Introduction: Painting the Guardian Shield From Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

By Natasha Matthews
About: I am a maker from the St. Louis area. I have spent a lot of time playing video games and watching anime. I am finally jumping into the world of making things I like from these places.

I recently wrote a previous Instructable on how to make the Guardian Shield from Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. This is all about how I painted shield. I wanted to use an airbrush finish on this because I wanted the LEDs to be able to shine through.

Supplies

  • Isopropyl Alcohol
  • Paper Towels
  • Gloves
  • Clear PlastiDip
  • White, Blue, and Orange Airbrush Paint
  • Airbrush Extender
  • Airbush
  • Silver and Bronze Paint
  • Bucket
  • Small Paint Brush

Step 1: Clean the Surface

First we need to clean the surface of the shield. Wet a paper towel with Isopropyl Alcohol. Rub off any sharp marks and ink marks. It will not be perfect but we want the surface to be a clean as possible because we don’t want any thing to bleed through the paint.

Step 2: Paint It Blue

Mix up a shade of light blue. I used a lot white paint and a good amount of blue. It took about 4 coats to get the look I wanted. I coved the front and the back to keep the look consistent.

Clean out the airbrush. I keep a bucket of water by my desk for this. Fill the brush with pure orange paint. Cover the 2 lights in the center with the orange paint.

Step 3: Paint the Center

Take out the silver paint and put down a light coat on the center panel. Then cover it with a couple coats of bronze paint. On the three outer panels I added 2 more coats of silver paint. They needed to be a bit lighter than the inside.

Step 4: Add Some Shade

The last thing was to add some shading. I took the orange airbrush paint and added some black. I was going for some light rust color. I added that around all the edges of the shield and around all the edges of the center panels. I went pretty heave on this. It is a shield.