Painting shields - need some advice

[asda28]

Hello everyone,

I am working on my first build - Drakkar by Amati. Part of the build involves painting 24 viking shields. Shields are round but not smooth (I've attached a picture), so even tape might not help much. The center and outer ridges are raised. Ideally, I would like to make center and ridges bronze/silver/black (whatever is easier due to paint application order) and the main body broken into halves or quarters with different colors. I was wondering if anyone can suggest a method or approach to avoid doing all of it by hand (what I mean is I would like to have straight color borders with no smudges, don't care if it is by hand or an airbrush). I found several logs on MSW with shields executed perfectly, but no method of painting was discussed. Keith (Amfibius) mentioned that he had to do it by hand, but I am afraid my hands are not as steady as his. Is there any way to create some kind of template? I was thinking of simply creating a round paper template with the hole in the center to airbrush center and ridges, but it is still leaves a problem of separating colors on the main part plus paint leaking under the paper. Any advice would be appreciated.

[GrandpaPhil]

If you can base coat the shield, you can dry brush the ridges and the boss (center).

 

This would be similar to painting a 28mm scale shield (and about the same size).

 

I would personally recommend viewing some YouTube tutorials for miniature painting.

 

 

[asda28]

Thanks GrandpaPhil, I didn't connect shields paintings and miniatures. As you correctly pointed out there are some interesting videos. Seems I will have to do it by hand, could not find any techniques to uniformly paint in bulk.

[Bob Cleek]

You might consider masking with friskit and airbrushing. This can be tedious, but less so than hand painting and you'll be assured of razor-sharp edges. Search for "friskit" on Youtube and you'll find many excellent tutorials on using this masking material which is readily available at most all art supply stores.

[asda28]

On 10/13/2019 at 2:25 PM, Bob Cleek said:

You might consider masking with friskit and airbrushing. This can be tedious, but less so than hand painting and you'll be assured of razor-sharp edges. Search for "friskit" on Youtube and you'll find many excellent tutorials on using this masking material which is readily available at most all art supply stores.

Thanks Bob. I already hand painted it (after my cheap airbrush died on the second color). Looks as I expected, less than perfect. I will take a look at friskit, maybe I will brave enough to re-do.