Verlinden Black Prince-Finally done! 03-02

This is utterly GORGEOUS!

CNGRATULATIONS!!!

Looks Great Ski!!! See ya Sunday.

________

Nothing brings people together more than mutual hatred

Excelent job on the knight, Ski, and on the groundwork too.

OUTSTANDING job, Ski!!  That coat of arms on the shield looks awesome!! I love it!  Very well done.

Hi all, sorry to revive an ancient thread, but I had to share my accomplishment with you now that it's FINALLY DONE!

The shield is done in a decal of my family crest. A new experience making decals and one I don't think I'll be trying again soon. Thanks to everyone for your kind words on previous posts about this build. It was my first figure and an easy way to start with no flesh to paint. Now to work on an adversary for yon Knight.

Well, it's been a little slow going at the bench lately. I finally got the groundwork and the sword (medieval sidearm? ) finished. The shield is another story, however. What could possibly go wrong with a simple piece of nearly flat, almost mundane resin, you ask. How about decal paper that hates me! Absolutely refused to cooperate. I swear at one point I saw it waving at me with only one finger! So my plans for decaling my family crest on the shield will have to wait a little longer. Well, what are we waiting for?

Thanks for taking the time to look. As always, comments, critiques, criticisms, and praise in heaps are greatly appreciated. I can handle it.

Hey there, Thanks all for the kind words and the tips on how to finish. Doog, I take that as quite a compliment coming from such an accomplished builder as yourself. Excellent job on the FSM article!

renarts-that's some interesting info on how armor was made. Was there anything urine wasn't used for in those days? Personally, I'll take Kevlar. It's never been comfortable and I can't imagine metal being any better.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but there's one spot on the coat (tunic?) that's waaay too glossy. I had to go back to do some touch-up and naturally the paint wouldn't match up. That's why I was asking about dull coating.

Well, one more work day then it's time to play...

In period it was a technique of heating the armor to roughly 300 deg. c. and quenching it in dirty oil (linseed oil,olive oil etc.) and allowing this to burn off. This cooks the oil into the steel surface by causing the carbonized residue to bond to the steel surface.

A chemical finish that produced a grey to light black finish would be achieved by soaking the metal in tannic acid which slightly etched the surface and patinaed it. Other acids used for etching armor was nitirc acid and a particularly nasty technique using a toxic mix of urine and other acids.

Looks great.  Spectacular job.  I'm not really into the figures, but I spotted this, and the subject of the Black Prince actually interests me so I couldn't help but take a look.

Keep in mind for the charinmail how it got it's black color.  It's intentional oxidation on the raw steel.  Just short of actual rusting.  I can't remember off the top of my head what was used to oxidize it nearly black, otherwise I would post it.  I would do a little less silver drybrushing overall and concentrate on the specific area's that would find most contact with other things. 

Aside from that it looks spectacular.

You can knock some of the sheen off of oil paints by laying them out on a piece of index card stock or brown paper. This will leach the linseed oil out of them (the component that causes them to dry glossy, since the resin "floats" to the surface of the paint. Since this is the main carrier or binder for the pigment you will have to use thinner (turps,mineral spirits etc.) to carry the pigment. As this evaporates out it will leave the pigment and the result will be a more matte finish to the paint. You only want to make it as thin as the paint would normaly be. Obviously the longer it sits on the card or paper the more linseed oil will leach out and the faster it will dry. This requires some testing to get the consistency and working characteristics you'll feel comfortable with.

Another thing you can try on your armor pieces is using a light topcoat of Tamiya smoke. This settle into recesses and hugs details and creases (like the brass applique on his helmet, the flares and creases on the pauldrons and cops and where the axe surrounds the wooden handle. This shading creates some real nice depth to the metal parts and looks good without altering too much of the overall appearance of the metal. Though it will darken it a bit. You can then go back over the highlights with a drybrushing of model master chrome silver or some other bright silver and really make them pop.

I like what you did with this figure. I have him and did it a little different with different livery but IMO you can't get too many of this figure. I have another in the stash to paint up again differently. I always keep an eye out at shows for this kit and will pick one up if available.

ski4jeepin wrote:

Hi all, Here is my nearly complete Black Prince from Verlinden built OOB. Just waiting for the paint to dry on some of the accessories. It's painted with mostly oil paint, but Model Master Steel for the helmet and Krylon gold pen for the gold accents. Quick question for anyone who had used oil paints, what works best for overcoating/dullcoating oil? This is the first time I picked up a tube of oil paint since high school art class, and I didn't bother to clear anything then.  Less talk, more gawk... Thanks for looking.

Awesome job on the knight.  Your work inspires and I have learned a lot from looking at the way you have combined the paints.  A master at work.  Congratulations on a job well done.

WOW!!!

That's one damn-fine Knnnnnigget! Perfect, really! I wouldn't seal or change a thing!!!!!

This is superb!! 

Hey guys, thanks for your input.

aj-I was thinking about the static grass, just hadn't made up my mind yet. As for the knee guard, that's a tough spot to reach.

 One lesson I learned, It's not always build first then paint. All part of the learning curve for one's first figure model, I guess.

 Back to the bench...

Looks like you got some nice highlights on the black. Not an easy thing to do. NIce leathers, too.

Check the knee protector on the left leg. The edge between it and the lrgging or armor is a bit rough. I'm not sure how it could be done, but the eye slits look too stark. Maybe it's the contrast between them and the rest of the helmet.

If you're going for a grassy surface, especially in this scale, you might want to lay on some static grass.

Nicely painted figure.  I never topcoat/dullcoat oils, just let them fully cure over time to a nice satin finish.  If I were going to, I'd use an acrylic such as PollyScale Flat, but let the oils cure for a few weeks first.

Regards,  Rick