Now we're only days away. Most of this month has been high-activity trying to get all the projects done. I have multiple games I'm working on and I'm painting miniatures and terrain like it's going out-of-style! Long work-weeks have meant nothing compared to all this stuff- I feel like I'm back in the Emprah's service! But it shall all be worth it.
We're only days away from the new annual tradition- ReaperCon! With this being the 2nd year that I'm going, I feel compelled to enter the paint contest. I had multiple ideas throughout the year, but one absolutely had to be a dragon! I originally was going to use the awesome Devil/Dragon model from Joan of Arc, but the extreme southern heat in my garage has melted the plastic behemoth in a project-killing way. Not a great start....
My buddy came through for me- he had 3d printed a dragon from a set he had bought for his resin printer. I love dragons, he didn't have time to paint it (he has his own ReaperCon models to work on!), and so he donated it to my cause. The dragon model is amazing- detailed and has a pose that you can sense personality from. But, like all models (metal, plastic, or resin), there was work to be done.
After building everything, there were some noticeable gaps at the joins. No worries- I busted out the 'ol green stuff strip, mixed a marble until my hands were cramping, grabbed my dentist picks and a bowl of water, and went to work. It took a couple of days and a couple of layers and it still didn't quite turn out perfect (putty shrinks while setting), but it was good enough for a paintbrush...
After all that, I had to prime the model and the base. in this case, it was in the 'zenithal' style where I primed the whole model Black but then primed the top White to really lay out that highlight-shadow transition. The base is going to be so much fun- nature loves a zenith!
Now that he was primed and ready for paint, it was time to slap some colour on. I had to do a little survey to find what colour I was going to make him, and it all settled on red. Did I ever mention how much I love painting red? It's, like, the easiest colour to paint, man!
I had a full plan on this project. This year is supposed to be the 'learning new skills' year with practicing techniques that I'm not used to, especially if it's anything outside the Citadel System. Part of that is using an airbrush and this was supposed to be that project. Well, it didn't work. Me and my airbrush are not friends just yet and I had to shift gears. This sucked because I was also planning to use the oil-wash method on this big boy to build out the shading, but no airbrush equals no wash.
So I reset to the 'glaze' method. Coincidentally, the Contrast paints work very well for this and I was able to start the fade that this method can give you. Over the zenithal prime- this was much easier than I expected!
At this point, I've stopped with a couple weeks left and the plan to 'massage' the model. More orange, red, and yellow are to be added in glazing layers to really blend the model's colour scheme. This is the 'artist' part and I won't be taking pictures for a while. Once I'm done and have gotten the feedback rubric from the Con, I will certainly post. But for now, this is the progress that a camera will capture.