On The Go

Dragon of Melnibone - Horns and Spikes

Part 1

The original horns… 

And spikes

The next step is to redo the dragon’s various horns and spikes. As ever, each successive layer leaves a little bit of the previous darker colour in order to create a gradation of colour from dark brown at the base of each spike then slightly yellow to bone white.

Stage 1. A base coat of GW Skrag Brown

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 6

The mighty Honour Guard. 

More Marauder / Citadel figures.

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 5

The Landwasters. Greybeards from Marauder / Citadel.

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 4

Slayers of the Marauder / Citadel persuasion

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 3

Some more Old Skool Harlequin slayer dwarfs.

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 2

Some more Woad Warriors. These guys are vintage Harlequin Miniatures figures designed by Kev Adams in around 1994.

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 1

The Dwarves are coming! Slightly retouched and finally photographed, the Dwarven army is on its way.

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Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 3

Green Dragon of Melnibone - Painting Leathery Brown Legs

With the green and golden scales now complete, it’s onto the dragon’s legs and the 'fingers' of the wings. They look okay in the photos but in real life show some wear and tear. 

From this...

To this.

I um-ed and ah-ed about changing colour completely but in the end I think that the light brown tone go well with the colours of the scales.

Step 1. (Above) I applied a wash of 25% solution of Ecoline 245 ink, the same one I used on the golden scales. The aim being to give a consistent base colour.

Step 2. I’ve given everything a light coat of GW Golfrag Brown, leaving the deeper recesses as is. This is one of their dry-brush formulation but I didn’t let that stop me! 

Step 3. I used Derivan Skin Tone Mid to glaze the pure GW Golfrag Brown. As usual, I left some of the previous layer showing so that the highlights will build up.

Step 4. For this layer I used a 50/50 mix of Derivan Skin Tone Mid + Vallejo Tan Yellow. As ever, I cover less area with each highlight.

Step 5. Nearly there! This time a highlight with pure Vallejo Tan Yellow.

Step 6. The final highlight uses Derivan Desert stone which is basically a bone white on the claw wrinkles. 

Step 7. To finish off these leathery brown parts of the dragon, I washed over all of the areas using a 1 in 8 solution of Ecoline 245 ink. 

Before the final highlight...

And after the final highlight.

Step 8. As a bit of an afterthought, I decided to redo a highlight of Derivan Desert stone on the claw wrinkles.

All done!.

Green Dragon Part 1 - Green Scales 

Green Dragon Part 2 - Golden Scales

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Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 2

Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 2 - Painting Golden Scales

The finished 'Golden' Scales

This next stage was  a bit of an adventure. I tried to try re-paint the dragon’s original metallic bronze / gold belly scales with a gold using non-metallic paints. Why? Good question… A couple of reasons, firstly, I wanted to try something new and secondly, I thought a non-metallic gold would look a bit more natural. The painting ‘recipe’ is based on one I found online with tweaks based on what colours I have at hand. Wish me luck!

The original bronze scales

Stage 1. Cover the original metallic scales with black - Vallejo Black

Black basecoat

Stage 2. A basecoat of a dark chocolate brown - Matisse Background Brown

Chocolate brown

Stage 3. Next is to paint some stripes with gaps in between to show the brown basecoat.They are meant to provide a base for some shading and highlights for the next steps. I used GW Golfrag Brown for the stripes in the darker regions on the sides of the scales. Then GW Ogryn Camo stripes in the brighter central areas of the scales.

Stripes applied

Houston we have a problem. Oh oh Chongo, Danger, Will Robinson, danger! … (those of you who recognise these cultural references are definitely my people) I had to have a rethink. I tried a test run for the next steps on a couple of scales but everything was just turning various shades of green. 

In short, I played my Chicken Out card and decided to go with what I know before I spent too much time for potentially just a headache. So…

Retreat! The orange glaze

Stage 4. To rapidly move to a golden base, I glazed the scales with Matisse Orange DPP. The good news is that the underlying stripes will still serve their purpose of providing highs and lows for later on.

One coat of deep yellow

After two coats of deep yellow

Stage 5. The next phase was to glaze over the orange with a couple of coats fairly diluted Matisse Yellow Deep. The second coat left a little bit showing from the first so as to start adding light and shade. You can still see the striping from Stage 3 (though it doesn’t show up so much in the photo) which also adds some highs and lows.

Glaze of Flash Gitz Yellow

After a second glaze of Flash Gitz Yellow

Stage 6. This stage is very similar to Stage 4. I glazed the scales with two layers of GW Flash Gitz Yellow. Again each coat left a little bit showing from the previous. I also tried to emphasise the underlying vertical stripes. 

The scales with white highlighting

Stage 7. I highlighted the edges of the scales with pure white. I tried not to be heavy handed, so the photo doesn’t show the white as much as on the painting table.

After two ink washes

Stage 8. This is the final step I used in painting the belly scales. I applied two washes of a 25% solution of Ecoline 245 ink, which is a nice orange-yellow colour somewhere between raw and burnt sienna. I only applied the ink to the recessed areas of the scales for a warm shadowing effect. 

Green Dragon Part 1 - Green Scales 

Green Dragon 0f Melnibone Part 3 - Leathery Skin

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Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 1

Green Dragon of Melnibone - Painting Green Scales

I’ve had this dragon model for years. It was originally a blue dragon, then I decided to fit it in with an Elric of Melnibone theme for Hordes of the Things (HOTT), so I plonked an elf rider on its back. Unsurprisingly, I was never really happy with the result. So with the advent of De Bellis Fantaisae (DBF), I decided on a complete upgrade.

The model is meant to represent Elric’s cousin, Dyvim Slorm, so obviously he needed to be sitting on something more to his station! So, step one was to create a saddle for the rider out of Green Stuff. The photo shows some basic painting of the saddle and saddle cloth. I’ll return to this later.

The saddle has been added

The Elric stories mentions green skinned dragons so that had to be the next upgrade. The photo above is at the same stage as the last. I’ve repainted the original blue scales black then applied a base coat of GW Caliban Green. I gave this a wash of GW Nuln Oil and then overpainted the scales with Caliban Green, leaving some areas of each scale the darker shade.

The dark green layers done

From there, I built up the layers of green of ever lightening shades, painting a slightly smaller area each time to give a graduated appearance. Here are the colours I used:

All highlighted

Mid green (Matisse Alpine Green) 

Light green (Matisse Permanent Green Light) - quite a transparent colour, so I did a couple of layers of this one 

A bright yellow (GW Flash Gitz Yellow) - This one was to highlight only edges and raised areas of the scales 

Ready for the belly scales

I finished off the green scales by toning back the yellow highlights with a slightly diluted coat of Tamiya X-25 Clear Green and think it did the job I wanted well. 

So, The green scales are completed. On to the belly scales, the post for which is here:

Green Dragon Part 2 - Golden Scales 

Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 3 - Leathery Skin

Let me know what you think. 

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