Painting scabbards?

[Dan D'Silva]

Pure oil paint was a failure, but I recently tried adding pigment to the linseed oil-beeswax sealer and rubbing and scraping it into the suede nap.  Obviously it's no good for painting fine designs, but for simple ones like the elusive crenellated gorytos decorations or large contrasting areas like the throat and tab of an akinakes scabbard it should work -- once it's cured, and presuming there isn't an excess left on the leather's surface, the paint neither runs/smudges when wet nor flakes off.

It just occurred to me that if a leather or rawhide facing on a wooden scabbard or shield could be attached with a thin coating of pitch, there'd be less worry about it soaking through and creating a blotchy mess in the rain like with hide glue, even if the topcoat failed to keep all the water out.  Sound plausible?  If so, how would you create a pitch coating that would stay liquid long enough to be brushed over a wide area and then have the facing applied?