Painting a Roundshield
With Abergwili show approaching I need to sort out a Welsh military impression. I am a crys and a non nasal helm short, but we'll see as things come along.
I bought myself a rounshield a little while ago, at the Pembroke Show where I debuted my Welsh civilian impression as a wool spinner. This means it was time to paint my shield. Saturating the canvas somewhat with paint and varnishing it adds a layer of protection to the shield so it can last longer.
It looked a bit mucky and yucky because I'd taken it camping with me and handled it a whole bunch. I wiped it down with a damp cloth to get the worst off but largely I should worry more about getting it damp or soapy than dirty.
I found the cardinal points and drew lines to the edges, using a piece of paper to judge whether they're at true right angles from each other. It took a little bit of fudging around.
I folded the paper to a 45° angle to make new lines coming from the centre and drew lines 45° from those lines from the edges of the boss. Seems convoluted but that's the way I used so as to make the lines even. I made sure they were 90° from each other again with the paper and used marks on the paper to judge the width of the lines.
Mask it (including the boss and the leather but if you get paint on the steal it should come off easily) and paint it. Can you tell by how little I have to say that painting just ain't my jam as much as geometry? I studied art FFS.
I did two layers of red, even though just one was a pretty solid colour. Adding the white is complicated. These paints are water based so mix together enthusiastically. If I got a tiny bit of white in the red or a tiny bit of red in the white it was time for the pink rebellion. I protected myself from this by spraying a nice coat of varnish over the red after taking up the masking tape and before adding the white.
This was bastard masking tape. It simultaneously was not sticky enough and also sticky enough to pull up the paint despite me waiting for the paint to get nice and dry and crackly. I ended up freehanding the white.
Hot chocolate to wait for the paint to dry before pulling up the last of the masking tape. Look at this lil' guy!
Turned out a little rough but I was given the feedback afterwards that painting with a sponge might help get better lines. Since it's a little late for me I'll leave that one as a free tip for you!