Color pallet for a gold dragon?

[ErikB]

My daughter wants me to paint her a gold dragon and she favors metallic paints.

Anyone have any ideas?  I could imagine a red-to-yellow one or green-and-yellow but not sure how to make an animal look right when it's painted in metallics.

Anyone have some ideas or references? 

It is this one: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WPX-bUJDL._SX300_.jpg

[Elbows]

My "favored" metallic paint method (and I'm a crap painter) is to base it in black (or whatever colour you choose) and then dry brush the metallics on, several coats.  It keeps the metallic look without appearing that you dipped it in a gallon of gold paint. 

[Bergil]

I'd Just find 4 colour variations from 'dark bronze' as a basecoat to 'bright gold' as a final highlight (?) and highlight. Not very helpful I know. 

[Andrew May]

What Bergil said. I painted some big Greek shields that way. At the time I used Citadel "tin bitz" followed by "dwarf bronze", "shining gold" and then gold with a tiny dot of really bright silver. You can add a touch of ochre and white to add some tonal variety. Verdigris might even come into play!

[ErikB]

Thanks, folks.

How about base colors for the nails/claws, the underbelly (has horizontal "stripes" like the bottom of a snake), and the ridges along the back?  What would go well with gold?

I was envisioning a white basecoat (not black), a sepia & red wash to get in those cracks (think about the GW Balrog), then a sequence of drybrushing the bronze, gold, light gold, light silver tips for the main body.

Belly could be a browner (less red) wash both before painting and as a final tone-down wash.

The spines, in my mind, should be a different shade than the body, as they're different bodyparts, right?  But what?  Brownish?

This is where I'm getting stuck.

[pacarat]

I'd suggest several dark washes over a base coat - metallic black mixed with a bit of antique bronze. then some type of brown/orange/red over that . Next highlight /dry brush with bright gold.


Doing the body parts differently sounds good, and will keep it interesting.

[snitcythedog]

Privateer press has their "Blighted Gold" paint.  It is almost a tarnished gold (if there is such a thing) and it could give you another hue to work with.  Vallejo's tarnished copper is another color that you could pick out details.  Just kicking some ideas around. 
Snitchy sends.

[Estarriol]

I'd avoid using too much metallics on this one. Maybe try a nice yellow-ey sort of brown with a dark wash and then just pick out the edges of the scales with your gold to add some sparkle? I know you said she likes metallics but you're in real danger of just painting a big gold statue...

[Daeothar]

What he said.

I'd say limit the gold to the scales, and then keep it subdued too. I've always found that red, highlighted up to orange complements lots of gold very well. So the underside, insides of legs etc. red, fading to orange towards the scales.

My recipy for gold (even though pretty involved) is as follows: Black undercoat, Heavy drybrush of GW Tin Bitz (or whatever it's called now), then a first layer of 50/50 Tin Bitz/Yellow Gold, leaving very little of the Tin Bitz in the recesses showing. Then a wash with brown ink, followed by layering up to pure Yellow Gold (for scales, I'd say one step will suffice). Then a highlight of 50/50 Gold and Silver, and the very tips highlighted with pure silver.

This results in a very rich gold colour which, in turn, works very well with, you guessed it, red...

[Andrew May]

Oh, do you have a picture of the mini that you'll be painting? Might help the imagination.

[Hammers]

I'd avoid using too much metallics on this one. Maybe try a nice yellow-ey sort of brown with a dark wash and then just pick out the edges of the scales with your gold to add some sparkle? I know you said she likes metallics but you're in real danger of just painting a big gold statue...

I'm with Estariol on this. Metal paints seldom work well on miniatures like this.

[Mr Tough Guy]

If you are set on painting metallic, I'd give True metallic metals a shot, basicly you'd paint it using NMM techniques using metallic paint, might be a bit harder to find the right colours, but I reckon with the right washes you'd at least get on the right direction

[King Tiger]

I would use metallics, but only on the scales, I would paint the very central scales a bright gold, probably spreading to some of the nearest largest scales, then keep going with darker and darker metallics (golds, bronzes, coppers etc) with the outer scales being the darkest you can get.

The main skin and wing veins I would then paint in a yellowish brown, like a khaki colour, then any scales on the front (if any) and the wings I'd probably do bone coloured, and also do the claws and teeth in bone.

I think that would work.

[ErikB]

Great advice, folks!

Yes, I'm really concerned with making a gold statue.  I want it to look alive for her as she's my little princess. 

How about base colors for the underbelly (again, like a snake's) and the spines/plates on the back?

I'll have three zones and I need to make them work together, somehow.

Dang, I almost had her ready to change her mind to green last night... ahhh, what a daddy will do for his 5 year-old little girl.

Here's a green example: http://www.reapermini.com/forum/uploads/monthly_05_2013/post-8529-0-40905200-1369592740_thumb.jpg  I like the color combinations but I think I could give it more depth.

Here's a general search link for this model:

https://www.google.com/search?q=reaper+bones+dragon&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=bgc&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=uRJCUpKJG4SejAK6x4DAAQ&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=1211&bih=658&dpr=1#channel=fflb&q=Reaper+Bones+Young+Fire+Dragon&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&safe=off&tbm=isch

[bandit86]

Here is a picture for inspiration