WIP Ma'al Drakar (pic heavy)

[bojesphob]

It's been a LONG time since I posted on here... Probably at least 2 years... But, I've kept up with the kickstarters and although I missed Bones 3, I am definitely in on Bones 4! Anyhow, once I saw Ma'al Drakar from Bones 3, I KNEW I had to have it! Someone on eBay posted one before they were available through retail, and was able to get one earlier than I had been planning on. So, the past few months I've been working on it as I have free time, and have been taking pictures as I went along. Figured I'd post my progress and show some of my techniques.

I apologize for the low quality of the images. My workspace has terrible lighting for pictures, and my phone just doesn't photograph well in lower light.

Anyhow, unlike many I've seen WIP pics for here, I actually fully assembled mine before I started painting. There really aren't very many places that will be tight, and I have an easier time visualizing what I want to paint when I have it assembled.

 

Funny story with this: My 2 year old came outside when I was assembling and aske me what this was. I told her it was a dragon, and her reply was "It's CUTE!" LOL She then saw it again inside when I brought it in and said "Daddy, it's a dragon, it's awesome!"

Anyhow, then tried green stuffing some of the gaps and cleaning mold lines. Unfortunately, the gap on the tail was too much for the green stuff apparently because when it dried it kind of shrunk back into the gap and you can see it. That and I missed a few mold lines (major one I missed was the one across the stomach/hip). Not too noticeable, but of course it will bug me.

Next came priming. I know I didn't have to prime, but I typically start with a black base for everything that I paint so it makes it a lot easier to just use a primer to start off with. I use Dupli-color sandable car primer: dries relatively quickly and is EXTREMELY difficult to overspray with and coats very evenly.

After hitting the small areas that I somehow managed to miss with the primer with a black paint, I started with the front base part. Darker gray (mechanicum gray from GW, if I remember correctly). I excluded the dragon faces and feet so that I can paint those seperately.

When dried, hit up with a black wash (GW Badab Black, I believe I used)

Still wet

After that dried, a drybrush of a lighter gray.

Then, I painted the faces and feet with a tan (can't remember the name of it off the top of my head), then washed using Gryphonne Sepia wash (GW, discontinued unfortunately :( )

Another drybrush of even lighter gray after that dryed, then dry brush of a lighter tan over the faces and feet.

 

Continued in next post....

 

On to the heads! I wanted a frost dragon to be the head with the curved horns: reminded me of Loki from Avengers so it seemed to fit. Started with a white (GW Ceramite White, I think). Took a couple of coats to get it to my liking

Then decided to do a sort of icy looking horns for him. So, started off with a darker blue (but not too dark)

Then, to do a wash on the white head, I decide to use a watered down Privateer Press P3 Troll Underbelly (not sure if that's specifically the right one or not, but will check).

Did a test on the ear with the wash

I liked the look, so I completed the head. Unfortunately, right now the photos don't do the white head justice. Once I get finished painting it, I will try to get better pics to show it all off :)

I then did the seconde head with black with gray highlights. That one isn't quite as exciting, since that's pretty much a standard way of painting the black (it will show up better in later pics)

Dry brushed the horns with a white, and the rest of the head as well to bring back out some of the details, then painted the eyes.

Another view with the heads and the base that's close to being done

 

continued...

Edited August 11, 2017 by bojesphob

[Glitterwolf]

Very cool!

[bojesphob]

Then painted the other heads. Red for the main top one, green for the second highest (two tone, darker green on top and a lighter green on bottom). Then, gave them a wash of Baal Red (GW wash) and Thrakka Green (also a GW wash).

Bottom head I did a darker blue (about the same color as the white head's horns), with a lighter blue on bottom, then washed that with a blue wash.

A little closer up look at the heads as they dried

Then did some dry brush build ups on the Red, Green, and Blue heads. I mixed in some turqoise on the blue head to give it a more aquatic look, and the green and red I also did some glazes right before the lightest highlight.

Did a first pass on the eyes, and painted some of the mouths/teeth

Still trying to figure out my phone camera LOL

 

continued...

Next up was the main body. For this one, I REALLY wanted something inspired by real live reptiles. So, after searching google images of different reptile skin patterns, I came across an image for a Greater Mountain Horned Lizard. It had a sort of rust looking skin, with some unusual patterns of color in between the scales. Now, what I went with isn't exacty the same, it did give me the inspiration for what I ended up doing :)

So, GW makes some really good technical paints. One combo I REALLY like (especially for vehicles) is Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust. Typhus has the look of metal that's been painted but has begun to corrode and has bled out the color of the paint but hasn't started showing iron oxide yet. It also has a grainyness to it that makes for an ideal texture to drybrush against. Ryza Rust is a dry brush technical that's they developed to be used in combo with Typhus. It drybrushes EXTREMELY easily, and has a great looking rust quality to it. So, I did a test area on Ma'al's shoulder, and subsequently loved it.

If you notice in that pic, I started adding a red on the bottom edges of the scales. This is my method for adding a little more depth to this type of technique. Most of the red goes away when I drybrush on the Ryza rust, but just enough shows that it changes the feel of it.

Here it is with the full base after getting the underwing coated and the underbelly.

As the above shows, I also am doing the wings and underbelly/fleshy parts of arms and legs in a graying tan. I also am putting some red as an underlying color as well, then washing in Gryphonne Sepia.

I also ended up doing some of the Typhus/Ryza up a little into the colors of the necks so that it does a tranisition between the two. This way there isn't such a harsh breaking point between the two.

After doing some addition of red for the underbelly, both under the armor plates and spots on the fleshy parts, then the wash of Sepia, I then used a GW Pallid Flesh to drybrush on top of that.

Then, using other reptiles as inspiration again, on the wing flaps, I created a sort of spotted pattern of the same red, that is small next to the wing, but then gets larger out towards the outsides. Then, once they got big enough, I then put a spot of a green/yellow/tan color (from the Panzer armor paint set from Flames of War) in the middle. I will then do a wash of Sepia over this, then drybrush with the Pallid Flesh over top of that once it dries. This will hopefully tone down the spots to where they are barely visible, but will give it some depth beyond just the grayish tan, sepia and drybrush, very similar to what it did for the underbelly.

That's where I stand now. Still have quite a bit left to do on it, and my painting time is very minimal at the moment, but hopefully this gives you an idea of where I'm going with it :)

 

 

Edited August 10, 2017 by bojesphob

[Glamberry]

I love the green head! That so reminds me of gremlins 2...anyone else? No? Okay just me then .__.

[Glitterwolf]

Looking good!

[bojesphob]

Thanks guys :) I forgot to mention in the main body section that after I did the drybrush of Ryza Rust that I then did a VERY light drybrush of chainmail type silver on the very top edges of the scales to give it a sort of metallic look. I'm really glad I went that way with the body, as it really gives it a dynamic look that reminds me a lot of that horned lizard!

[bojesphob]

I was able to work on it a little bit before bed last night after the wee one was asleep, and got the first part of the wing washed and then drybrushed. I've only done the underside of the one wing so far - I was pretty sure this route was going to give me the look I wanted, but wasn't 100% sure so this was more of a test than anything. I do like it, and will do the rest of the wing membrane this way! Anyhow, I used the Gryphonne Sepia wash, then did a dry brush with the same Pallid Flesh from GW.

 

 

 

So, are my instincts here right? Does that give it a subtle layered/dynamic look?

 

Next step (after painting the rest of the wings this way) will be to paint the bone tips on the wings, which i think I'm going to do the same corrosion/rust that the rest of the body has.

[hosercanadian]

I think those spots look fantastic.

[LordJosh]

wow...that's awesome

 

[robinh]

I like!   The dry brush brought out the wrinkles and veining in the membrane and gives it that layered look.

[Glitterwolf]

I also love the spots!

[bojesphob]

Thanks! So, since I wasn't the only one to like how the wing underside turned out, I went full bore of the weekend and did the rest of the wing membranes this way :)

Spots painted, and washed:

 

While the wash was drying, I also painted up the spikes on the back. Once I get them washed and drybrushed, I'll get a better pic of them.

 

The backs of the wings and the inside of the other are now drybrushed as well :)

 

As you can kind of see, I also did spots on the underbelly and drybrushed there as well. This includes the bottoms of the arms and the fleshy parts of the back of the legs and inside of them as well. I believe I also did the section of the tail right behind the legs the same way.

 

I decided to do something a little different with the tail. Since a lot of reptiles I found in my searches for my ideal skin pattern had ringed colors on their tail, I decided I would do the same with this. Now, I still have to do the rust areas of it,

 

 

Now, I still have a bit left to do (the base of the Drakar, the rest of the tail, the mouths and teeth, the talons on the wings, the horns, the spikes on the back, and redoing of the eyes on the heads), but this is how it looks standing with the main base section :)

 

Last but not least, I screwed up one of the eyes on the green head, and decided to make him a bit more unique and added a battle scar. Also painted some more detail in the eyes of the red head:

[bojesphob]

I got a bit further last night. Have the stone base painted gray for the base color, teeth and mouths have been worked through, and claws have been painted (both on the hands/feet and the wings). I just have to decide a few things on the horns on the head.... So, 2 questions for input:

1) Does anyone have a good tutorial on how to do horns? I've thought about doing them the way I normally do, but that's typically flat and I want these to fit the rest of the mini (ie, I want it to be a little better than my normal paint job)

2) Should I repaint the horns on the white head to match what I do on the others? I thought I liked what I did with them originally, but the more I look at it, the less I like the drybrushed white on blue look....

 

Anyhow, here are today's pics :)

 

 

 

 

 

So, at the moment, I have the base to finish, and the horns to figure out.... Then I can try to do some decent pics of it!

Edited August 17, 2017 by bojesphob

[bojesphob]

I decided to redo the horns on the white head, as I found a really good tutorial on using successive washes to paint horns and I liked it WAY better than the way the white and blue above looked. And, I had sort of got lazy on the spikes on the back, so I am going to redo those and the claws using this same technique! Also, redid the eyes some on a couple of the heads, although they're not quite 100% finished yet.

 

 

 

Again, sorry the pictures are so terrible. I tried using my DSLR to get better pics, but I think it's having issues as I couldn't get it to actually adjust the light input even though I was adjusting the aperture settings :( Oh well, maybe once i get my new phone I'll be able to take better pictures...

Edited August 21, 2017 by bojesphob

[bojesphob]

I just thought of this, but if anyone is looking for a good tutorial on how to do the horns like I did here, this is the tutorial on how to do them. It uses Agrax Earthshade and Seraphim Sepia from Games Workshop washes.

 

 

 

 

EXCELLENT tutorial, and had very little learning curve attached to it - hardest part was waiting for the washes to dry LOL

 

Edited August 24, 2017 by bojesphob