The Armour Archive

In emblazoning my shields, I've always used metallic gold paint for the field and the anchors.

The first time I tried it, I made the mistake of painting the whole shield gold and then stenciling the saltire over it. Heraldically correct but not practical, since the red paint would not adhere to the gold: It peeled off when I started to remove the masking tape. That was over 30 years ago; funny that I still remember it. Now I paint the whole shield red and stencil the gold over it.

To make the design a bit more durable, I cover the whole thing with a coat of urethane. But that seems to dull the gold a bit.

Those of you whose arms include Or: Do you use metallic gold or yellow when you paint your shields? Any recommendations as to the kind of paint? The shields I now use are aluminum.

I only have fimbriations on the bend, so I just use yellow.

Falcone

I use gold. I think it looks better, but I only have the arrow and the tusk.

Edward

YE,

I have been experimenting a bit since I acquired my new shield colors.

The best combination to keep gold durable and shiny is this:

Rustoleum American accents spray as a base, then a thin spray of clear varnish (like the type used to protect paintings and art) and finally a number of coats of clear water-based polyurethane coat ( Varathane comes to mind)
( http://www.polyclay.com/varathane.htm )

The spray varnish was to ensure the water based poly would not affect the substrate with the art. The poly is UV resistant, so the varnish underneath will not darken or yellow.

My Greek shield went through the recent Pennsic with barely a mark, though it was used heavily in presses charges and other situations where the finish would be rubbed or damaged.

Several patiently applied layers of the water based poly created a UV resistant coat that made the surface slick as well, so it did not get many marks from tape or scratches.

I hope this helps.

Glaukos the Athenian

I use gold also.

But all I have is a sword hilt

I do use silver for the blade of the sword, not gray.

For heraldic art purposes I do tend to use gold and yellow
( and for that matter white and silver) as different colors
even thought they are supposed to be 'heraldically' the same.
Some things just make more sense with yellow instead of
gold even if it is a non-metallic gold.

I prefer yellow.

I think it's all personal preference. Remember yellows can be anywhere from lemon to orange. I agree that some things just look better non-metalic, like a sun or rondel. Also if there is a large area as in a plain field, I think gold can over-take the rest of the charges, and prefer yellow.

Metallic is good for accents like charges and cotises, and areas that you could see an armiger doing in gold leaf.

Also, yes, many acrylic golds look like dried mustard when you put a clearcoat over them.
-Cian

Honeybees are yellow, not gold.

I use yellow

Or as Iain said "I know those bees!"

I usually use a medium yellow: Primary yellow is too hard to distinguish from white at a distance in the shade. If I wanted to do it with more flair, I'd diaper the yellow with gold.

Why did your paint not stick to the under layer ? It should with no problem if treated correctly. Every layer should be scuffed with red or grey scotch bright to help with adhearsion.



Thor.

I use Gold, and like you learned to paint it gold first, then the blue over it.

I use gold, generally, but a pretty bright one if I can find it.

I generally use black canvas, these days, glue that to the shield and then the gold -- often just the raguly cross on my practice shield.

Thorstenn wrote:Why did your paint not stick to the under layer?

Remember, this was 30+ years ago, and my first attempt at emblazoning.

As I recall, the red peeled off the outer layer of the gold. So it was less a matter of the red not adhering to the gold as the gold not adhering to itself.

So now, as I say, I use the red as the underlayer, then mask the saltire and cut out the anchors, then paint the gold over it.

Can I assume that most here mean metallic gold
when they say gold instead of a golden shade of yellow?

In my specific case, when I say "gold" I do indeed mean metallic gold.

When I first started my blazon I used yellow but when I got my AoA the scribe used gold and I liked it so I now use gold.

Gules a cross engrailed Or and sable

For me, I much prefer the look of gold over yellow.


I used acrylic craft paint, but my shield is gessoed wood. I don't know about aluminum if it is not covered in canvas.

I wonder, not to hijack the thread, what was used on shields more commonly in period? Gold paint or yellow? Gold looks richer, but yellow would be more visible.

I have used yellow in the past, since heraldically speaking it is the way to represent Or. However I have a new sheild that needs painting and I am thinking of using gold or perhaps even brass colored paint now that I have seen this thread.

hmmmmm

Glaukos the Athenian wrote:YE,

I have been experimenting a bit since I acquired my new shield colors.

The best combination to keep gold durable and shiny is this:

Rustoleum American accents spray as a base, then a thin spray of clear varnish (like the type used to protect paintings and art) and finally a number of coats of clear water-based polyurethane coat ( Varathane comes to mind)
( http://www.polyclay.com/varathane.htm )

The spray varnish was to ensure the water based poly would not affect the substrate with the art. The poly is UV resistant, so the varnish underneath will not darken or yellow.

My Greek shield went through the recent Pennsic with barely a mark, though it was used heavily in presses charges and other situations where the finish would be rubbed or damaged.

Several patiently applied layers of the water based poly created a UV resistant coat that made the surface slick as well, so it did not get many marks from tape or scratches.

I hope this helps.

Glaukos the Athenian

+1 for the varnish coats, often when we would want to keep a drawing from smudging we would coat it in aqua-net hair spray I would stick with the gold, just give it a few coats of clear cover up and it should last for a long time.

William of Stonebridge wrote:I wonder, not to hijack the thread, what was used on shields more commonly in period? Gold paint or yellow? Gold looks richer, but yellow would be more visible.

I suspect this was a matter of wealth. Certainly the leopards on the Black Prince's shield were gilt, with painted red toungues. Using gilt for small charges would be expensive, but not as expensive as gold leaf or gold amalgam gilding over the field. Interestlingly, a number of surviving shields with white/argent fields use white paint, and not silver-gilt.

I think yellow paint is far more visible than metallic gold paint across a field. Gold paint looks brown from a distance, especially if the paint is oxidized at all.

OTOH, gold leaf looks bitchin' on a scroll or list shield.

I tend to use yellow

William of Stonebridge wrote:For me, I much prefer the look of gold over yellow.


I used acrylic craft paint, but my shield is gessoed wood. I don't know about aluminum if it is not covered in canvas.

I wonder, not to hijack the thread, what was used on shields more commonly in period? Gold paint or yellow? Gold looks richer, but yellow would be more visible.

That is an awesome shield!

Myself, I use yellow.

Gold using brass.

Honest to goodness gold leaf is wonderful to behold, but even Peter Fuller complains of the cost. You have to be a Prince (or King, Duke, Archbishop, or other great lord with great lord level of income).

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... p?t=104957

Thus far, I have only been using yellow.

I think that the gold might look a bit more fancy, ritzy, but as I am not portraying a royal or very wealthy noble, I have stuck with the yellow.

I think, however, the next time I have to repaint my Pas shield, I will be looking for gold.

Ernst wrote:Interestlingly, a number of surviving shields with white/argent fields use white paint, and not silver-gilt.

I've understood that with silver, you get the problem of tarnishing. And in that kind of setting there's really no way to polish it. Ever notice all the gray in the shields depicted in the Manesse Codex? That was originally silver.

I've used both. I think I prefer gold for most usage. Regardless, whenever I have to paint gold on top of red (if I can't avoid it through careful cut in) I always put a layer or two of white down and then a couple of layers of gold on top of that. Otherwise, the gold will seep into the red background.

Editted:
Hm, that isn't totally clear...what I mean to say is that if you paint a lighter color on top of a darker color, the darker color will come through. So for my fluers for instance, I put down a coat or two of gesso if I have to paint them over something red.

Gold Leafing is what I use when Painting my Knights Shield over a yellow paint base. Silver Leafing on mine over a white paint base. Then I use a Brush on Triple thick Clear glossy coat do two applications of that about 6-8hours apart from each other. The Gold and Silver shine like crazy when in direct sunlight much better then the pictures show.

http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30464044&l=a49468dd2c&id=1099389036

http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30464045&l=b86bcd9070&id=1099389036

http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30565729&l=27158ab4b9&id=1099389036

http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30565401&l=ddb30106f1&id=1099389036

Interesting artistic variant on His Grace's arms to be harmonious on that center-grip shield.

Indeed it is, I thought more or less the same thing when his Grace sent me the wireframe layout of what he wanted on his shield.

The Stothard drawing of one of the de Vere effigies shows yellow paint, though the tooling of the leather face is more interesting.

http://effigiesandbrasses.com/monuments ... 604/large/

That is pretty cool looking. Tooling leather for one of our shields would be cool, but I think to pricey and time consuming considering the abuse we give them.

I think it would be awesome for crown tournament. But extravagant to tool a leather shield just to have it pummeled to oblivion. Certainly an affectation of the rich nobility, which ironically is what we are trying to recreate. C'est la vie.
-Cian

Not true. Sorcha figured out how to do it. Basically you do everything normally, and then you do the edging separately. Turns out the edging is what takes the vast majority of the beating, and when it needs replacing, the leather on the front isn't all that bad off.

There are some slight scuffs on my kite from Coronation, but that's because it's a kite and I use it differently from the heater.

I'll post pix when I have them. Hopefully Sunday.

Blackbow

Cian of Storvik wrote:I think it would be awesome for crown tournament. But extravagant to tool a leather shield just to have it pummeled to oblivion. Certainly an affectation of the rich nobility, which ironically is what we are trying to recreate. C'est la vie.
-Cian