Monday, June 15, 2026

Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 5

  Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 5 - Painting the Rider



Dyvim Storm before the upgrade

This set of photos follows the upgrading of the rider, Dyvim Slorm. He’s an add-on to the dragon. I can’t remember the manufacturer but he’s a horseman to which I added a “Broad Bladed” lance. The saddle and saddlecloth are made from Green Stuff.


I haven’t been overly inventive with this section of the process. I pretty much just kept to the original colours and pimped them up a bit. The main changes were changing his clothing to yellow to go with the dragon scales and to paint the detailing on helmet as red gems.


Dyvim Storm before the upgrade

What follows is a quick review of the steps I took for upgrading the rider. Descriptions of each step are below each photo. 



I've changed his tunic from blue to yellow



Here I've begun highlighting the yellow on the tunic and the purple saddlecloth. I've also highlighted the leather gloves and saddle. 



In this step I finished highlighting the leather gloves and saddle, the yellow tunic as well as the purple saddlecloth. I also gave the metal bits, both gold and steel, a wash with GW Nuln Oil before highlighting them.


A view from the other side.




Dyvim's head is the final step. I fixed up his face, made his hemet black and highlighted it with grey, added some red gems and worked on the top of helmet’s wings. I gave the gold an extra zhuzh. I’ve noticed in the photo that the yellow on the tunic hem needs a little fixing up, I’ll fix that up when I do the final touch-ups at the end of the project.





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Monday, June 1, 2026

Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 4

 Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 4 - Painting the Horns & Spikes


Spiky bits all done!

The next step was 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. 

 

The original horns…


And spikes

Here's what I did:

Stage 1. A base coat of GW Skrag Brown

Stage 2. A wash of GW Nuln Oil concentrating on the base of each horn & spike. This is meant to add a contrast between the base of the horn/spikes and the lighter tones to come.

Stage 3. A layer of a light ochre brown (Matisse Raw Sienna) leaving some of the darker areas from the last stage showing.
These next two stages move further to the horn/spike tips with progressively lighter shades. 

Stage 4. A layer of a warm yellow, in this case GW Averland Sunset.

Stage 5. I wanted to stay with the yellowish effect as the process of lightening the horn/spike tips continues. So, I went for a layer of Vallejo Tan Yellow.


Stage 6. Continuing the gradual lightening process: a layer of 50/50 Vallejo Tan Yellow & Matisse Naples yellow light

Stage 7. A layer of a bone white - Matisse Gum Tree 

Now for the final step in painting the horns and spikes: 
Stage 8. A final highlight of pure white

A better view of the back spikes




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Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 3

Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 3 - 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!.


The links to the other Green Dragon posts are here:


Green Dragon Part 1 - Green Scales 



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Sunday, May 10, 2026

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. 


The links to the other Green Dragon posts are here:

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