The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

Completed warrior. Jewels were added to the top of the boot to add visual interest. The Arms were completed and the metal plates on the col'chuga were painted. Drinking horn finished. Detailing painted on the charges of the arms.

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

Ready For The Fight

"The completed Russian foot soldier ("ratnik").

"The re-worked chain mail had the highlights and shadows fixed so the overall look is much darker, yet more three-dimensional. The plates in the mail were detailed using grays mixed with glair to stick to the flat aluminum leaf. The spear point was painted also.

"The hunting horn gave me no end of grief as I didn't have a good picture of one to look at. I must have changed the base color of the horn three times until it came close to something I was more satisfied with, and I still don't like it the way it is. I did not even attempt to show any translucency at the wide end of the horn as one would normally see as it was bad enough just trying to get something that looked decent. The mittens were painted with just about the same shade of dulled, buff ocher, and I added a twisted line of light and dark blue around the cuff of the right-hand mitten to indicate some simple wool embroidery.

"The one pants leg showing was painted in dark forest green (Permanent Green Middle plus Alizarin Crimson) and after doing that I decided that the kaftan needed to be a lighter and slightly warmer green, so I went over the light areas of the kaftan with another green (Permanent Green Middle with Spectrum Yellow) to bring out the folds. The boots were painted with a warm brown (also used to paint the belt and the strap of the horn) like Moroccan red. Russians are fond of red boots, but in this case there was already way too much red happening in that area of the painting; black would not work well against the black background, nor would a dark brown. The warmer brown worked well, but after looking at it it seemed like it needed a bit more pizzazz, so I sketched in some rectangles, squares and circles with a white colored pencil, then painted in more cabochon stones and lines of pearls. This ratnik is a bit of a contradiction in terms -- he wears the rich clothing of a commander ("voyevode") or nobleman ("boyar") but he's armed as a foot soldier with spear and shield. Even if the spear is a bit short (yes, I know it's not proportional, but it would have gone entirely through the border).

"The shield was shaded a bit along the shadowed edge and the charges were outlined and detailed with dark red. Backing off to study the results, however, showed that the aluminum leaf was just blinding. The charges on the shield screamed from the painting -- they needed to be toned down. I mixed up a very light gray with just a touch of Alizarin Crimson to give it a faint pinkish tone, added glair, and painted over about half of the aluminum leaf, leaving it exposed where there would be a highlight and it calmed that down considerably. I don't think it shows in the photo but I also printed my society name and the society year in darker red along the bottom right-hand edge of the shield." -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).