The Seadrake – Dragons + Ships

First off, I HATE painting light colours, by light colours I mean pale colours such as white, yellow, etc. It’s why I play Necrons, Imperial Guard and Blood Angels – I use strong dark colours in all of my armies. So tackling the Seadrake, was always going to be a pain for me. Looking at the White Dwarf guide filled me with dread as I tried to work out how I could make the guide easier on me, whilst still looking for opportunities to learn new painting methods.

Up until now I’ve done every ship in Chaos Black undercoat, I figured that doing the same with the Seadrake may make it come out a little too dark for my liking so I did the hull, towers, dragons and sails in Skull White and the main decking in Chaos Black.

I then went over the hull in Astronomican Grey, Calthan Brown for the decking, Deneb Stone for the towers, a 2:1 mix of Space Wolf Grey: Ice Blue for the tower roofs.

I then washed the towers in Sepia, the decking in Devlan Mud and the roofs in Badab Black.

Whilst I waited for that to dry, I painted the sails Enchanted Blue and then washed them in Asurmen Blue wash.

I did my hull dragon in Macharius Solar Orange, washed him in Baal Red, dry brushed him a 1:1 mix of Golden Yellow and Blazing Orange and finally washed the wing membranes ins Baal Red again. I picked out the sail detail with Skull White, drybrushed the hull, towers and decking with Bleached Bone and re-washed the decking with Devlan Mud again.  I layered the tower roofs with Shadow grey and edge highlighted with Space Wolf Grey and picked out the dragon, hull runes, rudder and weapon ports in Shining Gold. I then washed the dragon and the rudder in Devlan Mud.

This was my end result:

The White Dwarf issue discussing the painting tips suggests a white/blue dragon for independent stuff, now, whilst this is a fine traditional colour scheme for High Elves, I wanted to add a little character to mine, so I went with a Purple Dragon. Paint the dragon in Liche Purple, then wash it down in Leviathan Purple. I then dryburshed it with Warlock Purple and washed the wing membranes in Asurmen Blue.