwork. The rod sticking up in the back is for a section of jousting fence that will be placed behind the figure with his shield hanging draped from the post. More to come.