Fire Tackles Maal Drakar in 7 Days

[Fire_Eyes 911]

Sooooo... I'm going to do this crazy thing.

 

When I got my Maal Drakar for Christmas, I booked myself a vacation during my slow season at work to do this. Partially because I knew I needed a vacation, and partially so I could challenge my belief that I am a slow painter.

 

The rules:

Quote

1.  You may use no brushes larger than Size 0.  As Size 0 can vary by company and brand, the average bristle  dimensions are 10mm long by 1mm wide.  When selecting brushes, try to be as close to this guideline as possible. 

 

2.  You have 7 full days to complete from your posted start time (including a picture with a time stamp from a phone or computer screen is helpful to establish this) to complete the model.

 

3.  All visible areas must be painted, and all paint must be applied with a regulation brush.

 

4.  No drilling, filing, mold line removal or other preparation work is permitted before start time.  The only preparation allowed is to dry fit your pieces to make sure the model is complete, and do any boiling and reshaping necessary to correct warping and return the model to "factory spec".   You may also clean the pieces with soap and water.

 

5.  All pieces as included in the box set at retail must be painted.  This includes, for example, the 5 adventurer figures included with Dragons Don't Share 2. (Note that this means you cannot remove any parts) 

 

6.  You must declare in your thread title that you are doing a 7-day challenge (ex: Ma'al drakar in 7 Days).  This way your thread gets noticed as a challenge so we can watch the fun and make arrangements for the prize if you succeed.

 

7. After declaration of completion in your WIP thread, you have 2 hours to submit your official entry photos in the Official Entries thread (this is to allow time for setting up of photo taking area). Up to 5 pictures per entry may be submitted. Link to entry thread: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/76081-maal-drakar-7-day-challenge-entries-no-chatter/

 

When I first saw the Maal Drakar sculpt, I immediately thought of Hiram Mcdaniels from Welcome to Night Vale. So, I'm going to paint his heads gold, green, violet, grey, and blue. Eventually (probably after the challenge is done) I would like to freehand some Night Vale inspired graffiti on the rocks, and make a "Hiram for Mayor" banner to hang on the base.

 

My dragon is clean, my brushes and paints are sorted, and I have everything I need. Hopefully. Now I just need to find a clock, and I think I'll be ready to begin.

 

 

[Glitterwolf 115683]

Good luck!

[Fire_Eyes 911]

And we've begun! Free background puppy too :)

[Guindyloo 44709]

Yay! 

 

I’m glad to see another challenger taking this beastie on! Good luck!!!

[buglips*the*goblin 86918]

Challenge entered into the record!

[WhiteWulfe 8865]

This seems like it would be a fun, yet challenging kind of... Challenge.   Can't wait to see how it goes! 

[Fire_Eyes 911]

Thank you everyone!!!!

 

I'm taking a bit of a rest at the moment, so I took a pic to show where I am. I've gotten the dramatic gaps greenstuffed, I've removed some mold lines (of course I then found lots more), and I've gotten everything primed! I primed the base with grey liner, and I primed everything else with brush on primer mixed with a bit of vampiric highlight to differentiate it from the bones color. I've decided not to assemble anything until I get the base coat on, since this thing has so many nooks and crannies.

 

 

I'm already past what I wanted to get done tonight, so I'm pretty happy! Right now I'm starting to use the liners to outline the scales and details. I'm hoping that by doing this I will be able to see where I'm planning to put each color (and visualize it before base coating), as well as have a shadow already there when I base coat. As you can probably see, I'm not being too fussy with this step!

Edited January 23 by Fire_Eyes

[Glitterwolf 115683]

Progress!

[Fire_Eyes 911]

Quick update! I finished another color of liner. I'm planning for the washed bits to be more silver, and the outlined bits to be more grey.

 

 

This is one of those situations where having a dedicated paint desk would be useful.

 

And, over here, we have the cheering section!

 

 

They're absolutely riveted.

[Fire_Eyes 911]

The lining is all done! It took a touch longer than I expected, but I'm glad I did it. It really allowed me to plan out my colors and patterns, since I wanted to bring all the head colors into the body

 

 

Hopefully I'll be able to get the base coat on by the end of the night!

[Guindyloo 44709]

You're doing great! 

 

That was some smart planning, I think it'll really help you out!

[OneBoot 66787]

Huzzah, another Challenger enters the ring! You're off to a great start!  Doing all of the lining ahead of time was a smart idea, it should save you some time later (while also not taking nearly as long as slathering the entire beastie in liner like I did lol). 

 

Huzzah!

--OneBoot :D

[Fire_Eyes 911]

Soooo... I didn't get base coat on by the end of the night. It was a long, slow, all day slog. Mostly because of my "helper"

 

At least she makes a good table

 

But base coat is done! Mostly. I haven't done much on the wings still because I haven't decided what pattern I'm going to do yet. Though.... my colors may be giving me an idea.

 

 

Turns out, my big scary dragon is a peacock! Even though I knew what basic colors I wanted, I chose the specific base shades based on my gut. So, once I'd chosen spruce green to be my green, the rest fell into place.

 

My plan is to spend the rest of the night fixing little details; things like those mold lines I'd missed and the teeny gaps I have left. Then, tomorrow, I can start detailing. Finally. I don't think I've ever painted a mini this sloppily before, so it's stressing me out seeing spots where paint is missing or rubbed off and liner is not quite where it belongs. I'm looking forward to getting to work each piece and section individually now.

Edited January 25 by Fire_Eyes

[Glitterwolf 115683]

Awesome!

 

You might need crowd control for that cheering section...

 

My Brutus is also very excited about painting.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited January 25 by Glitterwolf

[Fire_Eyes 911]

Yesterday started rough. I forgot, when I scheduled an eye doctor appointment over paint week, that getting pupils dilated was a thing. So I spent the morning nursing a headache, and then when I sat down to paint, I was intimidated.

 

I've noticed that anytime I take on a big project like this, I hit a spot midway through where I have no idea what to do and what I've gotten myself into, and I almost get paralyzed because I don't think I can do it.

 

For me, the best thing to do in those situations is to just zoom in and work on something small and specific. In this case, it was eyes. I love eyes. When I was a teen I would sit and draw eyes over and over on my homework, so working on eyes was something familiar and comforting for me. And since this guy is a bit bigger than the average mini, the eyes were a lot easier to pull off.

 

I tried using several different animal eyes as inspiration, figuring a five headed dragon would be more effective at multiple terrains with a good mix of reptile and avian eyes. And it kept me from getting bored.

 

 

After I finished the eyes I knew I just had to keep getting paint on him, so I painted all the mouths in next. This was another section that had scared me, but once I had a system down, it was actually pretty fun and easy. I used old west rose to base the mouths, then shadowed with a mix of old west rose, dark skin highlights, and rusty red. I highlighted with a mix of old west rose and brains pink, then glazed here and there with rusty red.

 

 

For the teeth I used vampiric highlights, then lightly yellowed the bases with a mix of one part griffon tan, one part gilded yellow, and threeish parts vampiric highlight. In the spaces where teeth met I lined with griffon tan, then I lined where the teeth met gum with dark skin highlight. This probably going to be my go to dragon mouth routine from now on, which is why I'm trying to remember my color mixes.

 

 

I sealed all the eyes and mouths with gloss sealer to try to get that wet look. I love what it did on the mouths but I'm not sold on the eyes. I may to back over them with a regular sealer later. For now I'm just glad I'm less at risk of pulling off paint.

 

 

It wasn't originally in my plan to seal the dragon during the 7 days, but after seeing how bad the paint rub off has been, I've changed my mind. After I finish every section from here out, I'm sealing it for peace of mind.

 

 

After I finished the mouth, I decided to tackle the silver claws and spikes. I used a fairly simple liner-wash-drybrush system to make everything look nice and aged and I'm really happy with the result!

 

 

Looking at what I finished yesterday, I'm feeling a lot better. I've just got to keep reminding myself to just keep painting.

Edited January 26 by Fire_Eyes