Painting a dragonborn paladin

Introduction

For the dragonborn miniature, I decided on a non-metallic color scheme on the armor, compensated by the metallic skin (scales) on the head. As the character is of the silver dragon type, I went for a silvery/metallic skin and blue, icy armor.

Prime

In white, due to the bright colors going on.

Painting the metallic skin

Basecoat in gunmetal.

Edge highlight in silver.

To darken the recesses but not resort to black, I applied Drakenhof Nightshade, a kind of dark blue wash.

Edge highlight in silver, to reestablish the color.

Then, for a bluish tint, I went with Guiliman Blue, a lighter blue glossy glaze.

Again, edge highlight in silver, to reestablish the color.

Painting the armor

I tried for a blue/icy look. I didn't have the necessary colors, so I mixed most of what you see. I unfortunately got mixed results.

Start with a light blue basecoat.

Feather a darker shade of blue from the top to the bottom of the armor plates.

Edge highlight with a lighter shade of blue.

Apply Drakenhof Nighthsade to pop the bolts and ridges.

All fine till now. But then I went for a light blue glaze overall to lighten up the color, and ended up just covering everything in not-so-light blue.

Not much to do except re-do a few steps. It came out looking good in the end, though not that much of an icy effect.

So again, Drakenhof Nightshade.

Edge highlight in light blue.

Minimal edge highlight in white.

Painting the cape

To offset the cold blue armor, I decided on a warm white textile look on the cape.

Mix white and bonewhite 1:1 for the basecoat.

Wash in Seraphim Sepia.

Use the same white/bonewhite mix for edge highlighting.

Edge highlight further with white.

At this point I also washed the horns in Sepia.

Painting leather and fur

Basecoat everything in brown.

Reddish brown on the wooden parts.

And a reddish brown pattern on the fur.

Heavy leather brown highlight on the boots and gloves.

Black wash on the handle strips.

Then brown wash (Agrax Earthshade) the fur, boots and gloves.

It starts coming together with the leather brown edge highlight.

Finally drybrush the fur with brown/bonewhite 1:1 mix.

Chainmail

The chainmail, which is the only silver-y part other than the face, got a gunmetal base, black wash, then silver drybrush.

Painting the hammer

With the face already silvery, I wanted a distinct look for the weapon. I decided for bronze.

Mix bronze with black (2:1) and paint over the metallic surface.

Heavy edge highlight with bronze.

Apply fleshtone wash (Reikland fleshshade) over the bronze. I was thinking of doing another edge highlight over the wash, but decided against it, as I really liked the warm bronze color.

Finish the face

Sepia wash on the teeth and red glaze (Bloodletter) on the eyes. I also applied a bit below the eyes for glowing eyes effect, but it was pretty much lost as the face goes almost behind the shield.

Paint the shield

Basecoat the shield in blue. As I wanted to draw a sigil on it, I did not go over all the highlighting steps as for the armor.

Edge it in silver (gunmetal + silver highlight).

Of course I also painted the back of the shield, and the arm that holds it, as visible in some of the photos above. 

At this point I realized that it's hard to hold the shield in one hand and paint it with the other, so I glued it unto the mini.

Next is the sigil of Bahamut. The trick of freehands is to give yourself a guide. I decided on this uneven cross.

Then proceeded to paint the dragonhead around it. Note that I thinned my paint pretty well here. This enabled the paint to be easily controlled, and easily wiped off in case of mistakes.

Apply 3 more thin coats.

After the third coat, the dragonhead was already well-defined, but I did manage to blur some of the edges. So I took some blue on to re-sharpen the edges, as well provide some highlights on the shield.

Basing

Start off with the rugged wasteland base.

When the painting is finished (including the black border), apply the snow effect. 

Finished!