Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 2 - Painting Golden Scales
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| 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!
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| The original bronze scales |
Stage 1. Cover the original metallic scales with black - Vallejo Black
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| Black basecoat |
Stage 2. A basecoat of a dark chocolate brown - Matisse Background Brown
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| 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.
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| 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…
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| 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.
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| One coat of deep yellow |
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| 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.
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| Glaze of Flash Gitz Yellow |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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