A brief painting pre-amble
I paint almost exclusively with Delta Ceramcoat craft paints. I've tried all the acrylics and have been assured that the Delta's are cell vinyl acrylic paints, just like Vallejo and Andrea. They are inexpensive and come in a wide variety of colors. Search the TMP archives for the multitude of religious wars concerning the "right paint." If I do not mention a brand, it's a Delta.
I thin my paints with a variant of Magic Wash (MW) which I found on CmoN. It was attributed to CMoN user dnaGRIM: seven parts water to two parts Liquitex flow aid to one part Liquitex retarder plus a drop of dishwashing liquid. I have moved to this recipe over Future Floor Acrylic-based recipes as I found, as dnaGRIM found, they tend to get gummy. I only use distilled water, Winsor Newton Series 7 and Dick Blick Master Sable Kolinsky brushes for most painting. I use a mixture of synthetic and other cheap brushes for drybrushing and groundwork.
Let's get to it!
After the obligatory filing of seams, which were pretty minimal on this figure, I began to prep for the mail. Start by going over the figure with 000 steel wool, this cleans off any roughness or contaminants on the metal surface, but still leaves enough tooth for primers to hold. Follow this with brushing the mail areas with a soft brass wire-brush. (My brush is from a set from a dollar store, with a razor saw used to shorten the bristle area.)
Next the figure gets a quick bath, scrubbing with a toothbrush and some dishwashing liquid.
Once the figure was dry, Tamiya Smoke was used, built up in several layers on the mail. The Smoke pools between the links as a shadow, and gives a nice color transition to the top of the links. Most of the mail was given two to three coats, with two to three more under the armpits and as the mail rolls back into the cloak to provide additional shadow. I also used it on the axehead. Unlike an ink wash, I think the transitions are subtler, and its clear base protects the metal from oxidizing. This is a technique that I have used often on military miniatures and I am always pleased with the result.
Next the figure was mounted to a 1.5-inch-diameter fender-washer base. I use washers to mount almost all my figures as I use a magnetic storage system, and I like the lower base-height they provide. Once based, Floquil gray primer was brushed on. Lately I've been returning to the hotter, lacquer-based primers I stopped using fifteen years ago. Many of the latest primers don't seem to grip the way the lacquers do, and they seem to be wearing off more than they did five years ago. And what are a few brain cells killed for the cause?
Some Apoxie Sculpt (epoxy putty) was used to fill in the pupil indents. I smoothed things out as best I could, and decided to wait for the putty to harden to do the last bit of cleaning (with the end of a hobby knife and some small files).