My goal at the end of last year was to work on always playing a fully painted army. An annoying task when I play semi competitively because I am randomly always changing my lists. I decided to fully paint up my FMC list first as my goal and get the models all updated. Which meant unboxing and actually putting together the Helldrake that has been collecting dust on my shelf so I could actually use the thing before the rules shift and it sucks.
I will be bluntly honest and say that I generally don't like the paint jobs I see on this model. There are a few that are really sharp or cool looking but for the most part I just feel meh, when I see this dragon painted up across from me most the time.... So it took me a long time to land on a paint scheme for it.. I also wanted the paint scheme to be something I would basically be using on all my CSM allies.
After some feedback from a handful of people, lots of bickering about fluff, and color wheel arguements I landed on this and I really like how it is coming out so far.
Couple small things of note. First off Look at that SHARP Secret Weapon base!! BOOM. That thing looks fantastic with the model.. Also The dragon rotates on that flight stand because I just cut into him until the clear rod would work prob not the best way to do it. but meh whatever.. It has the nice ability to judge the direction I am facing based on base placement, yet rotate the model so that he can fit places if need be due to his insane wings I have shifted forward and down since it looked better. (although maybe everyone has done that? I haven't been paying attention to the wing placement on other people's models?)
Also I have no idea how you would ever paint this thing if you put it together first.. I had to paint the wings before gluing them in place. I actually wish I had painted the wings themselves before putting them together.
As you can see it isn't done just yet. I need to finish the silver outline then detail and wash work. However I am very pleased with the color scheme so that's a win. Nothing is worse than being halfway through a project and wanting to start over.