Romeo 54-035 Teutonic Knight mid XIII Cent.

So here is the figure that goes with my little groundwork demo piece. This is a Knight of the Teutonic Order, mid 13th Century. The kit is a 54mm Romeo casting and once complete, will be resting on his shield and holding a lance. These first few photos show fitment testing as the painting began on the base. As you can see I masked the mail areas and used my usual white automotive primer.

Painting began with the face as always. Typical mix and technique. Once done I used a bit of lacquer thinner to clean the paint from the mail before it dried and began to apply.............

................washes of Mars Black to the mail to begin pulling out the detail. The mail here is not as diminutive as I am used to with some figures so I'm not getting the strong crisp details that I am used to. My plan is to use a thicker coat of Mars Black rubbed into the deeper shadow areas to further darken and delineate the mail. A brush dipped in thinner and drawn over the higher details after the black sits for awhile will pull the natural metal highlights back out. That will be for a later post.

Shadows were applied to the face and Burnt Sienna/Titanium White oils used to paint the lining around the opening of the mail as well as the horizontal lacing around the upper head. This is really nothing more than a base coat as their is visible lacing detail that will need to be carefully picked out with various colors once the face and mail are complete.

Here you can see that I have begun the shoes as well as the initial work on the white tunic. The base color is a mix of Titanium White, Raw Umber and a hint of Lamp Black. Over this I worked a few mid level highlights wet-on-wet, applied a thinned capillary wash of Mars Black around belts and laces to pop out the detail and set aside to dry. The shoes are Burnt Umber with a bit of Mars Brown added for warmth and after drying, initial washes of Mars Black. Worn edges and further highlighting have not yet been completed. I will paint the straps and spurs while the figure is on the working base but final highlights may well be left until the figure is mounted to the groundwork so that I can unify the colors.

These last three pictures are the finished face. Leather and mail remain unfinished and I may well work a bit more on the color of the moustache. If the lights had been lowered you would see that yes, there are eyes under there somewhere!