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I owe an extra-special thanks to all the Reaper Forumites who helped win this beastie and allowed me to paint her! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I loved this project. I wanted to paint this resin master sculpt all in blue with an ice and snow theme. Also, I wanted to create what seems like the perfect camouflage for an icy dragon hunting after dark. So the dragon from below is blue-black like the night sky, invisible when she soars overhead, while she is icy and pale on her back to hide in the snow by day. But I couldn't resist carrying the aurora pattern on to the back of the wings. I tried to match it up as carefully as I could to seem like a translucent wing. I have a fairly (hah!) extensive WIP encompassing several different threads: May-Aug '15 Sept-Dec '15 most recent She took...sigh... FOREVER. But she's worth it. She's also kind of hard to photo. I had to use the icky white background, but it at least worked. C&C always welcome! Let me know if I can fix anything in terms of the snow. I'm still exploring the whole icy creating aspect of mini painting...

So, I need to finish the dragon and get it off my desk and onto a shelf somewhere where it will not taunt me. A bit of history- I decided to do a super in-depth WIP since so many nice forumites at Reapercon helped me win it two years ago in the auction. With this post I have officially surpassed 100 in-progress photos!! Yay!!! Here are the old threads if anyone wants them where I did the early step-by-step. May-Aug Sept-Dec This weekend I tackled the last aurora effect on the underside of the wing. No pics, sorry, but it looks just like the other one. I still need to do some blending to make the color transition more seamless. I'll do that with about a thousand (kidding, but it feels like it) glaze layers until I 1) get tired of it or 2) it looks the way I want. usually the former! I also worked on attaching my more finished wing to the body. I did this because it will push me to finish the dragon even though all the blending isn't where I want it yet. if I don't push, it will continue to stare at me from the desk. There is a larger gap on the top here than the underside. I’m a bit of a weirdo and I like to do most of my painting before assembling the major parts of the mini. It’s easier for me to reach some areas that way. And in the case of this mini- I wanted to treat the wings almost like a flat canvas. It just means I have to be careful handling the mini and in how much glue I use. But, if I have an accident I can always touch up (after the glue is dry!!! Save the brushes!) I use superglue. In the case of this resin mini the wings come with a double tab joint so I opted not to pin. The joint extends all the way through the body, so it seems very stable. Materials: I use the metal tools to place and mold the greenstuff and the clay shapers to smooth it out afterwards. It doesn’t have to be perfect! As long as the transition between the two limbs looks neater, that’s what I aim for. I use the Vaseline to keep the tools from sticking. Just a bit, don’t goop it on or it will be harder to clean it up afterwards. I keep a bit on the back of my off- hand (learned that from the pro sculptors- it’s an awesome trick) to keep it handy. Use just enough to coat the tool in a thin layer and not more. First I place some greenstuff- err on the side of a lesser amount. It’s always easy to add more, harder to take it away when the surface is painted. Then I sculpt a few scales. Just a rough pattern that I can touch up. The clay shapers are great for smoothing the area between the new scale and the body. If it isn't perfectly smooth I can always take some sealer and smooth it out after it's dry. Add more greenstuff. I roll out little coils with my fingers and then squash it where I need it. More scales and in the area where the wing membrane abuts the body, I just smooth it in and will paint it like more membrane. It will eventually blend in nicely and no one will notice! I do the same on the underside. This mini had a cracked scale near the body up at the top of the pic, so I just sculpted overtop of it. Sometimes I cover a whole scale, sometimes just blend into it, sometimes create a new one. It depends on what looks right or at least blended. remember, these just have to look like they fit. they don't have to be perfect and you can fix lines in the sculpting with sealer or sometimes even paint. The reason to make them smooth and nice to begin with is that it is easier to continue with the rest of the process and not work harder to fix them later. But don't sweat the details. It'll work out! After letting the scales dry, I’ll base coat them. This is usually where I find out the areas I need to work of smoothing out the color transitions. It’s hard to judge them when the parts are separate so that's one reason to pre-assemble. As you can see, the wing and the body colors don’t match up perfectly. Easy to fix, though, so no worries! Now, all I have to do is finish painting them and making it look smooth. I'm torn- Julie was nice enough to sign the bottom of it so I don't want to cover that with a base... but I want to base it. I may end up cutting into a wooden base to leave the signature visible versus just asking Julie to sign it again. more soonish...