Mannfred Von Carstien on Dragon

One thing that made Jeff Wilson's dragon stand out, beside the great paint job, was the wood grain that he painted onto the dragon's belly and horns. Now my dragon would look silly with a wood grain, but I could paint a different pattern. After much thinking, I finally decided to paint the dragon the same marble pattern I used on my Black Coach.

I decided to paint the marble first, then mask it off, and finish painting the rest of the model. If I painted the marble last, I risked accidentally painting over the rest of the dragon. When I doubt, do the messy part first!

I left the dragon off of his base because it would be easier to handle without the base  in the way. To begin with the entire model was primered black. The marble would be painted in three layers, plus the veining. The first coat layer was dark red. I used an artist silks sponge purchased from a craft store, dipped it into the dark red, blotted onto some newspaper till I got most of the paint off, then blotted the dragon's belly, horns, claws, and the banner. The red was blotted on in a sporadic pattern, basically, little here and a little there. After I was done with the dark red, I repeated the process with red, and then red mixed with pink.

Its important not to overdo with the marble effect. Remember that all three colors of red, the black, and the white veining need to be visible. Doing too much of one color will ruin the marble effect. The only way to fix it is to re-primer the model and start again.

White veining was added using thinned white paint. I used a 20/0 brush and holding it just by the end, I dragged it across the dragon in no particular pattern. Breaks in the line were filled in by hand.

The marble was then sprayed with several coats of Testors Gloss coat. The dragon was left to cure for 24 hours. The final step was to cover all of the marbleized area with several layers of liquid rubber latex. The more layers of latex applied, the easier it is to remove later. This would protect the marble from any  painting mistakes and I could also spray dull coat over the entire model when finished and not take away the shine of the marble. The last part was to glue and pin the dragon to the base.

The dragon was once again primered black since paint does not stick well to glossy surfaces.  The entire model was base coated with 1:3 thinned black paint. The scales were drybrush with a mix of black and dark blue, then drybrushed again very lightly with pale blue. The fleshly parts were highlighted with a very thin , 1:6 ratio of a dark red and dark brown mix. The highlights were slowly built up to almost pure dark red. The end results was a black dragon, but with a subtle sheen of red.

The wings were basecoated with cadmium maroon. I highlighted the wings by slowing mixing dark red into the maroon and drybrushing on dozens of very thin coats, thinned to about 1:10 ratio. I think there must of been about 50 drybrushings total. The edges of the wings when flesh met wing and creases were shaded with a dark brown-black.

The base was next. I wanted a moist, moldy looking base, so I used a quick wet on wet blending technique. The base was quickly painted various shades of gray and brown, and even a thinned green wash. The exact colors were not important, I just grab what I thought would look good. The result was a nice old and worn looking lump of rock cover with algae. The earth was painted flat brown and drybrushed with yellow ochre. The vegetation is static grass and Hudson & Allen ivy and pine boughs all glued down with thinned white glue.

Originally, I planned to add three or four zombies crawling around on the base, but I didn't leave enough room when sculpting the base. Instead, I glue on a gravestone from a zombie regiment set.

The dragon was complete and set aside. Mannfred was next. I wanted him took look more regal than like the slobbering monster Games Workshop has him painted. I painted him just like Bela Lugosi from Dracula, or how he's believe to look since the movie was black and white! Black cloths, black cape with a red lining, and white shirt. I also painted his flesh a bit more life-like. I used Freak Flex pale flesh highlighted with white and shaded with some thinned brown ink.

Mannfred was a good example of how you can highlight black differently to get different color effects. He was primed and basecoated black. His cape was highlighted just like the dragon scales, dark blue and black, then with pale blue. His gloves and boots were drybrushed with dark brown to look more like worn leather. His hair was drybrushed with a medium gray for a subtle salt and pepper look. The end result is that they are all black, yet look different.

After  Mannfred was completed, I attached him to the dragon with a pin and epoxy glue. Finally, the saddle back from a flying nightmare was pinned in place and the banner spear from a dark elf pegasus was glue to the saddle back

The banner itself was made from lead foil I had lying around from another kit. Lead foil is like a thicker version of typical aluminum foil and can be bent and cut in whatever shape needed. Historical modelers and been using the stuff for years to model flags and straps or belts. In the long run, the lead foil looks much better than a paper banner would of looked.

A few extra skulls and heads were added here and there for flavor. The entire model was given several coats of Testors flat coat. The last thing to do was to remove the rubber latex. I didn't have any idea what the dragon would look like since the marble was covered and primered over since the beginning of the project.

Viola!! Luckily none of the marble was damaged in the least, so the model was done!

Photos of Jeff Wilson's dragon are the property of Games Workshop Limited.