@Trevor Davies: Thank you. I'm very pleased with how the colours came out. The purple dye was difficult to work, with a bronze/metallic sheen produced if its applied too heavily. Seems to be a unique phenomenon to purple, possibly blue as well. I thought about adding some red or pink as a gradient, but I'm glad I decided to use just purple and black.

@FaustoB: The method I kept updating on the first post was largely for me to keep track of the tequniques I was drawing together and of the steps I needed to take. But I also thought it would be good to review the steps later for another build, or offer a compete methodology for other first-time builders like me.