Excidium at the Nile

[Magc8Ball]

Earlier on Wednesday I mounted the first wing, doing up the underlying layer of green stuff musculature.

 

 

(this view shows the mounting bolt that's used to connect it to the support rod)

 

Later, after that layer fully cured, I gave it a second layer of muscle, to mate the original piece's shoulder socket with the new position of the dragon, and then mounted the second wing (which is currently waiting for the GS to cure before giving it ITS second layer.

 

"In flight" views of the model's current state.

 

 

[MamaGeek]

Wow, that's an incredibly thorough and professional assembly job you're doing. Keep it up, and keep us posted. I can't wait to see more!

[Magc8Ball]

Second muscle layer on the starboard wing complete! In addition I've touched up the sculpt on the top of the other wing, as well as attached the rear feet. Next step is to begin the rigging (after this cures); I'll probably start cleaning up the crew minis in the meantime.

 

 

 

 

 

[Lawgiver]

Coming along amazingly well. Love the action pose.

[scotty kahn]

Wow! What a project. Its very cool to see it all come together.

 

Keep on goin.

[Wren]

What a great idea! And I'm impressed by the effort you're going to with the conversions. Everything looks great so far. Looking forward to seeing the end result as well as the journey!

[Magc8Ball]

I've completed the rigging over the last week or so. Didn't do any in-progress pics because the whole process was really a mess. It still looks a little messy, since there's lots of green stuff in there that just looks "green" until it's painted. Two crew have been mounted (the captain and a Lt. with a speaking trumpet) to give a sense of scale.

 

 

 

 

 

[Magc8Ball]

I've completed the assembly of the model, including mounting the crew. I've decided to just stick the crew on since the size made pinning unworkable for most of them; I should be able to paint around them fairly well.

 

Tonight I start painting it at my local shop's Pizza* and Painting Night.

 

*: May contain other foods than pizza.

 

 

 

 

 

[Grimwolf]

Awesome, can't wait to see what this guy looks like all painted up.

[Magc8Ball]

I've gotten the main body's color painted (details are still unpainted); I left the wings and head unpainted so I could give more direct attention to them. After that, I've painted the top of one wing to establish the colors; the other sides of the wings will come next.

 

 

 

[Cyradis]

Those are beautiful wings on your dragon, on color and texture and shading.

[Magc8Ball]

Those are beautiful wings on your dragon, on color and texture and shading.

 

Well, I can't claim that much credit; the wings have a wonderful sculpt that includes a subtle wave-like pattern that really lends itself well to just doing layers of semi-drybrushing on it. :)

 

Meanwhile, I've gotten the wings done top and bottom:

 

[Magc8Ball]

The rigging, claws, and small details are all done. All that's left at this point is to finish the eyes, and to paint the crew. Then it's time to work on the base, including the ship, water fill, staining the wood, and hiding the rod.

 

 

 

 

 

[Magc8Ball]

Well, I'm finally done with this monster of a miniature. I didn't get pics as I was working on the base, so we kind of skip from "crew done" to "piece done".

 

So, first, I got the crew painted. I'm not all that happy with how they turned out: I've never painted 10mm figures before, and I think I relied a bit too much on drybrushing and washes and didn't really get a very clean job done. I wasn't able to do any "resets" since I'd mounted them before painting, but hopefully the final photos that I take will minimize the crew (since I'll have to keep the camera zoomed out pretty far to see the whole dragon).

 

 

 

 

After doing the crew, I built a cardboard spacer to fill the base; this would hold the "water" material in place at a depth of maybe half an inch instead of the 2-3 inch depth of the base.

 

 

 

Then, I did the following:

-Painted the interior of the base a dark blue, along with the support rod

-Filled the base with Vallejo "Water Effects" acrylic and used a cardboard square cutout to "sculpt" the wave pattern (making them fairly close together to simulate the dragon flying at a fairly high altitude)

-Waited ~10 hours

-Drybrushed the waves with a seagreen/white color

-Mounted the clouds (cotton batting, glued on with Elmer's)

 

The lightest blue in the water may still dry down to a deeper blue (the bottle says "24 hours to cure fully") so I'll wait until tomorrow to take the Final Pictures.

 

These images are at Dakka Board "Medium" size; click 'em for 1280-wide resolution shots in the gallery.

 

 

 

[Magc8Ball]

Final photos have been taken; this completes this blog! Thanks everyone for their feedback... now I have to figure out where I can put it so that it won't fall over in the next earthquake.