Painting a bone dragon

Introduction

I took on this bad boy after taking him to the Storm King's Thunder campaign post-season finale dragon fight, but failed to use to it. An impressive model with a rather simple paintjob? Count me in.

Painting

As per my instructions, the dragon was primed white, basecoated Bonewhite and washed Seraphim Sepia. The base was basecoated Stonewall Grey and washed black.

Painting bone

Just like this, but supercharged.

Agrax Earthshade about half the model. I did all the center areas (spine and tail), then about half of each larger bone (legs and wings), then the skull and wingtips/talons as per the painting tip.

Next up: Black wash in all the joints, and less than half of all the Agrax'd areas.

Drybrush Bonewhite.

This popped all the small details: spine tips, talons, teeth etc. but I wasn't happy about how it looked on the larger surfaces. So I took the time to edge highlight (and in some places, glaze).

Grey rocks

I had the rugged wasteland in mind, but wanted to do it greyscale instead of with browns.

The first step was to darken down the base, as well as give it texture by selectively applying Citadel Contrast: Black Templar in patches. Mostly in the recesses, but I also broke up any larger areas.

I did not trust an edge highlight to look good on such a large surface, so I drybrushed Cold Grey.

Then Stonewall Grey. This looked marvelous up close - fine transitions and all. But the effect was lost from even a moderate distance.

Back to edge highlighting! First, Cold Grey.

Then a subtle highlight of Stonewall Grey, just around any corners or crevices.

Finishing touches

At this point, I glued the dragon to the base.

I broke up the grey surface with some dry bushes.

And I added some points of interest to the dragon by spraying Gore Red, then Bloody Red on the talons and fangs.

Finished!