Gladiator Part 1

I haven't had much time for painting these last few months.  The family and I moved up the coast, so that along with regular work did not leave any room for painting.  But things have settled down and I've been able to pick up the brush again.  While I have a number of projects still to wrap up, I felt like I needed a fresh project.  Something I could make some quick progress on and get back into the painting groove.  I decided to go with the 54mm Scissor Gladiator from Pegaso.  I've liked this kit for a long time.  I think it's just a cool, bad ass looking sculpt.  It's also a good project for practicing my metallics, as he is mostly covered with armor.

I started off with a quick sketch for the helmet and manica.  This was to help visualize the placement of the bright and dark areas.  I used just four colors.  The base was 50/50 Burgundy Wine and Necro Gold.  The shadow, was 50/50 mix of Pure Black and the base.  The mid highlight was a 50/50 mix of the base and Elven Gold.  And the lighter highlight was just Elven Gold.  Note the matte colors are from Reaper and the metallics are from Scale 75.

I like to work with a mix of matte colors and metallics.  This brings down the shine of the metals (depending on the ratio) and helps me control the shadows.  Dark metallic paint will still shine when light hits it.  But metal + a dark matte color will stay dark.  The first image below is the rough sketch while the second shows the figures with the helmet refined.  I went in and black lined some edges, while highlighting others.  I blended the colors together (mixing intermediate shades).  I also used stippling to help with the blends and create a bit of texture.  Finally, I used Citrine Alchemy to create even brighter highlights.

I repeated the process on the arm.  Below are some nicer photos of the current status.  I've also got a big close up of the metals, so you can get a better idea of the brush strokes and probably find a few mistakes (I know I already see a couple). :)