Friday 2 November 2012

Blue Dragon

This is a wedding present for an old friend. The dragon is from Warhammer, the Dark elf range and is called Darkelf Dreadlord on Black Dragon.
The kit contains Dragon armour and a multi pose dark elf but all I was after was the dragon.
Not a bad kit as it goes..fitted together well, the joins are virtually undedectable without any work to cover them up.
I didn´t like the idea of the black dragon as on the boxart..so he/she ended up a blue one..with a slight gold sheen
The kit gives a choice of two heads...this one seemed the best.

The base was a bit of a problem. The one provided hasn´t got enough weight to keep the Dragon balanced..the slightest touch would tip it over, so a larger one had to be found. Choice! Round or square!?
Or combine both ideas and have hexagonal one!!  :-D

I took a chance with the water effect (I´m not very good at creating water for dios)
I mixed some plaster of Paris with woodglue and just smeared it on the base (an old picture frame) and then stuck the plastic rock base into the mixture. As it dried I used a toothpick to make the choppy water effect...
A couple of "pre-basing" pics in different light levels.

A recommendation, Alex´s models at Attention to detail blog
If no-one has seen his work I can only suggest having a look...he is IMHO a scratch build artist of the highest degree of skill and accuracy. I can´t even imagine how anyone can have the patience to construct a motorbike chain in 1-1 let alone in 1/6th scale, but Alex does :-D

Hello to Jehan from Lántre de Jehan blog...Lovely 28mm bods..especially (I´m Biased) his dark age and medievals.

38 comments:

  1. Good grief but he's a magnificent blue boy, excellent teeth too!

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    1. Thanks Fran.
      Over 20 cm´s tall without base, the wingspan 25cm´s...a lot of plastic to paint.
      I even added plaque around the teeth..not really obvious from the pics though.
      Cheers
      paul

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  2. I bow before your painting skills Sir. Painting a dragon only exists in my plans, in the far-far future.

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    1. Thanks Andrew.
      I was a bit nervous about this one. Not only is it a way bigger kit than I normally paint but the cost of the kit! The thought of making a mess of it was a worry. It took two days (without basing) of solid painting time...14 layers of paint in different tones!!!!
      I´m quite pleased with the result....maybe I´ll get another and make a red dragon..
      Cheers
      paul

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  3. Really nice blue effect :-)

    Marzio.

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    1. Thanks Marzio
      I used a drybrush of blue and gold in the 3rd and second to last layers...in sunlight the thing reflects so much it´s impossible to take any pictures of it...it glows!
      Cheers
      paul

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  4. Very nice. That dragon has had some great dental work!

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  5. Very nice figure, and very good work, the choice of the color is very appropriate, degrades them, lights and shadows are perfect.
    What about more bravo Paul
    Chers
    Vincent

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  6. I do love dragons, and you have done this great beast justice! Very beautiful and a wonderful gift!

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  7. This is really good Paul, rather good than other people who used to paint this kind of stuff.

    Kind regards,

    Bourbaki

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    1. Thanks. It turned out better than I hoped...:-D

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  8. Paul I can't tell you how pleased I am so see your work on something like this. The beasts head is fearsome and your color choice really works here.

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    1. Thanks Anne.
      Usually I avoid GW stuff like the plague but after this I have started looking a bit more closely at thier range...and I´ve got a few undead (a present from Pater) that I will get to grips with some time soon.

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    2. A present from who??? Paul, translate "Pater" from Dutch to English, and you will understand that it means completely different! :-D

      Greetings
      Peter
      http://peterscave.blogspot.be/

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  9. Absolutely smashing bi of work there, Paul!

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  10. Completely splendid! The blue colour scheme is inspired!

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  11. Thanks chaps :-D
    There was a bit of tugging at the heart strings having to give this away...it is a lovely model..which, IMHO, would have been spoilt by adding the elf rider and it´s armour.

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  12. This is one mean looking and very very nicely painted figure!

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  13. very imposing , good job.
    Erhan

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  14. A superb model and painting. The water effects also work well.

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  15. What a gorgeous Dragon, splendid execution too.

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  16. Wonderful work, Paul! All teeth and your basing is fantastic!

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  17. Love the model and you've pulled off that tricky blue/black sheen perfectly!!!

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  18. Love the shading and skin effect on the wings, Paul. How did you get the "gold" effect?

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  19. Hmm. Odd. Think my comment "missed".

    Love this, Paul, especially the skin effect / shading on the wings. How did you get the gold sheen / finish?

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    1. Didn´t miss...it "hid" :-D
      To get the gold effect. Difficult to explain but here goes.
      In total there is 14 layers of paint on the thing..from a black base, then a very very dark blue, then dark purple and then going up in ever lighter dark blues into a mid blue. The last 5 layers were dry brushed...the 5th from last layer I added gold to the mix about 90% mid blue to 10% gold...and the 3rd from last an exptremely dry drybrush with 50/50. Then a midblue drybrush on top. The spines along the back got a similar treatment but using silver instead of gold..they look like blue in the pics. Finally the whole thing was put together..the tiny areas around the joins patched up and the whole thing got a another two very dry drybrushes of mid blue and white (70-30 and then 30 - 70%)
      Took ages to get the effect looking ok..it really looks much better in sunlight but the refections from the gold and silver made taking any decent photos impossible.

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    2. Seriously???
      it's a crazy work! but the result is great!
      beautiful Dragon!
      I'm sure that Bilbo would like it....

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    3. Seriously. The larger areas gave me a chance to practice a couple of painting ideas. Maybe painting 14 layers (at least twice as many as I have ever painted on a bod/nag) was a bit much but it seems to work. I´m seriously considering getting another big dragon...lovely looking beasts.

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  20. A fine beast of flight wonderful work my friend

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  21. And very nice he is too, he looks superb, well done old chap!!

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  22. Here be Dragon's. Brilliant stuff as always mate.

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  23. That dragon is brilliant painted! What a gift! And the base is also a nice piece of work!

    I assume you also gave him the voice of Sean Connery? ;-)

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.be/

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