Sorry for the delay in responding. Been out of town.
I used veg tanned leather and I think it is 8 oz. I tooled the front and then cut it out just shy of the final size. I then took another piece of leather that was larger then the front, glued it to the back, then immediately wedged it in between 2 - 2 gallon buckets to give it the curve (I put the leather in wax paper to protect it while wedging it in). I let it sit overnight. I cut the back piece of leather down to the same size as the front and then used a dremel to sand it down to the finished size. All I had around for paint at the time was some cheap acrylics that my wife had. I painted it then sheened the paint, then stained it. Unfortunately, the sheened areas of paint rubbed off when I stained it (my mistake) so I then went and bought some better paints ( Wicked by Createx that I can use in my airbrush too) and repainted it. I then stitched it and airbrushed on the final sheen.
If you have any other questions let me know.