All pictures are thumbnail link to larger photos.
What follows is a step-by-step recounting of preparing, modifying, and painting the largest metal figure I have ever painted. I have included lots of pictures at every step and descriptions of what I did. This is the first figure that actually caused my wife to exclaim in profanity (a very rare thing).
Many of the pictures were taken at my workbench and so the quality suffers slightly. This thing is a behemoth and really challenged me to get it all in one picture!
The base miniature for this project is
Gauth from Reaper Miniatures. I bought him for a commissioned project sometime ago, but my “client” backed out and told me to just keep the figure. He paid for him, I kept him – my kind of commission
.
I unpacked the figure and began the process of preparing it for assembly.
A figure this heavy was going to require some extra work to assemble. I decided on a brass wire gauge to use as pins and began the tedious process of pinning the pieces. Pictures below are a tail pin and a pin on the foot.
I formerly employed a two-part epoxy glue to join large pieces like this together. It’s inexpensive and works very well. However, lately I have changed to a faster method that saves me a step. I put a nice layer of kneadatite in the joint and apply a dab of glue to the other section. I press the joint together and hold it for a couple of minutes. After a few minutes I sculpt the putty in the seam and let it sit overnight. This saves me an extra step of having to put green stuff in the joint later as I did with the two-part epoxy. Thus far, I have had no problems with the pieces with which I have used this method.
This is a picture of the tail joint where I have put some of the kneadatite on:
The picture below shows the results of a couple of these joints after I pressed them together – a wing and a tail joint:
A figure of this size was going to require a fair-sized base. This dragon was going to be an old devil, so in game terms it would probably occupy a 6” by 6” area. But that was more space than I was willing to give up in my miniatures cabinet. I decided on a 4” by 4” space and figured it could step in for a most of the adult red dragon categories.
My wife bought me a cheap wooden base at Michael’s for 49 cents. I placed the dragon on this and began covering it in wood putty.
Like most of you, I cannot just put a figure and paint it most of the time. I need to make some modifications, and hopefully add some things that will make the model truly stand out. I decided a red dragon must breath fire, and so I was going to add fire breath. The first step was to fix a piece of brass into the mouth to build the fire onto:
I started the fire sculpting by winding some kneadatite around the brass wire. This serves two purposes – 1st it is a nice base for the rest of the green stuff to adhere to, and 2nd it gives the fire a little bit of bulk.
While sections of the fire sculpt were drying I began fitting the torso together. Man alive! This is going to be one BIG figure:
There were a few things about this excellent model I did not like. I thought the teeth were a little too small. Some I did some quick dental work on the top incisors.
The dragon fire is completed. I made it with a series of spiraling tubes that ended at the tip at various angles. I fitted the head on and put it on the torso:
Finally, after a bit more sanding and sculpting the dragon is ready for priming:
I knew I wanted to prime the figure black and decided to experiment with a new product. Now I hear you saying, “Are you crazy pogre – after all that time preparing the dragon!?” Well, yes, but I hedged my bet. This product was endorsed by one of the finest figure painters I know of – Mike McVey. I ran down to the NAPA auto-parts store and bought a can of Dupli-Color black Sandable Primer. I was very satisfied with the results and recommend it highly.
Three weeks after I had started the dragon I was now ready to start painting!
I decided to try a technique multiple Golden Demon winner Joe Orteza espoused at a clinic and dry brushed the figure white a few times. This is similar to a technique
JD Wiker apparently employs too. 
Following the dry brush base came a dark ink wash and then the base color for the dragon scales.
I will not bore you with the painting details. I went for a classic red dragon look. If you have questions about painting let me know, but it was mostly rough layering. All I have left below is some highlighting.
This close up of the dragon’s head shows some of the dental work I performed to make those fangs a bit nastier!
Here are a couple of final shots. The thing is so big I could not really get a decent background behind it!
Hope you enjoy the dragon and my step-by-step descriptions. I have a really cool commission I am working on that will show up here in a couple of weeks and many other smaller projects. Special thanks to nyrf for inspiring me to do a little sculpting!
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