My focus on this bust has been painting the helmet armor. The kit is obviously resin so I had a few choices for how I wanted to tackle the metal bits. The first choice and least liked for this project was simply working with printer's inks and oil paints. Due to the scale and the large smooth surface I felt that I would never be able to achieve the effect that was desired. Second choice was the use of buffed metalizers which I have used before. This choice would have required my getting the cotton buffing wheel into areas that are partially hidden by the hood, again a poor choice. My last choice and in the end, most challenging artistically was to simply paint the metallic effect in layers of white and black, followed by hints of reflected color.
I started with a Mars Black base, allowed to dry.
To this I began applying various shades of grey, blended out to reflect the curved surface of the helm. Each layer was allowed to dry before going on to the next.
The final highlights are applied with pure Titanium White. This same technique will now be applied to the mail. You can also see a basecoat of Burnt Umber with Mars Black has been applied to the cloak and hood to begin the sun-faded black cloak of our Crusader.