A Chromatic Quintet - Dragons (Safari Ltd. and McFarlane Toys - Picture Heavy)

[MoonglowMinis]

Buckle in folks, I've got a lot for you today.  Over the past year or so I've slowly collected and painted a set of the five Chromatic Dragons.  When I first started collecting minis I'd picked up a couple of Dragons from Safari Ltd which were easy to find at craft stores.  Rather than buy a bunch of new models from Reaper or elsewhere, I decided to see if I could make a unique set of Dragons using mostly Safari Ltd models.  I flipped through my Monster Manual and browsed online catalogs and slowly picked out models that I wanted to use to represent each of them.  I eventually ran out of models that I liked and I supplemented a McFarlane Toys dragon for the Red.  I finally completed them early this past summer:

 

 

The White Dragon

 

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The White Dragon was the first one I painted up, and alongside the Balor I shared recently, one of the first large minis I ever painted.  This photo, however, is not the first attempt.  This is:

I tried keeping the wings transparent, and really struggled to get a good looking white.  You think I would have known better than to try painting my first large mini in a color that's notoriously difficult to paint well.  Thank goodness there's not a Yellow dragon in 5E.

 

So the first attempt was painted on the Safari Ltd Ice Dragon which has transparent wings.  When I re-did the dragon, I opted to buy a new model to avoid having to strip all that paint off.  This time I used the Safari Ltd Snow Dragon, which uses the same sculpt but is cast in a glow-in-the-dark plastic.  Not that it really mattered since I covered it all up anyways.  But I do think the casting detail was cleaner on the Snow Dragon.

 

 

I shied away from blue tones this time and tried to stick to a purple-gray for the shadows.  I think this worked out much nicer, and you can actually see the contrast in the scales.

 

 

I also prefer the bone color for the spikes, chest, and wings as opposed to the icy-blue color shift paint I used on the first attempt.  I still used the color shift on this guy but it's sandwiched between a few layers of white drybrushing.

 

 

It's a bit difficult to see, but he also ended up with a purple tongue and purple eyes.  These dragons gave me a great opportunity to practice more detailed eyes.

 

 

and here's the first attempt vs the second.  I like the re-paint better and it fits in with the rest of my dragons a lot nicer.

 

The Black Dragon

Moving up the Chromatic Hierarchy, we have the Black Dragon, represented here by the Safari Ltd. Cave Dragon.  This is actually the model that inspired me to paint up the dragons, as it looked so much like the 5E Black Dragon artwork.

 

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This guy was also tricky to paint.  I utilized a lot of Folkart Colorshift paints on him.  A black/gold paint was used for the body, and a purple/blue was used for the spine.  I think it adds a nice fantasy touch and helps bring some life to the models.

 

 

This is also one of my favorite Safari Ltd sculpts.  It's a newer model and the detail is better defined than some of the older ones.  Plus the pose feels dynamic.

 

 

He got milky purple eyes to match with that spine.  The purple spine means he doesn't quite match with the rest of the group, but I think it still looks pretty cool.

 

The Green Dragon

Next up, we have the Green Dragon represented by the Safari Ltd. Twilight Dragon.  Funnily enough, that sculpt is also available in a green variant as the "Forest Dragon," but i already had the black copy on hand.  It was all getting painted over anyways.

 

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I think this guy has the most classic fantasy feel.  I also really like how the color shift paints turned out on his scales.  I used a darker green shift and a lime green shift.  They add a lot of life to the scales in person.

 

His wings also turned out rather nicely, though I do wish I had highlighted them one more step higher.  His furry mane got painted up kind of like seaweed.  It's not exactly the aquatic fin that 5E depicts, but its good enough and still has that swampy feeling.

 

 

He got a very classic snake-like eye in orange/yellow.

 

The Blue Dragon

The last of the Safari Ltd. Dragons, this is the Fog Dragon, which got a tiny bit of green stuff to look the part of a Blue Dragon.

 

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This is actually my favorite of the set.  I love the sculpt, I love my additions, and I love the color.  I think he's striking.

 

This is definitely one of the best sculpts from Safari Ltd, with very crisp details and a lot of character.  He's also the biggest and was kind of difficult to work with.  He also got some blue color shift paint lightly drybrushed over his scales giving them a subtle shimmer.

 

 

These wings were also a paint to work with.  They were just so big, and it made it a nightmare to reach down between them.

 

 

The head got a large nose horn sculpted on it, as well as two smaller horns to help transition into the spine.  He also got an orange/yellow eye, but this time with a bit of reflection added.

 

The Red Dragon

I used up the biggest Safari Ltd Dragon with the blue, and I wasn't seeing anything I liked from any of their direct competitors, so I chose something a little different for the Red.  I ended up with the Komodo Clan dragon from McFarlane Toys Dragons Series 2.  And though this guy showed up in shades of red, I wanted to paint it myself, so it got primed and re-painted.

 

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This guy is big and intimidating which is exactly what I was going for.

 

 

He ended up a ruddy-brown color and I kind of wish I had highlighted up into orange a bit.  I feel like he doesn't read as vibrantly Red as I would have liked.  But he definitely still looks cool!

 

 

Picking out all of the little spines was an absolute nightmare and I'm definitely not looking forward to painting something like that again.  I also had a lot of trouble with his base staying tacky after being spray primed.  It's made out of a weird rubbery plastic material like baby toys are made of.

 

 

I also made the wise decision to paint the wings separately.  As you can see, they are quite large.  In retrospect I wish I would have added some interesting patterns to the wings, as they're a bit plain as is.  Feels like a waste to not do anything with such a large surface area.

 

 

Unfortunately, this guy also had the smallest eyes.  So the result here is just serviceable.  But that nasty face definitely means business.

 

It was a lot of fun painting up these guys, and I like having a unique collection.  I'm also glad they're all done.  Though I do still have a Shadow Dragon and a Dracolich primed and waiting for paint... and then all the dragons that are still boxed... and then that big five-headed guy I keep meaning to get around to... and then all those new dragons coming with Bones 5...

 

Which dragon do you like best?

[Glitterwolf]

Great dragons!

[Chaoswolf]

Good job on them. 

I always stop and check those figures out whenever I see them. I haven't gotten any of them yet, but seeing yours may be push me towards picking one up.

[Darcstaar]

You did a great job on these.

My favorite is the black dragon's pose.

The paintjob I like the best is the 2nd try at white.

[Iridil]

Very nice set of dragons - my favorite pose is the back dragon and my favorite paint job is the white!

[Kangaroorex]

The white dragon, definitely.  It has the richest color and best contrast.  I like them all though!  Great job on these