War Bonnet-Part 5 The Braids

As everything outside is frozen solid with an ongoing ice storm I thought I'd go ahead and post the work I finished today. As you can see I've added the two braids and burnt in a lot of the detail. The reason for burning now instead of waiting until everything is finished is that when I add the decorative tassels to the headress a lot of the areas will be impossible to reach with the burning pen.
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You might find adding the braids difficult but it is doable so just take your time and have fun. Just remember you want them to look natural, they have weight so they have to hang and lay across the shoulders and droop straight down. Where the lower part of the braid hangs over the shoulder I hollowed out the sleeve of the warshirt so the braid dips a little inside. This helps to get things to fit snuggly. Also, do only one braid at a time and when you're ready to glue them in place do one side and let it dry completely before proceeding to glue the other. You will see in the photos where I used those innertube strips to lock the braids tight against the body so there is no space showing.
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In burning the beaded areas just use a crosshatch pattern with your burner. I realize that beads are round where the crosshatches are square but what we're after here is the texture not necessarily exact detail. Once it's painted it will look good. Trust me! Once I can decide on a pattern for the shield I'll burn that detail in.
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We're beyond the hard part now. Ahead lies only fun!!!
Photos in the gallery!