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Hi, folks. First-time picture-poster, over on these forums. I hope I'm "doing things correctly" or close to it? Let me know, if I'm not. This is a resin bust by Boxing Dog Model Kits. It's of the band mascot, "Eddie," associated with the musical group, "Iron Maiden". I believe this sculpt was based on the album art for a musical single called "Aces High"; if memory serves, anyway. I'm assuming the bust kit is likely no longer on the market? I say that because I believe it was a pretty limited run to begin with, and I know this build-up / paint-up that I did is from about 2014. That's when the "Horror and Monster Modeller" special issue of "Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller" came out. This model was featured in an article I wrote, for that publication. (See pages 113 through 121 in that issue.) The main thing the article talked about was the physical modifications I had made to the solid resin parts, so that I could put some acrylic rods inside the head, with the rounded-off ends of those rods serving as "eyes" that I could make "glow" by placing some small, flashlight-style light bulbs (not LEDs) in two tunnels than ran under those rods. The actual electrical system is shown here: it's fairly simple, by electronics standards. The pictures here, with the notes I included, give a decent idea of what I did to get the eyes actually lit up, and "glowing". Part of the reason I was going with "real light bulbs," instead of LEDs, was to be able to turn them up or down in intensity. Also, the coloring was going to look like the LEDs of that time period, if I had installed those. The "yellow glow" from "real" light bulbs seemed much preferable. As for the paint job ... some parts I'm reasonably happy enough with -- at least, given where my skills are or where, back then -- and some areas on this model ended up being "basecoat only; then I had to stop" due to the restrictions of time. (I had this project, plus three other projects, that did appear in that same special issue; plus one that didn't get completed in time: so unfortunately none of the articles I was working on, for that particular issue, really got the time or care I would have wanted each of them to have, in an ideal world). I bit off a bit more than I could chew, methinks, in hindsight? Sometimes, real life gets in the way, too; as it did with this project, and the other three or four. But I was pretty stoked about having stuff in that first-ever special issue. As is often the case with deadline models of any kind, a person just has to do what they can, and prioritize what's possible and what's not, within the time they have available. But with four other models being worked on, and all at roughly the same time ... yeah, no, that special issue was not my finest moment. Still fun to work on, though: even if I feel I have more reasons to be proud of the eleven other articles I'd done with SF&FM, before the "Horror" special issue came out. I keep telling myself that, one day, perhaps, I may re-paint portions of this? Or at least "finish" the "basecoated, only" areas where I simply had to stop where things were, so that I could get the photos and words turned in, for that particular article's deadline. But for now, this is still what the kit looks like, even nearly a decade after that "Aces High" article first came out, in 2014. Even though I was under-whelmed with my own performance, paint-job-wise, on a number of areas on this kit, local fans of that musical group were depressed that I would not give this model to them, or sell it to them, so not everyone was as harsh as I myself was, on whether or not I'd done an acceptable job, on this kit. (I gave them nice, big, hi-res photos, instead. They seemed happy enough with that; and I can still see lit-up Evil Eddie, whenever I want to.) EDIT: I should probably add that the article's mentioned Reaper's paint lines; along with things like extenders or drying retarders, and what I believe was originally Jen Haley's mix of that plus flow improver. The paints used on this were a combination of paint brands and types: some of it being Tamiya brand acrylics; some of it being Reaper's paints; some of it being various kinds of metallics. Primer was an automotive gray by Plasti-Kote. To seal the "light tunnels" and prevent light leaks, I had even used some of One-Shot's brand of paints that are made for things like pin-striping work. Some portions of what's seen here (the goggles, in particular) started as a homemade decal or transfer, of a photo of some clouds, that I later painted over in places, with "flak bursts" and a reflected, flaming, shot-down enemy aircraft. The overall paint work is a combination of hand-brushing, in places, plus some airbrush work: mostly for base-coating, but also used occasionally "for effects". There is some evidence of veins running, just under the skin; but it's pretty hard to tell that it's there, once I shrank these images, for uploading.

Over the past week I have decided to proceed with my Nethyrmaul by adding some lighting effects using PoweredPlayGaming's alpha kit and microcontroller. This required some intensive modification work to add the LED wiring in such a way as to minimize external exposure. Unfortunately, in contrast Kaladrax where I was able to succeed without much change to the original sculpt, for Nethyrmaul I have had to make changes to the base to incorporate the LED microcontroller and 9 volt battery, as the original base was not large enough to conceal them. Also, due to the limited length of the LED wire that reaches to the head of Nethyrmaul, this required the microcontroller to be no further than just under the arch of the base. As a result, after finishing the installation of the wiring, I have had to modify the base to conceal the microcontroller. In order to do this, I used an old Reaper miniature card back to provide the initial covering of both sides of the arch (where the microcontroller is located), secured by superglue. Then I covered the card with a primary layer of old Milliput white epoxy putty to provide additional support. After letting the Milliput cure for a day, I then began on filling and fixing the gaps using Green Stuff, including the gaps created during my 'surgery' to install the wiring along the body and neck. To provide some distinction between the dragon parts and the base parts, I started using Procreate to cover the Milliput and begin sculpting to blend in with the original 'rock face' base. Tonight I finished the dragon, and then one side of the base and only the first initial covering of the Reaper clamshell that I am using to provide additional room to keep the 9 volt battery accessible while still out of sight. I still need to finish the sculpting on the other side of the base, as well as the sculpting to cover the outside of the clamshell. Hopefully I can complete that in the next few days and then begin painting by the weekend. Now, for the pictures. The first one is after I had installed the wiring in the dragon itself, before any edits to the base. You can see the microcontroller board hanging just under the back right foot. If the wire length had been much longer, the microcontroller could have been stored in the clamshell underneath the base; but that was not possible. Next, some pictures after I had made the base modifications and covered both sides of the base arch with the card backing: This picture shows some blue tac that I used to hold the card in place while the super glue did its magic: This next picture shows the Milliput layer on one side of the base. This is the side that still needs to be finished. You can also see the Green stuff gap filling and fixing on the body of Nethyrmaul, as well as the Procreate covering the wiring that jumped from the dragon body to the base (top of the arch). The three lines of green stuff on the neck are where I had to separate into manageable sections to drill/carve out the interior to install the wiring. I ended up sculpting some new scales to help cover the gaps. Here is a picture showing the rear view of the dragon, and where I applied the green stuff for gap filling. And another view of the side of the dragon body/neck area. I was fortunately able to cut between the large scales on the front side of the neck, which is why I did not need to use any green stuff there. This picture shows the finished Procreate sculpting on one side of the base, where I have filled the gap in the original base. And this one shows the beginning of my sculpting to cover the clamshell and transition from the Bones base to the clamshell: And a full shot from the more completely finished side: And two shots with the room lights off and the lighting effects turned on: And last but not least, I have uploaded to my YouTube channel some videos I took showing the lighting effects. This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD0Z2oVWdLs provides more views of the sculpting as well as showing off the lighting effects.