Here's where things stand now after numerous washes of Scarlet and a dark blue wash to highlight the black coats.
The scarlet highlights, while time-consuming, have turned out reasonably well, but the highlights for the black coats have slowed things down the last couple of days as I had to find a better way to bell that particular cat. Initially, I tried my usual dark gray 'Zinc' on four riders and was disappointed with the results. Suddenly, the coats looked gray. Casting around online, didn't really yield anything helpful either, and then I thought about trying some very dark blue from a more than 20-year old bottle of Ral Partha 'Dark Blue.'
I've mentioned that bottomless little vessel occasionally here over the years, so longtime visitors might remember it. It was purchased way back in the late 1990s from a long gone gaming store along State Street in Madison, Wisconsin when I was a graduate student at the mighty UW-Madison (Go Badgers!). You can just see said bottle along with another of Ral Partha 'Leather Brown,' purchased at the same time, in the line of paint containers behind the current batch of figures. Miraculously, both remain fluid and continue to serve me well with the addition of a few drops of Liquitex Flow-Aid about once a year.
Anyway, a wash of this same very dark blue seems to have produced very serviceable highlight on the arms, shoulders, upper chests, and upper backs. A highlight that is distinct from the black below it, neither too gray, nor too blue. The wash seems to allow enough of the black to show through, toning down the blue ever so slightly. Or at least that's how I would describe it.
It looks good enough to my eyes, so I think I'll give the sheepskin shabraques a similar treatment. Best of all, the step was very rapid, and I was able to get all 14 riders done in about 35 minutes earlier this afternoon before The Young Master arrived home from school.
It's always a good thing when a painting step goes quickly. Not the case with the scarlet parts of the uniforms, lances, and flags, which required numerous washes (I lost count), to brighten this up a bit than might have been the case with a single coat applied direct from the bottle.
A useful side effect of washes, it's worth noting, is that they facilitate very nice blending as you build up lighter colors like reds, yellows, lighter blues, and whites atop a tan or light gray undercoat for example. It's not an exact science, but once you get the hang of things, you can get some very attractive effects with washes.
-- Stokes
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