How to paint Fire Dragons (GW Style)

Nick speaking,

I know a lot of people are not fans of how GW paint their Fire Dragons, and yes, they are rather bright, but personally I like them that way and that is how I wanted mine to look. As usual I wanted to add in my IDIC twist of purple and white, with a touch of gold to give them a regal look. So, in this post I will run through how I painted them with the new Citadel orange paints.

First I primed them white...

Then I based the orange with Jokaero Orange...

With a layer of Troll Slayer Orange over the top of that...

At this stage I laid down the rest of the base coats in my IDIC colours and painted the helmets Iyanden Darksun, three layers of Yriel Yellow to give a nice smooth finish, and then a wash in the recesses only with Gryphone Sepia, as seen in the picture below...

 Next I went into the recesses only of the orange with Fuegan Orange...

Then I highlighted the orange armour with Fire Dragon Bright, dry blending on the larger areas...

Then I went in and highlighted it again with a mix of 1:1 Fire Dragon Bright and Yreil Yellow...

Now onto the helmets, this time I highlighted with a 1:1 mix of Yreil Yellow and Skull White. I blended them from the raised edges inwards, leaving the original colour and wash visible...

Then I went over that with a 1:2 mix of Yreil Yellow and Skull White...

Lastly, I hit the very edges with a mix of 1:3 Yreil Yellow and Skull White...

Next, I painted the eyes and gemstones, highlighted the purple and finished off the white sections. At this stage I also painted the Exarch base, doing this one as a piece of Blood Angels tank...

Then all I had to do was sand and paint the bases...

Finally I hit them with some satin varnish, which I like to use for my Eldar, and then added some static grass...