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I decided to try the new hotness of the color shifting paints. I am really impressed. I hope you all enjoy my version of the clockwork dragon.

As promised some months ago, I painted a wyrmgear like a circuit board :) Enjoy!

Once, there was an artificer. A half-orc, a genius. He could make creatures of metal and wheels that seemed as alive as any man. His clockwork marvels were the talk of the province, and when an accident in his workshop took his arm off, he built a new arm of girders and cogs, stronger and more dexterous than before. (More of this fellow if you click:) His fame spread far and wide, and one day a wealthy man, a captain of industry, another half-orc, asked him to build a weapon. He had many enemies--competitors, bandits, robbers--and also many people he wished to treat as enemies--unionists, agitators, and the like. "What kind of weapon," the artificer asked. "The unanswerable kind" his patron replied. "Inexorable. Supreme." The rich man had a vision, which the artificer was happy to share, and huge sacks of cash money, which the artificer was also happy to partake of, having very little of the same, and a strong if wildly degaussed moral compass, which the artificer did not have at all. And so the artificer consulted with other specialists, gnomish engineering savants and goblin pyro-sages (who also partook of the fat sacks of cash) to design this Ultimate Countermeasure. It took a year and a day (and, some say, more than one apprentice) but at length the work was done. A steam-belching, boiler-powered fire-breathing dreadnought, an apex predator in steel and brass. The patron was pleased. More: It is said that the Engine of Malice produced had the strength of a team of elephants, and a breath like a blast furnace. It is also said that its brazen talons broke the Bloodgutter Strike a generation ago, and that this is why your parents cut their sausage with knife and fork, because the Butchers' Guild doesn't waste anything and you really don't want to break your teeth on a brass button. It is also said that the Emperor conscripted the Engine to fight the foreign enemy during the Cruel Wars, as it was impervious to the miasmas and poison gases, and could roast whole squadrons in their trenches. It is, notably, NOT said what happened the day it slipped a gear and went berserk. There were very few surviving eyewitnesses and none of them want to talk about it. Questions on this topic remain unanswerable. The Weapon remains at large. (I love the huge wings on this sculpt, but I'll never be able to compete with some of the canvasses other, better, painters have made of them. Also they are very rigid, so I removed them for future projects and took some pinewood derby exhaust pipes I found on clearance, some aluminium fencing wire, and a few eyelets. Gluing them on wasn't the easiest, and I used plenty of baking soda. This wound up looking like horrible overdone welds, but that's all right in context.)

Picked this beauty up cheap a year ago as a FLGS was liquidating some old stock. Now, I have time and a better understanding of some skills. And my love of metallics is a matter of public record. Here's my start on the body: ArmyPainter Rough Iron above, DecoArt Rich Espresso brass on the sides, DecoArt Worn Penny copper below. I'll paint the smokestacks and dorsal engine in steel colors. The legs I'm still working out, but they will probably have much the same metals. I'm trying to avoid golds on this. I'm not sure what to do with those innards. Leather bellows? Leaf springs? A red-glowing internal furnace, as on the box art? I dunno, what do you think? One major thing I want to do is leave Wyrmgear as a drake for now so we can show off those dorsal smokestacks. No wings, just a 40-foot smoke-belching mechanical killing machine. I might mod on an elaborate array of exhaust pipes near the wings, as on a souped-up hot rod engine. Why? Partly because have you SEEN some of the other Wyrmgears here, with the chrome wings and the flawless fantasy landscape painting wings and etc? I can't compete with that! And partly because, while I can't compete with magnificent wing art, I can spatchcock aberrant machines together as well as the next fella, and I want to use those wings for a steampunk flying machine, an ungodly hybrid of von Zeppelin and Lilienthal. I've got some ping-pong balls and Christmas ornaments just begging to be made into balloons for this purpose...

Hi everyone! I though wyrmgear would look good with some parchment with various math diagrams and equations on its wings so I painted it like such. I also wanted it to pose in some sort of vanity position so I changed its limbs to be more elevated on the upper half and used green stuff to attach the wings at an angle so they are visible from the front and back. I will add more photos from different angles once the green stuff dries. Enjoy! :)

Wyrmgear the Clockwork Dragon was a part of the very first Bones kickstarter back in 2012. It has been standing around unpainted and semi-assembled on my Dragon shelf (the top one with extra space for all the wings and such) several years. Some time ago, I pulled it off the shelf and started rusting it up. And it did not look good. So I put it back on the shelf. And took it down again after some time, did some more rusting. And still it did not look any good. And some of this was down to the pristine, straight and flat wings. The wings are made in a much harder / more rigid plastic than the rest of the Bones. They might be polystyrene, but could just as well be the same Bonesium PVC with less plasticiser. Whatever the case is, the wings are really hard and totally non-flexible. So I cut them up with scissors and took those wings outside behind the garage and burned them with fire! My trusty lighter delivered flaming retribution to those wings, letting me bend and scrunch them a bit. So, with the stiff and pristine wings dealt with, it was time for some more paint. None of the earlier paint jobs were any good, in the end I dumped a bunch of Citadel Nihilakh Oxide all over it, drybrushed a bunch of different bronzes, golds and greenish steel. The wing "cloth" is based on Citadel Ionrach Skin, Reaper Vampiric Shadow and a whole buch of other paints, shades and inks. Pics below the clicky bit

whoo this one took me 10 hours, likely because I am still new at this. Now, I know I could of just painted it as this pretty copper dragon and been happy with that. But this miniature is intended for a random encounter in a D&D campaign where the party encounters the dragon broken up into several dozen pieces then is encouraged to take it home with them and start trying to repair it. Thus the less than perfect paint job, the dirt so on so forth as the pieces are supposed to be dirty. I thought the wings turned out interesting with the black wash.

Here are a pair of figures I brought to ReaperCon. The Angel got a Silver Medal in the Painters. I had never painted anything like a mural or 2-dimensional before so I took a chance on trying something fun and inventive with Wyrmgear.

Splitting this one off into his own thread, in order to reduce clutter in the original thread, and also because he won't be a random rainbow dragon anymore. An employee at a local gaming store introduced me to this model, and shortly after seeing it I pretty much decided I very much so wanted to get my paws on it... So I did! Thing is, I don't plan on doing him up in telltale metallic colours, but instead as more of a synthetic creature with a few mechanical elements. There will be a number of firsts for me with this project... First time drilling and pinning a mini First time painting and THEN assembling a mini Very well might be my first time I start sculpting in a few additional elements in order to have it fully fit my theme (one thought right now is making the engine look a lot more biological) First time removing parts to add back in later (front leg armour plates will block details on the legs, so will be temporarily removed and then added back on later) ^Right out of the box, I had an issue or two with his design. First and foremost, while those wings are indeed rather gorgeous, they go straight vertical, which bugs me, simply because they hide so much detail, not to mention I personally feel that if it's a mechanical dragon it would have been designed to at least fold up it's wings when they weren't in use. Secondly, it would have meant I would have to have another element that's painted and then assembled, and I'm more into assembly first, paint second. Third, all those various extra details along his spine would be pointless at most angles, since they'd be concealed by the gargantuan wings. ^So some clippers came out, a few snips and twenty minutes of sanding later, we have it so I can maneuver the wings, and make use of that obvious hinge... Add in a decent amount of blutak to hold it in place temporarily... ^And we now have a much more agreeable to me wingspan! There's a lot more that can be done with this in my eyes as well, as he could be about to take off, just landing, etc That was last week, and catching up from the previous thread. Now let's get onto the good stuff, aka where we're standing today! ^First and foremost, I drilled three pins total per wing... Two 1mm, and one 1.5mm. Three was probably overkill, but I wanted to be downright certain they'd stay in place. I also though they'd be easier to guide in, but boy was I wrong on that front! Took quite a while to get everything lined up how I wanted it. ^A bit of superglue later, and we have a cameo appearance from Citadel's Undercoat Black, a paint I used to be able to mark just where I was to drill along the inside of where the wing tabs were originally to go. ^Alternate angles showing off his current wingspan, as well as the gaps I'm going to get to fill, and maybe add some additional details into. We'll see what precisely happens, but I already have two different ideas dancing in my head about what to do there, with one being electrical wiring, cogs/gears, and various other things to play up on the mechanical side, while the other one is trying to go with the thought of some sort of liquid latex muscle structure. Second one is arguably riskier, but would definitely convey my idea a lot better.

"It seemed like such a good deal. Braythick Bearhammer the dwarf mapmaker/treasure salvager had been poking around some gnome's antique dealings stall and seen it standing there, looming in the back of the tent. It was massive, a masterwork of engineering, gone to rust and ruin. Still, it could potentially be useful to the dwarf. It did after all have a blade upon its tail, and long legs. It could carry his tools! Yes, it had been a brilliant plan. Something to carry his tools, and any 'rescued' loot he found in abandoned ruins. Something to defend him from the wilderness [and natives of said ruins that might disagree with his right of salvage]. And it had been a steal. The gnome had been desperate to get rid of the thing. It seemed too good to be true! Something like this could save him the cost of hiring lackeys to carry his stuff, of hiring thugs to protect him. It wouldn't need to eat, or sleep, it could guard him while he slept. Definitely too good to be true. And it was. Because apparently it had a few screws loose. Literally and figuratively. It had the attention span of a jackdaw. Braythick did not want the confounded thing to get distracted by a butterfly while he was trying to fight off a mountain lion or troll. And yet, as he unslung his hammer to remind the local natives of his right to found loot, the darn thing would turn around and trot off without a care in the world, leaving Braythick to run in an undignified manner after yelling at it. And most likely, the gnome that sold it was laughing as he counted his coins, grateful to be rid of the troublesome, ancient war machine" Old Show Off: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/56248-77177-rusty-wyrmgear/ WIP: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/55988-rusty-wyrmgear-wip/ Retitled Clockwork Orange

So, I have a Wyrmgear model and a 120 x 92 mm base to put him on. Problem is, I want to put a tile pattern (probably made from cardboard) on the base, and the Wyrmgear model has rocks as part of his feet. Him walking around on rocks probably wouldn't fit if I wanted to do something indoors, probably in a castle with interesting-looking undamaged tiles. How might I safely remove the rocks on his feet? Store link for reference: http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/wyrmgear/sku-down/77177

Starting to paint again.. woo free time! Base of brown liner and then clockwork brass Silver is grey liner and AP plate mail metal

So starting a new WIP thread just for my Wyrmgear, who is being painted up as a rusted junk heap. I want to figure out a way to get his wings to attach at angles, like I have seen others do Here's the progress so far, covered in so many layers of paint that there is no way I can tell you how I got to this stage....[originally he was going to be shiny...until he made me mad] Edit for a spelling mistake And now a story: It seemed like such a good deal. Braythick Bearhammer the dwarf mapmaker/treasure salvager had been poking around some gnome's antique dealings stall and seen it standing there, looming in the back of the tent. It was massive, a masterwork of engineering, gone to rust and ruin. Still, it could potentially be useful to the dwarf. It did after all have a blade upon its tail, and long legs. Wings too, that was nice. It could carry his tools! Yes, it had been a brilliant plan. Something to carry his tools, and any 'rescued' loot he found in abandoned ruins. Something to defend him from the wilderness [and natives of said ruins that might disagree with his right of salvage]. And it had been a steal. The gnome had been desperate to get rid of the thing. It seemed too good to be true! Something like this could save him the cost of hiring lackeys to carry his stuff, of hiring thugs to protect him. It wouldn't need to eat, or sleep, it could guard him while he slept. Definitely too good to be true. And it was. Because apparently it had a few screws loose. Literally and figuratively. It had the attention span of a jackdaw. Braythick did not want the confounded thing to get distracted by a butterfly while he was trying to fight off a mountain lion or troll. And yet, as he unslung his hammer to remind the local natives of his right to found loot, the darn thing would turn around and trot off without a care in the world, leaving Braythick to run in an undignified manner after yelling at it. And most likely, the gnome that sold it was laughing as he counted his coins, grateful to be rid of the troublesome, ancient war machine

Finally he's done! After trying to initially paint him shiny and metallic, and having him laugh at my efforts, I decided to just ruin him on purpose. Slowly managed to do passable rust after soooooo many layers of paint! But here he is, enjoy! PIctures of winged and wingless versions. The wings will remain unattached and only put on if the husband wants him winged for a game. Base is from Dreamforge. WIP thread here: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/55988-rusty-wyrmgear-wip/ "It seemed like such a good deal. Braythick Bearhammer the dwarf mapmaker/treasure salvager had been poking around some gnome's antique dealings stall and seen it standing there, looming in the back of the tent. It was massive, a masterwork of engineering, gone to rust and ruin. Still, it could potentially be useful to the dwarf. It did after all have a blade upon its tail, and long legs. It could carry his tools! Yes, it had been a brilliant plan. Something to carry his tools, and any 'rescued' loot he found in abandoned ruins. Something to defend him from the wilderness [and natives of said ruins that might disagree with his right of salvage]. And it had been a steal. The gnome had been desperate to get rid of the thing. It seemed too good to be true! Something like this could save him the cost of hiring lackeys to carry his stuff, of hiring thugs to protect him. It wouldn't need to eat, or sleep, it could guard him while he slept. Definitely too good to be true. And it was. Because apparently it had a few screws loose. Literally and figuratively. It had the attention span of a jackdaw. Braythick did not want the confounded thing to get distracted by a butterfly while he was trying to fight off a mountain lion or troll. And yet, as he unslung his hammer to remind the local natives of his right to found loot, the darn thing would turn around and trot off without a care in the world, leaving Braythick to run in an undignified manner after yelling at it. And most likely, the gnome that sold it was laughing as he counted his coins, grateful to be rid of the troublesome, ancient war machine"

My attempt at Wrymgear. I need to get a more neutral background but this is all I have for now. Comments and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for looking!

Having assembled Wyrmgear a while ago, I've been considering what to do with him. I thought of one thing ... Test: Reaper's Wyrmgear Meets Happy Seppuku on a Plinth ... and I tested it out.

So a visit to family near Staunton, VA meant a chance to check out the FLGS there, Dragon's Hoard. The had all the big bones dragons in stock. After careful consideration, I chose the one that interested me most, Wyrmgear. Fitting him together, I see that the legs are a bit uneven: A quick boil and bend fixes that. I also remove the front leg shields for now, to re-attach after they're painted. Looking forward to breaking out the metallics and painting this one up.

So last weekend and the weekend before I worked on Cthulhu and Wyrmgear while waiting for my glazes to dry. My three year old son likes to 'help' me paint so after the great worm piece he selected Cthulhu to paint. I asked him what color should we paint Cthulhu and he said yellow. Ok, yellow it is. I primed him with Reaper's Grey Liner. Then I layered him with a thinned down Reaper Neon Yellow. I liked where this was going with an odd green tone so I changed to color scheme to keep this going. Here I layered him again with a thinned down Reaper Sun Yellow. After the last coat I came out too yellow and I wanted to try and bring it back to a green/brown. So I washed it all over with GW's Delvan Mud. A better shot of the color. This matches closer to the current sickly yellow/green/brown shading in person. From here I've stopped and haven't touched him in two weeks. Trying to figure out how I want to proceed so I don't lose the look I've got. Comments and Suggestions are welcome.

So I had a Wyrmgear I'd assembled and it was just sitting there...staring at me. This would not Do. So I got another one. It stared at me too. So I took them apart so they'd stop staring at me. Then I had an idea, and put them back together for the purposes of being mechanical mounts for the leaders of my Saturnine VSF force: Now they're staring at me again. You guys get the WIP picture because who knows when I'll get them painted.

Back when Stonehaven was having their Gnomes Kickstarter, I saw the first of their mounted figs and had the revelation that they would probably fit on Wyrmgear; that I could actually have a crew of Gnomes on a clockwork dragon in a similar fashion to the dragon crews in the Temeraire series (by Naomi Novik, think the Napoleonic War only with Dragons if you haven't read it). This idea wouldn't go away so I ordered extra of the Gnomes I thought I might use (and because they're Gnomes!) and waited. My Gnomes arrived on Monday, game night. I did manage a quick test fitting to make sure the idea would fly (pun fully intended). Excellent.... So last night, while waiting for putty to dry, I started doing some figuring. First off, the broccoli on Wyrmgear's feet is tough. I'm going to need a new exacto blade to get through that. I searched around to find something to hold the chassis body while I had the legs off. A little tricky with the deep chest, but this seems to work. Think I'll need to add on a little bit to give the Gnomes room to stand/kneel on his back. Then I started looking at the wing attachment points. This is why I decided to post about this today (since I know I'm not going to get much of a change to work on it until at least next week), to see what other people think. I'd like to move the wings down to near horizontal (yes, going to make for a BIG diorama). So the connection points look something like this. So I'm trying to decide what that joint should look like with the wings down. Options I see working: 1) gear teeth curving down into the opening, as if there are gears below that drive the wings up and down 2) curved metal with chains 3) just curved metal as if there is a lever going down into the body that is manipulated by machinery out of sight As all of those are going to be a big stretch to my meager sculpting skills, I'm currently undecided. So please, what do you think?

Wyrmgear is the large new steampunk dragon to be released as part of the Bones Kickstarter of 2012. http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/previews/latest/77177 It's a pretty fun figure, a Victorian-style mechanical dragon. Elsewhere people have been discussing how they plan to paint and decorate it when it arrives as part of the Bones Kickstarter next spring. While musing over decorating approaches I recalled a source I found of masses of teeny-tiny watch gears and parts. http://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Pavelka-2-Ounce-Crafting-Silver/dp/B0053GA0DI They are dismantled watch innards sold by the half-ounce for jewelry crafts. These are random assortments, but they usually include a lot of gears and some oddly shaped bits (not watch hands, generally). The scale of the parts is very small. In fact, some of the Amazon reviewers complained (rightly, I think) that the parts were too small for most jewelry applications. Which makes them the perfect scale for minis (Well, large minis like the dragon. They are probably still too big on average for human-sized minis.). I got some and I think the smallest gear in the assortment I got was 1mm across. I think 1/2" is about the biggest size gear I saw, although there occasionally may be parts up to 3/4". The watch parts are sometimes a bit tarnished or with some patina. I trust this will not put people off what really is a very useful gear and bits assortment for steampunk minis conversion.