DG1 Oriental Dragon

Another Dragon. Another old Citadel/Ral Partha Dragon. Another Blue Dragon in fact. Indeed another great old Tom Meier sculpt from the 1980's.

This is the DG1 Oriental Dragon from Citadel, originally released in 1984 as a C-Series C14 Dragon. It was also released by Ral Partha as the 01-129 Celestial Dragon, and is still available from Ral Partha in the USA, but sadly not from Ral Partha Europe (this is one of the old 1980's ones though). I have painted it to be a Bound Host Dragon for my 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Cathay army. Cathay is loosley based on a fantasy China, but was never really expanded on in the 1st to 3rd Editions of Warhammer, and received scant regard afterwards. My plan for the army is to use a mix of the various old C01 Fighters and the various Oriental Heroes/Samurai ranges as a basis, with this Dragon present as well.

Painting the Dragon was easy. Like the Ice Dragon I detailed in my last blog update, I started off with the blue base coat on a black undercoat. For a base coat I used Citadels Caledor Blue, then highlighted a mix of that with a quarter white, then another 50-50. I then gave it a wash of Citadels Technical Nighthaunt Gloom to give a slighty more ethereal and cloud feel. Once dry, a highlight of Citadel Alaitoc blue, then progressive mixes of two-thirds, 50/50/ one-third of Alaitoc blue and white, until I was at the stage to give pure white highlighting to the Dragon's beard, teeth, horns, and 'flowing bits'. The I gave the Dragon red eyes.

The Dragon was fun and quick to paint. I love the face, real personality. I chose the colour blue to give an overall feel of a cloud Dragon, and also in keeping with 1980's Games Workshop in-jokes, as a reference to the  'Blue Dragon' range of Chinese food stuffs.

Enjoy :)

Left hand side.

Right hand side.

Look at that face. :)

'Tail-end'!

I am currently working on a Dwarven diorama. I have also been painting a third Dragon, and am mostly part through a couple of random miniatures. Still, I am sorting out all my 'Oldhammer' era fantasy miniatures into 3,000 point armies, and there are quite a few. This why I have ended up painting random oddments and Dragons from my collection at the moment rather than full armies, but once sorted, I will be tackling the amries.

Ice Dragon.

It might be St.George's day, but it's a coincidence that I have painted a Dragon, although there is no Knight to go with it!

The Dragon itself is an old Citadel one. It is the DG4 Black Dragon, sculpted by Tom Meier and released in 1984, also released as a Brass Dragon by Ral Partha. I decided not to follow either it's name nor the Rolling Stones and paint it black, instead opting for an Ice Dragon approach. This is because I intend to use the Dragon as as part of a bound host in my 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Norse Dwarf army (probably as a bound Winged Dragon 2). Also I think that in painting it black, it would lose some of the textured detail of the scales.

The Dragon was really fun to paint and was quite simple. Black undercoat, light blue base coat, mix of light blue and white, and then progressively highlighting to white. It's gaping maw was a mix of purple, a darker blue, and pink in varying ways to avoid that bright pink look of some painted mouths. I mounted the Dragon on a Citadel 90mm x 52mm oval base, which I think quite suits the model, the model itself being 70mm long and 70mm tall.

Enjoy :)

The left side.

Right side.

The gaping maw!!!

Next update will be another Dragon!