Painting a Knight

Introduction

The first figure painted for one of my RPG (MAGUS) groups.

Planning phase

Not much to plan, as this guy is mostly metal and leather. I did plan for blue pants, bronze highlights and cobblestone base.

Painting

With such a dark and metallic color scheme, I went for a black primer.

Then laid on the basecoat: dark brown, gunmetal, dark blue.

Then, the second layer of basecoat, with the bronze details picked out, as well as some belt buckles.

A generous black wash pops out the details, including that awesome chainmail.

And then, I can get to highlighting. First, a small edge highlight on the bronze details. Then, a wider "edge" highlight with gunmetal, followed up by a thinner edge with silver.   

A very thin highlight with the same skintone as the basecoat picks out the fingers.

I used a combination of dark brown and leather brown to edge highlight the leather-y details: boots, bags, straps, backpack, waterskin. I tried to mix dark brown with red for a reddish wood color, but wasn't satisfied with the result, so I did a drybrush with dark brown followed by a very light leather brown on the shield and axe handles.
I edge highlighted the pants with a lighter blue.

Basing

I followed this excellent cobblestone tutorial using leftover sprues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnrFsUg2aEI

I mutilated the figure's base so I can fit cobblestone in between his legs.

Then, I started producing the cobblestones, and super gluing them on the base, like so:

Of course, the figure wasn't exactly a snug fit, and I didn't want holes in the base, so I applied some green stuff underneath.

The cobblestone effect I went with (as opposed to the colored tiles of the tutorial) was of simple grey stone. Black primer:

Dark grey drybrush:

Light grey drybrush (do the same to the figure's mutilated metal base, so it would fit in):

Glue the knight in his place:

Then clean up the base by painting the rim black, to cover up the grey drybrush.

Finished!