Painting a pink Narthrax(RCL)

[Kuroneko]

Well, it's been a while since my last WIP project so here's what happens when you browse the Reaper Discord late at night and think "Hey! That's a FANTASTIC idea!". The Discord is home to the Reaper Challenge League and it has many, many categories. My favorite is the seasonal/holiday one. Simply put, you pick a holiday or event(ie.Christmas/St Patrick's day/The Coopers Hill Cheese Race etc) and paint a mini to match the theme.

 

As many of you are aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and the signature colour for that is pink. A few people were talking about doing pink minis for the challenge and I figured that I've already done a multicolored dragon, so how hard can it be?

 

This, my friends, is what this work in progress thread is about to attempt. Abandon all sanity and colour sense, all ye who continue to read here, because things are about to get fabulous!

 

First of all, the choice of dragon needed to be considered. Too small and you don't get the impact, too large and you're painting the beast all year. I needed a nice, mid sized dragon and I happened to have a spare of this bad boy. 

 

 

I've always loved Narthrax. His angry face, the unusual tilted pose and the awesome scale placement are just fantastic. He's truly one of my favorite dragons and I've been looking for an excuse to paint him something different from the standard chromatic or metallic dragons for quite a while now. Most of the my painting is for tabletop gaming purposes so it's nice to shift gear once in a while. 

 

So first things first, I gave him a nice soapy bath to prepare him for painting. Sorry, no photos of that- a dragon has to retain some dignity! Here's the 'after' shot!

 

 

I glued on the leg and tail and left the head and wings separate, mostly for ease of painting. Then I gave home a good, slightly thinned coat of Blue Liner 9066. This provides a nice, even base coat and helps prevent the paint rubbing off further down the road.

 

 

And thus the madness begins! This is where I started giving every single scale a layer of Rich Indigo, making sure that there's still a good amount of the dark liner in the shadows. 

 

 

At this point I realized that a test area was probably a good idea, so I started playing around with highlight colours, finally deciding on Witchcraft Purple 07977 and, appropriately enough, BCA Pink which Reaper are kind enough to put into online orders in October. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how bright to go but at least it doesn't look entirely hideous! Admittedly, your milage may vary on this one. Heck, I might hate pink by the end of this endeavor, you never know.

 

 

Lots of blocking in the purple and pink, with an attempt on the belly scales. Not entirely sure about that, might need to see how bright the upper scales go.

 

 

More blocking in of the scales and a bit of work on the wings, using Rich Indigo and Desna Blue.

 

 

 

Then the Witchcraft Purple starts getting layered on in earnest. This is the point where I start to second guess myself. He's starting to look like a particularly dangerous fuschia....

 

 

That's pretty much where the mini is now, hopefully I haven't bored you all too much or damaged your retinas. I'm hoping to get some more work done tomorrow so I'll keep posting as often as I can. I think that this is one of those projects that needs attention little and often.

 

Thanks for looking everybody!

 

[rubegon]

Oh damn!  That’s looking amazing!

 

I’d lean into that fuschia.  Maybe shade darker near the roots of the scales to tone it down a little but that vivid color looks great imo.

[Glitterwolf]

Awesome!

 

I know @ub3r_n3rd once painted a pink Kaladrax, might want to check it out for inspiration.

[Loim]

I approve of this. 

[Marsya]

Love this. The scales are really beginning to pop. 

[Kuroneko]

Thank you so much everyone! You guys and gals are too kind!

 

 @ub3r_n3rds pink Kaladrax looks amazing, thanks for the heads up @Glitterwolf!

 

This weeks progress has mainly involved solidifying all of the Witchcraft Purple. Good grief, my eyes were going funny at times. Still not sure about the dark purple contrast in the wings but I need to keep them separate for as long as possible due to access issues for all those scales.

 

 

Here's where I tried Runic Glow 09320 to build up the pink on the right wing. I think that it'll be a good midtone between the Witchcraft Purple and the BCA Pink. I was originally going to mix a midtone manually, but it would be really time consuming with so many scales!

 

 

Mr Pink with his slightly highlighted wings...

 

 

...and with a lot more Purple and a teeny bit of the Glow on the scales. I keep on jumping between the pink and redoing the lining because it keeps on looking untidy. Hopefully the next batch of highlights will help.

 

 

 

This is a very badly lit picture of him on his new base. The sticky tack wasn't up to the task and pinning was problematic, so I figured that basing him would make it easier all round. Only the best IKEA cork coasters for my minis!

 

 

Thank you so much for looking everybody, hopefully I'll have a lot more contrast in the next update!

[Samedi]

Great project! I'm all for breaking routines and expectations. Go, pink dragon!!

[Glitterwolf]

It's fabulous so far!

[Darcstaar]

Take a look at the Temple Dragon Metal version on the Reapermini website.  Michael Proctor’s non-traditional pink and purple was very bright and inspiring.

 

Great progress here.