Okay, the wolf wasn't the only other fantasy model I painted this week.
When going through an army of someone else's kit, it's good to have some motivator models to keep you ticking along. With a big unit, I'd use characters. With a unit of monstrous vehicles (or whatever Dreadnoughts count as these days) to get through, I needed something bigger and nastier to keep me going.
This is the next in my slow series of Chromatic Dragons - a White Dragon. DnD teaches us that whites are the stupidest and most feral dragons around. This is a bad rep to carry. As a DM, it made me avoid them for fear of wasting the party's time killing something too stupid to deal with them.
![]() |
| He's too big for my A2 paper backdrop. Bah. |
White is a horrible colour to paint. I've had a ton of practice over the years, thanks to my insistent paintscheme of doing Chaos Warriors in bone armour. And scaling it up actually works well - a big lot of dirty ivory scales on this fella.
![]() |
| I've finished the hoard on his base, which has a ton of gold coins and magic items in amongst the crevices. But I forgot to take pictures, so it didn't happen. No loot rolls for anyone. |
On something this size, I was sure I'd need contrast. Rhinoceros grey for the unscaled areas, with brown-to-black talons. The wings were originally the same as the skin, but it looked awfully dull. In the words of a passing critic, 'like a gargoyle', which no self-respecting dragon wants. Thanks, Mrs Kraken, for lowering this stupid savage's self-esteem even more.
I looked to the most obvious source of inspiration I could think of for wing pizazz - moths.
![]() |
| Catocala relicta |
![]() |
| and the Mophane Moth, which apparently has edible caterpillars. Thanks, Internet. |
Looking at real stripes made me relax. I'd worried about using black in case it was too high-contrast or the painting was too sharp. I needn't have, I'm not nearly neat enough as a painter to do straight lines without using tape. Instead, I made a virtue of sloppy brushstrokes to do something in line with the wing effects I picked off the net.
![]() |
| We're going to need a bigger mothball. |
Painting Guide:
- White Scales - Zandri Desert basecoat, Ushabti Bone and Tyrant Skull drybrushes, finished with a last and quite heavy highlight of White Scar.
- Grey Skin - Eshin Grey with Nuln Oil, then Dawnstone layering and Pallid Wychflesh drybrush
- Horns and Talons - Rhinox Hide with Abaddon Black layer
- Tongue - Khorne Red with a Tentacle Pink layer, then Carroberg Crimson wash
- Eyes - Abaddon Black with Leadbelcher and Mithril Silver highlights
- Wings - Dear God it took a while. But using Abaddon Black, Eshin Grey, Dawnstone, Pallid Wychflesh and White Scar, I gradully fiddled my way through a grey and black version of the Mophane Moth wings. Once was enough, and thankfully on a large enough canvas that it wasn't too awful. I would never attempt this on anything smaller than a hanky.
This is the largest model I own. He's about the same height as Nagash, although much bulkier and wider thanks to the wingspan. And that's before you mount him on his massive castle.
![]() |
| The barbarian gives you a reasonable idea of the dragon's size. This full diorama isn't complete, I still need to paint a clutch of tiny heroes that go with it. And then laugh as they perish against a monster with a CR four times that of the party oh no wait I don't play DnD anymore because that kept happening and everyone hated it. |
