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So I want to paint a purple dragon for my girlfriend. After some research on the internet I found this one that I like:


I was thinking about painting him with black or really dark purple base color and then drybrush him with a lighter purple. Also paint the chest and belly with a light purple or maybe a mix of purple and beige. I have no idea what to do with the wings yet

I’d like your opinion on how to paint this dragon purple, but I’d like to see some other dragon miniatures too, if you have any good ones to suggest. (not super expensive please )

Also if you have any purple (or other color) dragons yourself and you think it’ll help me please feel free to post an image

Undercoat white, wash with purple wash. Hit darker areas with another layer of wash, maybe use a blue wash as well to add some variation.

I do have a purple dragon that I got on ebay ages ago so I don't know how it was painted

A bone coloured chest would look good with a purple dragon.

Hmm wouldn’t it be too bright with white undercoat and a purple wash?

You can mute it depending on the shade of the wash you are using. Also by mixing in a black or brown wash to the purple or pre-washing the white with a black, blue or brown wash.

Have an experiment on a spare model to see how the colours look.

Reaper is really the goto place now for Dragons - especially now that you can get them cheap-cheap in Bones. Other than those - you can find some fairly well detailed "toy" dragons if you poke around a bit. McFarlane toys did a bunch several years ago, but I believe those are all OOP, so you have to snag them from eBay and specialist stores. Schleich has a few that actually are not too bad either.

After that, when you get back into miniature producers, any dragon of reasonable size will cost a substantial amount ($50+ in most cases). You can get smaller ones for $20-30, but they lack the impact.

On to the colors - I normally use reptilian sources for my inspiration with painting dragons. Either color morphs which have a purple to them (Brazilian Rainbow Boas pop to mind) or a snake that has a purple iridescent scale (Eastern Indigo snakes). There are a few lizards as well to take a look at, notably agamas. You can get some idea on the color for the wings by looking at the skin color between the scales.

Since you want to go with a darker purple though - the Ingigo snake would be a good start. To paint it, white or black base - I prefer white, but your mistakes are more obvious if you miss any spots. Give the whole thing a shot with a midnight blue color...nearly black, but not quite. After that come back with a lighter color blue...just barely lighter. After that is done hit the belly scales with a dusky red/brown color leaving the leading edge dark blue. When those colors are fully dry, hit the scales one at a time with a flipping purple paint. You don't want to do them all in a single go, as then it tends to look like a toy. Painting each scale, leaving the very edges bare will break up the sheen. Once that has dried, paint the wings in a steel blue color with a satin finish.

The flipping paint will cause the purple to move across the surface depending on the angle it is viewed at, which will be less glaring than a downright purple dragon. Plus it mirrors nature, which I have found to be pretty good at developing color schemes.

The Indigo snakes might be what im looking for. I never thought i'll find an exaple for my dragon in the nature

I also like the idea of painting the scales one by one. Looks like i have a little research to do but this is a really good start.
Thanks for your post SilverMK2 and Sean_OBrien

The Carmine Dragon.

Its actually named after purple!