Red dragon paint and white dragon paint

[der_kluge]

Need some ideas here...

I'm currently trying to paint a red dragon. It's a Reaper mini - DeathSleet, which is intended to be a white dragon, I suppose, but I'm painting it red.

I also intend to get Gauth and I intend to paint that figure white/ice.

I'm using Warhammer paints for these.

Now, I have a smaller dragon that I painted an acid green, and I used a combination of boltgun metal and green (don't know the exact name of the green), and it came out this incredible metallic green.

When I tried my red dragon, I used several combinations. The first was the boltgun metal and red, and I ended up with this crimson purple color, which I didn't want. And I tried some others like tin and red and ended up with perfect bronze or copper dragon colors. I need some suggestions on what I can mix to get a great metallic red color.

Secondly, white dragons in my world are actually Ice dragons, and so I intend to paint that dragon with an "ice" look to it, which I suspect will be quite challenging. Any suggestions on how to accomplish that look are greatly appreciated.

 

[pogre]

There is a product that may help you. Folks who paint duck decoys use metallic powder to add to their paint to give the feathers a sheen. It comes in a number of colors and may be added directly to the acrylics.

I do not know where on the web you would find it, but I encourage you to look. I bought several bottles of it from a place called Craft Cove in Peoria, IL. I'm not even sure if that place is still around though.

A second idea is to experiment with some of the dragon scale cremes by Ral Partha. Again, I'm not sure if these are still around, but they are a metallic creme you dry brush over the scales. I have used them successfully with dragons in the past.

Good luck and let us know how you do!

 

[der_kluge]

Interesting. I shall have to search for these next time I am in my FLGS. Thanks

 

[Tewligan]

Well, here's what I would do if I wanted a red dragon with a metallic sheen:

1)Paint the dragon black.
2)Drybrush it silver or Boltgun Metal
3)Apply multiple layers of either red ink or thinned red paint.

Of course, I'm not sure exactly how metallic you want the scales to be, but this way should give you some good scale definition from the black undercoat and the following metal drybrush. The more layers of color you put on top of the metal will add to the depth of the red you're going for - the first layer or two won't look like much, but you should get a good, deep red with multiple coats.


Oh, and for the ice dragon, I'd probably give it a base coat of medium blue, a heavy drybrush of a medium-light blue, and then do successively lighter drybrushes of lighter shades until you're drybrushing pure white.

 

[Jshock_75]

Something I did when I was still into Warhammer and had to paint a red as a mount- basecoat/shade with red (I used blood red and crimson gore, but whatever) then highlight with copper. The red basecoat still dominates the color scheme.

 

[alsih2o]

do you have acces to a rock tumbler?

 

[pogre]

do you have acces to a rock tumbler?

You have me interested - why?

 

[der_kluge]

Well, no I don't, but like Pogre - why?

 

[alsih2o]

well, if you take some little procelain balls (which i have a metric buttload of) and put them in a rock tumbler (potters use big ones called ball mills) with some metal like copper or iron you can grind the metal bits into little tiny bits that do great things when mixed with paint.

just a thought. if you get real into it i could maybe do some and mail some to you. it is ubercool.

 

[der_kluge]

That sounds cool!

Do they come in different colors, or just metal?

I can't help but wonder what blue metal flakes might look like in an ice dragon.

I might take you up on that. I would happily cover the S&H.