I use a Punch & Die Set with 0,5 mm Plasticcard for coins. Its a tool for rivers from scale modellers and you can go smaller than a plastic rod and have more control about thickness of the coins. Something like this: http://www.rptoolz.com/?p=196
Thanks a lot everyone for all the comments and advices. I think I'll just varnish it as it is now. I may try some kind of magic pool on the base as it is apart now (no risk to ruin the mini) and see what I can get. As I'm more a scifi guy than a fantasy one, I won't start getting stuff specifically for fantasy (even if it's really cheap, I tend to reduce my amount of useless bit lately). Anyway, all these tips are always good to know.
I can't help but start Volfyirion Based on the few painted version I could find, it is definitely a metallic dragon. So I choose to try the GSW chameleon paint set I bought for another project. As 4 of the color are reserved for this other project, I went with the two remaining from the set: - Toxic Purple for the belly scales - Celestial Azur for the back scales So far it looks like that: At this stage I came to the following conclusions: - those chameleon paints needs several layers to build up the color. It's written in the instruction, that a fact. - this "by default" color choice may not be the best one - it's difficult to take picture of the chameleon paints - my picture attempt result is actually much better than I expected - some part will require some brush retouch (airbrush is fine but I can't do everything with it) - I'm suck for the next colors - Celestial Blue will do wonder to paint some H.R. Giger's xenomorph Based on this reference picture, my initial idea was to use vert de gris to make the glowing parts some kind of oxidation instead. Problem, I don't think it will work with the blue scales. In fact, this blue would have been great as a base for the glowing parts. The red crystals are great one the reference but I may have to choose something else now the blue is so present. I also need to choose the proper color for eyes, mouth... As blue and purple are close, there is not enough contrast between upper and lower scales, I'm considering to add a semi-drybrush with Burning Gold (the yellow/red chameleon paint) on the blue. I will also need to black block the parts that get paint but dont need it to have a better overview. Now is sleep time so maybe I'll get some answers tomorrow. C&C please.
Looking really good so far! You can add some metallic silver or gold to those chameleon paints for highlights. (or just plain Vallejo Metallic Medium) And I'd actually go for fluorescent paints for the glow, yellow-orange against the Celestial Azure.
Busy week-end so not that much time to paint but found some to add burning gold as intended. Adding a third color really changes the overall aspect. I went with the messy way of wet brushing and it ended more forgiving than I expect. As the colorshifting paints need several layers to build up the color, it provided a nice transition from blue to gold. I already see several things to touch up but at least I'm going somewhere. Now on the down side of this step: - not sure that the orange suggestion from @Section9 is still relevant as the blue has been severely restrained - still no clue about a proper cristal color - I wonder if I need to add a color on the belly (purple) but maybe a basic highlight would be enough - don't know if I should go the wash way for shading the recesses and which color the wash(es) should be
Yeah, with that gold on there I don't think a separate fluorescent yellow-orange is necessary anymore. The gold is yellow-orange itself, after all. You don't want to make it too color-busy, so maybe fluorescent blue for any glow effects?
Thanks for the feedback. So, do you think that I could go back to the initial plan of vert de gris? I have some GW Nihilakh Oxide, it's a natural oxydation color and could be a good base for glow effect on the scales. Maybe a bit more blueish for the eyes and mouth. But first I need to work the shadows. I can go full black wash or be more selective: black/brown wash for the gold part, purple for the belly and blue in between. Whatever choice I make I'll have to get each color back on the raised parts so I don't know if the wash color is really relevant here.
I haven't worked with washes over the chameleon paints, so I'm not sure how those will work. I know fluorescent paints don't like working with washes over the top. I'd experiment with something else first!
So I went with a strong tone wash all over it. It took quite some time as I had to deal with a down side (literally a down side) so had to wait until the upper part dried before working on the down part. It went pretty dull but a quick dry brush of the initial colors and an extra silver dry brush balanced everything to something I'm happy with. I tested the glowing with the tongue including the Nihilakh Oxide and the Vallejo blue fluo but I am not happy with the result. By the way, the fluo paint as a very specific viscosity, it's a bit unusual. Finally after several tries I let the tongue as it and choose a more basic approach for the glowing/corroded effect of the scales with almost only one color gradually mixed with white. Not the hue I had in mind but the effect is way above my expectations. To be honest, it's nowhere near what I had in mind when I started it but thing are coming together little by little. Now I need to choose the crystals color and find a way to paint them without ruin the dragon (masking ok, but how is not clear). I think I will call him Full Metal Dragon
The dragon is provided with 5 crystal shards so before trying anything on the almost inaccessible central crystal I did a red and an orange test (first crystal painted ever). Not sold yet. The red looked a but too dark initially so the orange had to be done but I'm still wondering if blue crystals can work. There's still 3 shards so I can test it blue and green (I don't think it will work but it's not a big work). Maybe I should try something more yellow too. Pink purple is also an option...
Here's the full shards set And in situation Yellow is completely out and green does not feel like a winner (still not out of place). Blue seems the most fitting choice but I fear it will be too much. Red could be the reason's choice but I'm not convinced. Maybe with a more contrasted treatment. C&C are definitely needed.
The red to blue range seems to where I should investigate indeed. I may start with a deep violet for the dark parts and rise to a bright red highlight with whitish reflects.
That... Is... ...not going to happen I've showed it to my playing group (not the DnD one, the mini painter one with some pretty good painter btw) this week-end and the common conclusion is: stick the red one but with a much brighter end. Deep parts: red (which will end dark red because of the black primer Middle parts: bright red Top parts: orange Edges: pure white with potentially yellow transition from orange. A bit a of a mix of the red/orange/yellow shards I made.
