2nd model - Imrik, Dragon Prince of Caledor - any tips and..

Having started out trying to interest my 9 year old in painting and
gaming at Games Workshops... I've fallen for it myself.. I sat and
painted one of those lizardy thingies just to keep myself amused while
son #1 did his bit.. and I'm hooked! I confess to a bit of an
advantage having worked for several years as a paintress at Beswicks
Pottery.. but that was a long time ago.. I'm fascinated by dragons
(read LOTR several dozen times).. I nearly went for the model of
Smaug until the man showed me the high elf Imrik, Dragon Prince of
Caledor.. Droollllll... Has anyone painted this figure and do they
have any hints I could do with knowing about before I dip brush in
paint?... I've noted the thread about using a bone white undercoat
instead of the chaos black the man recommended - seems to make sense
when most of the model is white.. I've got as far as clipping off the
bits and removing the swarf with very fine files and emery paper..
All recommendations gratefully received - this stuff is not cheap!..
Son #1 has just started his fourth blue armoured fella with the
serious shoulder pads and the Darth Vader look-alike mask.. he's doing
really well, glad I took him.

Thanks to all for the advice posted so far..

<snip>
> I nearly went for the model of
> Smaug until the man showed me the high elf Imrik, Dragon Prince of
> Caledor.. Droollllll... Has anyone painted this figure and do they
> have any hints I could do with knowing about before I dip brush in
> paint?...
<snip>

sure ive done it before i bought that one for my brothers birth day. what i
did was take and primed it, gave it a black undercoat, and then took and
drybrushed white all over the model. what this did was allow the white and
blue to highlight easier on the model and bring out the raised areas for the
eyes more prominently.

unlike white though, any part you want to paint yellow has to be painted all
white first, or the paint bleeds through way too much and it ends up looking
dirty. you can usually get around this by using bronze flesh as a base coat,
then mixing it with yellow till you fade from the dark to the light, the
light being the highlights youre looking for. at least, it worked with the
bronze flesh from the old line.

another cure is to use inks and washes. i tend to buy inks and water them
down and create my own washes in order to save on money. if you do so, you
can actually use blue on the white and purple (blue kinda works too
amazingly enough) on the red areas. you might need to rehighlight but its
worth it.

for his skin, you may want to start medium and work light. what i do is i
take elf flesh and then mix it with skull white (skull white is your friend)
and keep adding more skull white as you get to the outer part of the model,
the raised areas. this will make the skin pop out, give depth to it, and
allow the model to stand on its own. another thing you might want to do is
take some brown paint and mix it with waster then do a light wash over it.
it will settle into the grooves and bring out the light skin even more.