1. For the armour, I went with a Russian Green colour. Cover all the panels in a couple of coats until you have a smooth, opaque finish. I used Ammo by Mig paint and I didn’t have to thin it since the consistency is already quite thin, but depending on what you use, you might want to add a little water.

2. For the leather, we’re going with brown. Take Brown Leather, mixing 3 drops with 1 drop of water. Cover all of the leather areas with this and do several coats until you have an opaque finish.

4. Add two more drops of Dust Grey to the mix and keep developing the texture. Focus on the most raised aspects, on the corners of the pouches and along the edges of the leather straps.

5. Then take 3 drops of Bone White thinned with 1 drop of water and apply a final highlight layer, focusing on the highest points.

Now we can start working on the shadows. I wanted to create a heavy contrast between the different angles of armour. This is most obvious on the shoulder armour, where I was careful to keep a clear contrast between the browner shadows and the lighter green highlights. I used the angles of the armour to help with this - trying to apply a lighter highlight against a darker shadow where the panels of armour meet, so it emphasises these hard edges. You can also apply the darker colour to aspects of the armour that are clearly in the recesses, such as around the base of the collar which would be in shadow.

12. To mix the shadow tone, take 1 drop of Russian Base and 1 drop of Dark Brown Ochre. Thin with 3 drops of water. Carefully glaze this where you want the armour to appear darker. Feather along the edges of this glaze to create a smooth transition between this layer and the previous layers. Repeat the process to intensify the colour.

Now we can paint the metallic sections of his armour using a very basic Non Metallic Metals technique. The buckles, piping, toe caps, backpack, and crate can all be painted this way.

14. Thin 3 drops of Cool Grey 3 with 1 drop of water. You will need to be neat, as by now you will have already painted your leather and body armour.

Paint the steel toe caps in the same method as you just painted the metal parts of Adrik's armour.

19. To paint the leather, we’re now going to stipple and highlight the raised aspects of the leather. Take 2 drops of Cool Grey 3 and thin with 1 drop of water and use this to stipple. You’ll want to cover about 20-25% of the boots surface with a stippled effect.

22. To create warmth, a yellow glaze was applied over some of the highlights. Mix 1 drop of Yellow Medium Azo with 3 drops of matte medium.

23. Finally, the extreme highlights were applied with pure undiluted white acrylic paint. Simply place a few dots at the apex of the highlights to create a point of shine.

As with the other metallic parts, we’re going to paint the gun using a simple Non Metallic Metal technique.

24. Start by applying a foundation coat of Cool Grey 4, use 3 drops thinned with 1 drop of water. Cover the whole gun and apply enough coats to get a perfectly smooth finish.

30. To finish the gun, apply a few dots of extreme highlight using pure white. As before, target the most extreme and exposed components.

31. The copper piping and gold banding was painted using the same process as above, but replacing the greys with coppery tones.

32. The first step is to start with the foundation coat. Thin 3 drops of Orange Leather with 1 drop of water and cover the whole area of hair and beard with this.

33. Next add a little shadow by thinning 1 drop of Transparent Burnt Umber with 2 drops of matte medium and glazing this over the whole area of the hair.

34. We’re now going to work on the highlights. Start by mixing 2 drops of Orange Leather with 1 drop of Transparent Burnt umber and thin with 1 drop of water. Layer this along the strands of hair, focusing on the upper parts and towards the hair parting. This obviously requires a steady hand; practice really does help develop the hand eye coordination required for this 🙂

35. Apply additional highlights using a variety of tones to reflect the complexity of natural hair colour. First take 1 drop of Orange Leather mixed with 1 drop of Bone White, thinned with 1 drop of water. The next layer should be 1 drop of Orange Leather and 2 Drops of Bone White, again thinned with 1 drop of water. Finally, take 1 drop of Orange Leather mixed with 3 drops of Bone White and thinned with 2 drops of water.

36. At each stage apply slightly less paint, with the highlights increasingly getting whiter towards the parting and fringe. To tie the highlights together apply a glaze made from mixing 1 drop of Flesh Tint with 3 drops of matte medium. Apply this over the whole head of hair.

37. Finish the hair by painting a few white dots very near to the root of the hair and at the top of the beard.

38. The key to painting skin is having a very clean foundation on which to develop the highlights and shadows. Heavy Skintone by Vallejo produces a very opaque Caucasian skin tone, and is an excellent foundation colour for pale skin. Thin with a small amount of water (3 paint: 1 water) and apply over all of the visible skin areas.

Next develop the shadows. Look at your hand - you will notice two different forms of shadows: warm and cool shadows. Warm shadows are more red, whilst the cool shadows are of a dark green/blue hue.

39. We’re going to start with the warm shadows, which are generally those that lie closest to the highlights. Mix 1 drop of Heavy Skintone with 1 drop of Indian Shadow, and thin with 1 drop of water. Carefully layer this (or stipple – stippling tiny dots can help create a smoother colour transition) into the shadows and recesses, such as around the eyes, the ears and around the back of the head.

40. For the cool shadows, mix 1 drop of Heavy Skintone with 1 drop of Coal Black and thin with 4 drops of water. Apply this as a glaze to the deepest recesses. Generally speaking, this shadow layer should cover less of the skin than the previous shadow layer. Apply a second or third coat to intensify the shadows.

41. For a final shadow layer, make a glaze using 1 drop of Neutral Grey mixed with 2 drops of matte medium. Very carefully apply this to the most extreme recesses.

42. To paint the highlights, take 2 drops of Heavy Skintone and mix with 1 drop of Bone white. Stipple or layer this on, focusing on the raised parts of the face, such as the forehead, nose, and cheek bones.

43. The next highlight is simply a mix made from 1 drop of Heavy Skintone mixed with 1 drop of Bone White and thinned with 1 drop of water. Focus on the same areas that you targeted with the previous highlight stage, but remember to leave more of the surface of the skin as that tone.

44. Tie the layers together by applying glaze made by mixing 1 drop of Flesh Tint with 3 drops of matte medium. Start by applying this over most of the face (do this very carefully, it’s not a wash!) Apply additional glazes if needed. Add a touch of Indian Red to the mix to create a shadow glaze, and use this to smooth the areas in the shade.

45. For a final highlight, take 2 drops of Bone White thinned with 1 drop of water. Carefully stipple this along the top of the forehead, brow line, along the nose, and at the apex of the cheek bones.