Hey all,

welcome to page 7 of my project diary. If you're wondering what this is, please check the announcement post, in which I explain the motivation and general goals of the diary. At the bottom of that post, you will find a link to all parts of this series (constantly updated as soon as new articles are published).

Today focuses on the sea raider's skirt. According to the images, at least some of the sea peoples wore skirts or kilts that were ornated or sawn with multiple panels. While to my knowledge no information on the color of the panels or the lines connecting them has been passed down the three millenia since the sea peoples raided the Mediterranean, I liked those artist renderings that showed the panels in colorful red and blue, divided by lines of white. So, that's where I started - which, of course, had some of my friends (?) jest that he reminded them of an armed pool attendant. Well...

Before I started working on the kilt, however, I did a little bit of darklining along the areas where the kilt and the skin touch. This is an important step, as it makes it easier for the eye to "make sense" of the miniature and its parts - which is particularly important the smaller the scale. Once that was taken care of, including a little touching-up where the darklining went over the lines, I finally started working on the kilt. This started on the basic mid-tone colors I had laid down earlier: VMC Flat Red, Prussian Blue, and Deck Tan as the foundation for the white dividing lines. The little tassles (which are actually documented in the historical sources!!!) also received the red basic color.

In the process of shading and highlighting I started working on the reds, adding VMC Hull Red for the shadows, and Carmine Red, Bright Orange and some Sunny Skintone for the highlights. Again, I went back and forth, shading, highlighting, cleaning up mid-tones as I went. Once the reds had some "depth" to them, I worked a little on the blues, adding a mix of VMC Old Rose and Ivory for the highlights and some of the Hull Red and finally some black for the shadows. Then, I did some more darklining, and went back to the skin, adding a few glazes of Red over the whole mini to give the skin a little bit more "life". I also darkened our sea raider's feet with a blackish-brown glaze - a friend (who himself is not a mini-painter) suggested that to me noting that a guy running around barefoot all the time will have dirty feet. I always like such kind of detail and greatly appreciate my friends' interest in my hobby-stuff - even though it will most likely not be visible once the basework with all that water-effect is done.

Then it was time for the white parts of the skirt. As noted, I originally started with VMC Deck Tan as a basetone, but I realized that was too "clean" and neutral, and a little too bright for my taste. So I went back to my favorite basecolor for white: VMC Stone Grey, which is a nice light-grey tone with a greenish tint. I first laid down the new basecolor - carefully, so as not to cover too much of the red and blue panels - and then used Scale 75 Black Ink to differentiate the different parts of the white (especially the little piece of string that seems to work as some kind of belt). Then I quickly shaded and highlighted the whites, using some Neutral Grey for the shadows and some Ivory for the highlights. For the final highlights, I added a bit Schmincke Primacryl Titanium White into the Ivory.

And with that, I left the kilt alone for now. Thanks for reading. Next week, my project diary will center on the sea raider's fancy headdress!

As always, if you like what you read or have questions, why not drop me a line in the comments? See you in a bit!

Best, D.