Leather Shield Cover

[Bleddyn De Caldicot]

So its period to paint your arms one leather then attach it to a shield. Which side of the leather do you paint on? Do you primer it first? What kind of paints?

[Konstantin the Red]

Tandy's paints for leather are acrylic paints. Paint the grain side, of course -- the hairy outside of the cow. Light colors or glaze-type tones need an underpainting of white or, if it suits better, yellow.

[Bleddyn De Caldicot]

Well this is what I will be painting on it. The lightest colour is yellow, would it need primer? Would any acrylic paint work or only Tandy paints?

[RenJunkie]

Any acryllic will work. In fact, the Tandy stuff like the Cova Color paints are translucent. Sorta like an acrylic paint that gives the look of a dye. Sorta.

If you want it really bold and stong, go with regular artist's acryllics. I think Sir Vitus uses the Creamcoat stuff. Look up his sheild advice posts to make sure. I use the cheap Wal-Mart stuff, but I can't vouch for it on a sheild. When in doubt, trust Vitus.

The yellow, you can just coat that over and over. That will give you a truer yellow. But you will use a LOT of paint. White undrneath will give you a brighter, poppier sort of yellow with fewer coats. That's my experience, anyway,YMMV. Personally, I do a white primer coat for any color other than black and a couple other heavy dark tones. Those I just go straight into. Unless it's just easier to prime the whole thing. The black will coat over the white with no problem, so I don't worry about it. For your sheild, priming it all in white will be easiest, and will give you brighter red and yellow. Then, just paint the black lines on your ram in on top of the white.

Make sure you thin your paint. The white should be almost like milk. Whole milk, not skim...lol. I typically wet my brush, put it straight into the paint, and repeat. I just eyeball how its going on. More thinner coats is better than a couple thick ones. Apply as many coats of white as you need over the whole surface. When your ram is as white and as coated as you want him, you have enough. The yellow will probably take the most coats on top of the primer. The red will work easliy. These over the primer coats I would do a bit thicker. That way you should get less bleed between them. I mean, if they're too thin and wet, you'll have some mixing between the top and primer.

Make sure you get the flat, opaque paints. I once accidentally used the translucent ones for yellow. It took so many coats (even with the white underneath) it was visibly thicker than the rest.

Oh, almost forgot. make sure you give it plenty of time to dry between coats. Otherwise you'll mix the colors as you paint.

Hope this helps.

Christopher