Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Prepaint Repaint D&D Green Dragon

Painted: Wizards of the Coast Green Dragon

Showin' off what knobrot can look like if treated like a lady. This is from The War of the Dragon Queen set from 2006. Not all prepaints of of this quality but there may be enough lurking amidst the chaff to make it worth your while to sift through them.





And as always here's a shot for scale:

Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
Line: D&D Minis
Set: War of the Dragon Queen
Figure: 38/60 R Large Green Dragon
Release date: 2006
Date painted: 2011

Two tips on repainting prepaints

  1. Use a fresh exacto blade on the mold lines and plan to dull it quickly. Factor it into your cost of the figure. You can sand/file it as well if you take great care, but rely on the blade for the bulk of it. It takes some time but is actually quicker and easier than cleaning up a typical metal figure of the same size. I filled a few gaps as well but again, it comes pre-assembled so this was also quicker than a multipart figure would have been.
  2. Once you prime, don't worry if the figure winds up tacky. Put it in a box and try to forget about for literally a week or two. That's how long it took this figure to dry out and lose the tackiness. But eventually it did dry and it painted up really nicely after that. I usually put a thick clear coat on my figs before a dullcote and I also skipped that step for this. The paint seems to be firmly affixed and a thick coat unnecessary.

On the D&D prepaint Dragons and this one in particular

There is lots to like about them generally speaking. They are fairly dynamic as they are multipart kits designed in innovative ways in terms of the parts makeup to ensure they lock together tight with no chance of anything falling off. The proportions and anatomy are often a lot more pleasing than metal figures, and I really like having a huge range in sizes. I have a half-dozen or so and most are about this size, which is smaller than average even in 25mm scale going by the numbers in the 1st ed Monster Manual. Which is little ironic given the name Large Green Dragon this one is given and it being intended for a later edition where everything tends to be super-sized and in a range that's nominally 30mm "scale."

If you've seen this figure in a catalog you'll note I just copied the scheme they used on the paint master. Dunno, just really like it, and I have so many thousands of opportunities to get creative I don't mind following others' guidelines now and then. I saw the catalog pic and thought, I'll have one just like that, thanks.

Here's a before shot so you can compare.


And a few in progress shots so you can see what the unpainted figure looks like and the basecoat. I used a mix of P3 Coal Black (this is warm, dark blue and not at all black) and Citadel Dark Angels Green (mine is twist-cap era). Like all my bases this is a laser-cut ellipse base Fenris Games cut for me. It's got magnets embedded in it for easy storage and transport and the texture is Sculptamold.



Several last comments. On my cast (and yours, I bet) the eyes are not at all symmetrical. Don't know if bad sculpting or a molding mishap. But I cut out the right eye, enlarged the socket and reset the eye so it lined up with the other. Took about ten minutes. I'm also think painting the tiny horns on the nose bone color may have been a mistake. Not sure what I was thinking there and I may go back in a touch those up. Or I may not worry about it.

And as always, the collection can be viewed in its entirety at flickr.

8 comments:

  1. Nice work, it goes to show how a mediocre sculpt can be transformed with a decent paint job. Good shade of green too, not a hint of lime in sight.
    Regards HGA

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    1. Heh, thanks, although I didn't succeed in my goal with you at any rate, which was trying to show how nice the sculpt was under the crap paintjob, diamond in the rough and all that. ;) I would (and did!) pick this one over many dragons out there, and really like quite a few things about it. To each his own though--glad you liked the paint job!

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  2. Great work.

    And thank you for both the hints and the work-in-progress shots.

    I also buy these pre-paints and as you say they are of varied quality - some OK, other Great.

    Once again great work and you should be very proud.

    Tony

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    Replies
    1. Cheers, thanks Tony and good luck with your own prepaint projects.

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  3. Nice job. He turned out much more real (dragons are real right?) looking. Softer transitions of colors. It's hard to see the nose bones you mention, but I'd say it's a done dragon. I hope I get a chance to face it in one of your dungeons sometime.

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    1. Thanks Skywatcher. Ah, the bone nubs on the nose are tiny and I won't worry about them. :) Also, yeah, you should come down some time for the D&D. Next game is August 11. Hit me up if interested.

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  4. Jeez Louise, but that's lovely. I have to say I'm not always convinced by prepaint-repaints, but this is absolutely stunning.

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