Ravenloft Dracolich

[ObsidianCrane]

I commented in Dracolich - First painting attempt and as this mini isn't finished I thought I'd put up a WIP thread for it so that I could explain things.

 

 

Colours Used So Far:

09116 Brilliant Blue

09037 Pure Black

29824 Maiden Flesh

09255 Black Wash

 

Base Colours:

Maiden Flesh for the bones.

Brilliant Blue for the flesh.

Wash after the base colours are dry I applied a thinned wash of Black Wash over the entire miniature. Once the thinned wash is dried I applied Black Wash again this time specifically targeting the deep recesses of the model, such as the tail and similar areas.

 

Next Step:

At this point I painted over the bones of the model with thinned Maiden Flesh. When I say "thinned" I mean I dip my brush into water (collecting enough water to wet the brush not loading it with water) and then picked up paint (from a drop) and mixed the two on my pallet so that the brush was not over loaded with paint. This paint is then applied lightly to the miniature building thin coats. Contrasted with the black of the wash this makes the Maiden Flesh look white. In places I built some layers up of this colour, usually on high points or areas where the colour should be strongly white (because in the things I still have to do is apply a mix of Maiden Flesh & Pure White for highlights and Pure white for extreme highlights).

 

At this point I "black lined" the mini. Using Pure Black I carefully painted over the deep joints and other areas that I wanted specifically black and then along where the white bone is adjacent to the blue. I also touched up a few of the deep shadows on the blue as well. (I still need to revisit the inside of the mouth I noticed.)

 

To bring the mini to the stage in the photo I thin thinned (as described above for the Maiden Flesh) Brilliant Blue and painted over the blue areas. On the body I focused on the high surfaces and other areas that will build to highlights. On the wings I painted over the whole surface right up to the bones (yes this covers the previously established black line).

 

This completes the miniature up to its current state, which (aside from the base needing painting and fixing the mouth) would be perfect for the game table to be honest (maybe a little more highlight on the blue).

 

Where From Here;

The next step is to work the blue up to highlights more and eventually to come through and paint black veins in the wings (where the small groves are in the model). Its a big impressive model and I expect to use it in games other than Ravenloft. I am still considering removing it from the plain base and remounting it on a scenic one, though obviously the more painted it gets the harder that becomes to do.

[ObsidianCrane]

Well today I checked for alternate bases for it and came up dry. So if I do anything with the base it will have to be crafted. At this stage that probably means no work on the base.

 

Though I did get an equivalent to liquid greenstuff to try out... so maybe there will yet be something.

[smokingwreckage]

Nice, and thanks for the details on paints and technique!

[ObsidianCrane]

Ok update on WIP.

 

At this stage I have applied another layer of Brilliant Blue and touched up the bones with Maiden Flesh. In applying the Brilliant blue I avoided the areas I wanted to be shadows and the little lines in the wings.

 

Next I mixed Field Stone with Brilliant Blue 50:50 and again painted over the raised areas and left the little lines in the wings. By this stage those lines were starting to be clear.

 

To finish it to this stage I then went back with black wash (not too carefully) and painted over the lines in the wings. I also painted in the mouth Red Shadow.

 

[ObsidianCrane]

And here is the finished miniature;

 

 

I didn't do any fancy basing on any of the Ravenloft minis to make them easy to use with the boardgame.

 

Finishing Touches;

 

1) Applied a second highlight of Field Stone/Brilliant Blue painting the bottom half of each section of the wings with this and the edges of the upper "cracks".

 

2) Applied a highlight of Ash Grey/Brilliant Blue (25/75) and painted this in stripes haphazardly over the lower 1/2 of each section of the wings, this time ignoring all the cracks.

 

3) Drybrushed Ash Grey onto the lower 1/3 of the wings.

 

4) Washed all of the blue areas with a very thin (basically blue water) coat of Brilliant Blue.

 

5) Repeated (4) on the wings. Making sure to reline all the "cracks" to make them darker than the surrounding areas.

 

6) Mixed Pure Black and Brilliant Blue 50/50 and thinned to basically coloured water. Applied this over the top 2/3rds of the wing sections and relined the cracks in these areas with it to make them darker.

 

7) Thinned pure black to basically black water. Applied this to the top 1/3 of each wing section and relined the cracks in the now dark blue section.

 

8) Painted the base Field Stone (took 2 coats) and the edge Pure Black.

 

After this picture was taken I hit all of my Ravenloft models with a coat of Army Builder Matt Sealer. (Spray on.)

[MonkeySloth]

What made you decide on blue for the skin? Especially one that's so dark to start with.

[ObsidianCrane]

I could have gone lighter its true. :)

 

But it is the animated corpse of a Blue Dragon by WotC designs.

 

 

Clearly I didn't stick with the "official" colour scheme either... too late now :)

 

Also the DDM version is painted like this;

Which influnced my choices.

[CashWiley]

Maybe it's just the lighting of the pic, but it looks like the blue skin (which is awesome) could use some more contrast.

 

Oh, man. Now they've got ME saying that.

 

The bone portions are awesome!

[MonkeySloth]

Ahh, I didn't even connect the chromatic dragon stuff--that's what I get for asking at 2am.

 

I think the dark blue worked well on the wings, probably looks better on the rest of the mini as I'm sure the photo hides some of the highlights.

[ObsidianCrane]

Maybe it's just the lighting of the pic, but it looks like the blue skin (which is awesome) could use some more contrast.

For a display piece, yes, yes I could. For a tabletop piece it has plenty of contrast :)

[karpouzian]

I have the mini, and I can't figure out how you sussed out what is flesh and what is bone... Any suggestions? And did I just use the word "sussed"?

[ObsidianCrane]

Most of the flesh is fairly apparent, but see the official paint job above for ideas.

 

Now I decided to paint the forelegs blue in the upper leg area because of the plastic that then connects to the torso. I also painted the area around the left eye that can see blue on a whim.

 

Most of the flesh is pretty obvious though.

[karpouzian]

I've got the mini, and it isn't too apparent to me... Maybe I should prime it and wash it, then it may be more apparent to me...

[ObsidianCrane]

Flesh bits are "wrinkled"

Bone bits are "smooth"

That's as complicated as I got except the bit about the leg and eye mentioned previously.