Roman-esque soldier uniform - from cardboard!

Step 10 Paint it!

I've studied some painting techniques before - nothing complicated, just that in order to make some colors stand out, you use a darker color underneath to highlight the visible color.

I used black and a smattering of silver to give the texture some depth.

Start black (images 2-4)

Paint everything black. make sure that all surfaces are covered, especially the texture. Cardboard absorbs all the color, so only one coat is necessary.

Add Silver (images 5-7)

Go sparingly on the silver. you don't need much, and in fact, the less the better. It makes the metallic color darker, like steel. also, if you can, try to paint the silver downwards, this will give the texture more depth since the top surface will be brighter and the bottom surface will be darker.

Don't forget to hold the can the distance specified on the can. Mine was about 8-9 inches. with the silver this is ESPECIALLY important since you don't want to completely cover the black.

The crest/broom (image 1)

I had a lot of difficulty with this. I thought I'd be able to use my airbrush to paint it, but this turned out to be more pain than it was worth. I ended up using my paintbrush and dabbing the paint onto the visible areas. This was the best method, but took a long time. I recommend using a lot of thinner and a broad paint brush to spread the color around. It doesn't need to be perfect, just enough for people to see that it's red and not think it's a broom..