Lyn Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 OMG dude! how big does that dragon stand once assembled?! Its huge! I wanna paint a dragon soon, but I get so intimidated at times because of the work involved lol You have to take pics of every step of this process! lol cant wait to see how it comes out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabberwocky Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 Glad to hear you are on getting this guy together! Good luck with the rest of the assembly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHorde Posted June 9, 2009 Author Share Posted June 9, 2009 OMG dude! how big does that dragon stand once assembled?! Its huge! I wanna paint a dragon soon, but I get so intimidated at times because of the work involved lol You have to take pics of every step of this process! lol cant wait to see how it comes out! Good question. Looks to be about 10" from bottom of base to tip of wings. The wings are not completely vertical, so it's tough to say for sure at this point. Each wing is 7" from base to tip, so they are rather large on their own. I'll try to include some scale references in the next pics. Minor update: despite dry fitting in advance, the base does not line up with the legs. Too many variables, a little off here, a touch off there...it all adds up. In particular, the left rear leg is at least 1/4" off from where it needs to be, maybe more. I will try heat, see if I can get things shifted enough to line up without unbalancing the sculpt. On the plus side, I can attest to the holding power of the joints - I applied quite a bit of brute force on the legs, trying to release one so I could reattach at a better angle and resculpt. Wouldn't budge. Legs bent in the direction I wanted them to go and the joint held. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haldir Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I remember lifting this sucker in the game store & was like "WOW". Alas, mom didn't have the cash for it, so I had to settle for something else. Time to get a job! he he I was 10 or 11 at the time :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anvil Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I won mine in a painting contest...hmmm...time to paint....my paint job good enough to win something....must have been 91-92 something like that. It's still sitting in the box it came in, waiting, waiting.. The model sold for an astounding $50 back then, and that was too much to pay for a mini for me at the time. I look forward to your progress, be sure to note all the problems you have, like the legs, just in case I ever get the courage to paint mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dargrin Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I like the spikey head. Good luck with it. I will be watching this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHorde Posted June 9, 2009 Author Share Posted June 9, 2009 @anvil and Lyn: try not to be intimidated by dragons and large models. This is my first dragon, and my first commission. I was intimidated by these factors, and the by perceived rarity & value of it. But, thanks to encouragement on these forums and from the client/owner, plus drawing inspiration from WIPs like Talespinner's work with Cinder, for example, I am mostly over it. Now I am learning to look at it as another piece of metal to be assembled and painted. If I'm careful, it will be tough to damage it beyond my ability to repair. When it comes to paint, if I don't like the way it is going, I will strip it and try again. Time lost, but lesson learned. Big model, but no big deal. One step at a time. If I can do this, so can you. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHorde Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 Before the attempted leg adjustments: And two just for scale: The heat & bend method got the feet closer, but not quite where they needed to go. I used heat-resistant gloves to hold the mini so only one leg at a time was touching nearly boiling water. While piling on to get the last eighth of an inch of side-to-side movement on the left rear leg, the hip joint finally failed. While using that opportunity to warm up the right rear leg and change the angle of the foot, hoping to lower the body slightly and settle the foot to the base, that hip joint also failed. So... Hour 6 - worked on leg angles and cleaning Apoxie & glue out of the hip joints. Seriously bent one dental scraper on this. Safety Tip: wear glasses! A chunk of cured Apoxie pinged off my safety glasses, just to remind me. Learned lesson on ignoring the assembly instructions if they do not make sense. These state you should build the body & legs, then the base, and then attach the base. The problem is that once the hip joints are set, you can't make adjustments. So, if you decide to build this model, find a way to gently clamp the body over the base and hold it there while you align the three load-bearing legs to the body and the base. None of the joints of legs to body or feet to base will line up perfectly, but you can adjust and hold in place before applying any adhesives. Filling and hiding gaps will be easier than bending and/or redoing the joints entirely. Start with the left rear because it has the most extreme angle, is toughest to bend (if you need to bend anything, make it the other, more extended ones). It is the most obvious from the front and side angles, and it has room for adjustment underneath. Even if you need to leave a large gap there, it will be hidden under the belly of the model. There is almost no way someone will pick it up and turn it over to examine that closely once it's fully assembled and painted. Once the left rear is set, then try the right rear. Once that's set, move on to the right front. After that, you can put on the left front (not touching the base) and finally attach the model to the base. In this way, you can adjust the model to the base, one leg at a time, rather than locking it in and hoping it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Umbimaior Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Hi Greyhorde, how are you? From the fact you can work on such a monster it seems everything is fine. The kid is not allowing me to work on miniatures, leave alone to start such a big project. Be aware that I really envy you. My only miniatures dedicated time is when I travel for work. I'm really hoping to make another trip to Indy, so we can meet again. Getting back to the issue of the moment,why don't you try a different approach to this? Instead of bringing the dragon leg to the base, why don't you bring the base to the dragon leg? Meaning: you can make a "big" ball of epoxy putty. Put a piece of plastic wrapping foil (Those thin ones used to wrap food. I don't know how do you call it. I hope it's clear enough) under the dragon leg. Press the epoxy ball against the dragon foot, which is protected by the foil, so the epoxy will not stick to the dragon. then put the dragon in place on the base. Any misallignement/gap present between the leg and the base will be filed by the ball. Trim the epoxy putty, which will have squeezed out from the sides of the gap base-dragon. Remove the dragon. The expoxy will remain stuck to the base. blend the putty to the base. Problem fixed. Looking forward to see more of this project. If I come to the States, I'll bring my airbrush so you can try it on the dragon. Keep up the good work. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyn Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I remember lifting this sucker in the game store & was like "WOW". Alas, mom didn't have the cash for it, so I had to settle for something else. Time to get a job! he he I was 10 or 11 at the time :lol: hahahaha! then you shoulda had a paper route! lol jk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyn Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Hi Umbimaior! I think the thin clear foil you are referring to is called "saran wrap" Welcome to the crew by the way! Glad to have you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyn Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 @anvil and Lyn: try not to be intimidated by dragons and large models. This is my first dragon, and my first commission. I was intimidated by these factors, and the by perceived rarity & value of it. But, thanks to encouragement on these forums and from the client/owner, plus drawing inspiration from WIPs like Talespinner's work with Cinder, for example, I am mostly over it. Now I am learning to look at it as another piece of metal to be assembled and painted. If I'm careful, it will be tough to damage it beyond my ability to repair. When it comes to paint, if I don't like the way it is going, I will strip it and try again. Time lost, but lesson learned. Big model, but no big deal. One step at a time. If I can do this, so can you. :-) You're right. I know I will definitely get around to painting a dragon at least after I finish my GenCon and Summer Contest entries =) I will be sure to post up a thread so you can help me with my dragon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHorde Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 @Lyn - that's the spirit! @Umbimaior - hello! As always, you give very good advice, and I thank you. I love the plastic wrap idea and will put it to good use. Now that you mention it, a couple of other ways to accomplish a similar effect come to mind. A little water on Apoxie Sculpt, especially after it has set for about 15 minutes, will also prevent sticking. For greenstuff, a bit of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) will also do it. Greenstuff tends to be a little flexible once cured, though, and I don't want that in load-bearing spaces, so I may mix Apoxie and greenstuff to combine the properties. Either way, I had realized the base would need some resculpting to extend the rock formations upward to fill the gaps, but I wasn't sure how to approach it. This sounds like a fast & efficient way to get the rough build in place, then tidy up the details after it's set & stable. Thanks, again. New plan: Left Rear: has been bent just slightly outward and allowed a larger gap in the hip underneath, so the foot now lines up horizontally. I will fill the vertical gap by extending the rock formation straight upward in one shot, saving some time & effort vs. expanding it horizontally. Right Rear: is closer, as noted, but still doesn't line up. It's off in about four directions - joint spacing & angle, leg bend, foot bend and twist. Instead of fighting that battle any longer, I will first extend the base horizontally, then upward to fill the gap. I believe that once built & blended into the surrounding rock, then painted, it will look natural. Right Front: no further adjustment is needed, just glue & putty to fill the gap, then blend into the rock texture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Umbimaior Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Thanks Lyn for the name of the foil (being from Italy it's difficult for me to know how you call some stuff, my English is limited to what they teach in school and something I learned from nice persons in my travels) and for the welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Oh, my! I saw two pages of posts and thought the dragon must be pretty far along by now. After wrapping up my red lizardman, I was curious to see how his older uncle was doing, only to find that he's not even assembled yet! And I thought painting a lizardman was turning me off from ever tackling a dragon. If it takes that much work just to get started... Hmm..just realized I'm probably discouraging you more than anything. Keep it up! You can do it! Hang in there, buddy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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