Some painting guidance needed

[vcina]

Okay,

I have decided to jump into painting some 28mm Medieval figures for the rules Lion Rampant. I'm rather nervous about doing this because the healdry scares me to death and all of the elaborate colors that are found on a knight or lord.
Does anyone have any good links to "How to" sites or have some words of wisdom they are willing to share?

Thanks,

Victor

[Cubs]

Personally I'd use shield transfers whenever possible. There are a few different manufacturers of these, but I use Little Big Man Studios.

[whiskey priest]

To make your life easier, steer clear of horses with barding! Then pick a coat of arms that you are happy painting. Arms started of fairly simple with two tone colour fields split by vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines. Stick two the basic colours, red, blue, black, yellow and white. Don't put the metals (yellow and white) next to each other and your laughing. Things got complicated when people intermarried and the arms were quartered. You don't have to have a complex animal on coat of arms. If you want to get adventurous give yourself a border round your arms or paint on a label (a horizontal white bar near the top of the shield with three small vertical 'tabs' dropping down at equal spacing, this denotes the son of the bearer of the original arms.

[Patrice]

Yes coat of arms were often very simple at start (although they grew complicated in the late Middle Ages) and not too fussy.

And if you really want to paint a lion, don't make it too gothic, remember that European medieval painters had only seen cats in their life.

[vcina]

Thanks for the guidance.  I will check into Little Big Man for transfers and start looking for simple heraldry to paint.

[JW. Akers]

Give this site a look

http://www.earlyblazon.com/

[vcina]

That's a cool site.  Thank you for posting it.

[dampfpanzerwagon]

This Blog post might help.

http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/figure-painting-tips-and-advice.html

Tony