Monster May(hem): Dagon

Yes, I'm back! As if I could miss the annual Monster May(hem) challenge!

OK, so I know at least one of you (Keith) has been wondering where the hell I've been for the past year. One word: work. And life. I've been wanting to get the old blog up and running again for months but I simply haven't got around to it for a number of pathetic reasons, although I certainly haven't stopped painting minis; my Nurgle/Death Guard army has grown over the past 12 months and I've painted a ton of other figures that don't have any connection to the Plague God.

Anyway, on with the monster!

This may come as a shock, but Dagon is a 3D print I picked up on Etsy for the ridiculously cheap price of $20 including shipping. It's a whopping figure some four inches high and was really good value for money.

After gluing on his arms, I kicked off the actual painting by spraying him with Corax White primer. Unlike the first time I used it, this time it actually went on smooth and didn't look like I'd plastered Dagon with sand. Once the primer had dried I gave him an overbrush of Off-White and then a lighter drybrush with White to bring out the raised areas. 

I've been getting into contrast paints over the last year or so and as Dagon is so large they were the way to go in order to get him painted quickly. I painted the whole model with Aethermatic Blue to get started, and then thinned some more with Contrast Medium and used it as a wash to deepen the shadows. 

To vary the colour a bit I darkened some areas with Coelia Greenshade wash, which is a nice blue-green and suits Dagon's aquatic look perfectly. As he's basically a big fish monster I wanted his belly to be a much paler colour, so after giving it a bit of thought I went for a basecoat of Dark Blue Pale which I pretty much scrubbed on with a makeup brush. I drybrushed Light Green Blue and Light Sea Grey over that, and then a final very light drybrushing with Off-White gave him exactly the look I was going for. 

I used the same paints on his mouth and gums, and when it came to his teeth I figured that Dagon's diet of fish and the occasional nuclear submarine would be pretty low in sugar. So instead of the usual bone colours I used Off-White and White to really make them stand out.

His eyes were painted White and then gone over with a couple of coats of Fuegan Orange wash. I did his pupils by dipping the end of a paintbrush handle in Black and simply dotting them in.

His claws were painted Khaki with highlights courtesy of Skeleton Bone and Flayed Ones Flesh, and after adding some more Aethermatic Blue to his crest to deepen the shadows he was done.

I knew I needed an ocean-themed base as he'd look bloody weird on anything else, so I stuck a piece of cork tile to a 60mm base and painted it to look like rock. Then I googled away until I found this awesome tutorial on how to make ocean bases. Basically, paint the base with various blue-greens (Incubi Darkness, Sotek Green and Temple Guard Blue) and try to wet blend them together, which for once I managed to do.

Once the paint's dry, plaster on your choice of water effects gel and while it's still wet, get a cotton wool ball and tear off small pieces. Place it in the gel against the cork and put some more gel over it, then leave it to dry to make it look like foam. I stretched some up over the edges of the rock to make it look like water was streaming over it, and I think it worked.

Oh, and I absolutely recommend putting something over the base to cover it while it dries so your lovely clear water doesn't end up with dog hairs in it. 

Once the gel dried I dabbed on some much heavier gel to give the water some texture, then drybrushed it with tiny amounts of White to add a bit more foam. After slapping some Athonian Camoshade over random areas of the rock, the base was done and I superglued Dagon in place.

I'm really happy with how Dagon turned out, and for such a large model he was pretty straightforward to paint. The base turned out pretty much bang on, which is a miracle considering it's the first time I've ever tried using water effects and it justifies me shelling out $15 on it. Result!

More monsters coming soon!