You Never Forget Your First Dragon

[alchemist]

I decided that I wouldn't get too ambitious with my first dragon and start off with a small one.

This Citadel dragon was painted with Humbrol enamels around 1986 or 87.

[Rob Dean]

I no longer have my first dragon; it would have been one of these guys: http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Image:Minifigs-mystical-me58.jpg. I do have a replacement in my Mythical Earth to-do box.  My brother had most of the dragons in the house, old Heritage, an old mcEwan red, and eventually Ral Partha ES-68, the first one they did...

 

 

[Heisler]

I can come up with my first three dragons, although all have disappeared over the years.

 

First dragon ever, the Great Dragon from Heritage

 

The second one, and perhaps my favorite is the one from Dragontooth, can’t seem to get that picture to load though.

 

and my third dragon

The third one from Citadel Miniatures,

Edited August 2, 2020 by Heisler

[Citrine]

Pretty sure my first dragon was one of the Grenadier Dragon of the Month. Probably the red one,  we own a bunch of them so it's hard to know which one was first. 

[Evilhalfling]

The Ral Partha Cold Drake was my first dragon, I painted it gold with testor's Enamels - its still around in my old mini boxes somewhere.

It was used as a stand in for every dragon I set against PCs for decades. I had a 1-2 Grenadirs Dragon Lords but the only one I still have has been missing a leg for nearly its entire life. 

 

in the Modern Age of painting I painted Reapers Fire Drake  - near the end of my painting the Bones Core set. 

If I had known how much I loved painting dragons then I would have added alot more to the vampire box. 

 

 

 

 

[malefactus]

I haven't even the vaguest of notions as to what my first Dragon was. I would imagine he/she/whatever was a Grenadier...they seemed to be THE source for Dragons way back then.

It never made it to the table. Whenever a Dragon was encountered it died in an instant. This, combined with a dislike of the painting/assembly process, colored my view of the Beasties. I hated them & only painted the things as commission pieces.

Edited August 6, 2020 by malefactus

[72moonglum]

Way back in 1984-6 I actually painted two large and kind of hefty dragons that were used as some kind of trophies at my local game shop.  That was of course pre-internet and cell phones.  I've always wondered whatever became of those dragons. I think that though after 2004, this was my first one if I recall correctly:

[Cygnwulf]

My first dragon was this guy, from the TSR Dragon Quest box.  There were a couple of others but I think this was the first one used, if I recall correctly.  The blue dragon and red dragon I know for sure were eaten by a cat around 1995....

   

My first actual physical dragon model was this behemoth from Doc Holiday Ceremics, painted up over several sessions at a local ceremics store.it stands a full 2 feet and change tall, and was completely impractical for any kind of gaming.

 

My first gaming dragon was technically a wyvern, but it was pretty close to a dragon, it was Skullmuncha from Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  I think a roommate ended up with him one time I moved because I never found him after the move.  

 

After that it was several years before I came into possession of a reaper Temple dragon that I don't have a good picture of, then several more before I acquired viridius.  there were possibly some other dragons in there for several years that I don't recall, probably painted for friends for whfb, 

[TheAuldGrump]

On 8/2/2020 at 2:49 PM, Heisler said:

I can come up with my first three dragons, although all have disappeared over the years.

 

First dragon ever, the Great Dragon from Heritage

 

I very much wanted that dragon, way back, when I saw it for the first time.

 

A dragon that I had that was stolen from me was the Citadel Lava Dragon -

One of the first truly dynamic dragons that I can remember.

 

The Auld Grump

[SamuraiJack]

On 8/1/2020 at 6:25 PM, TGP said:

These are Die Cast ??

 

Yes, painted die cast metal

 

https://youtu.be/NPpQXEAbU60

[TGP]

@Dr.Bedlam first dragon = first purchased or first painted?

 

Either way, never say never. I appear to have forgotten my first dragon. 

 

23 hours ago, malefactus said:

I haven't even the vaguest of notions as to what my first Dragon was. I would imagine he/she/whatever was a Grenadier...the seemed to be THE source for Dragons way back then.

 

On 8/4/2020 at 10:30 PM, Citrine said:

Pretty sure my first dragon was one of the Grenadier Dragon of the Month. Probably the red one,  we own a bunch of them so it's hard to know which one was first. 

For purposes of this discussion where do Wyverns factor in?  Before I ever purchased any dragon I bought and painted a diminutive little Ral Partha Wyvern. (I used Humbrol model paints on it...)

[malefactus]

On 8/5/2020 at 7:12 AM, malefactus said:

I haven't even the vaguest of notions as to what my first Dragon was. I would imagine he/she/whatever was a Grenadier...they seemed to be THE source for Dragons way back then.

It never made it to the table. Whenever a Dragon was encountered it died in an instant. This, combined with a dislike of the painting/assembly process, colored my view of the Beasties. I hated them & only painted the things as commission pieces.

 

To be fair about the Dragon question. I do have a couple of exceptions to my distaste for Dragons :

My Faerie Dragon (Iron Wind/Ral Partha)

 

My Swamp Dragon from Grenadier aka The Dragon Fly:

 

AND Grenadier's Shire Dragon:

 

There now; I am not a total Dragon-phobe.

[Dr.Bedlam]

10 hours ago, TheAuldGrump said:

 

I very much wanted that dragon, way back, when I saw it for the first time.

 

A dragon that I had that was stolen from me was the Citadel Lava Dragon -

One of the first truly dynamic dragons that I can remember.

 

The Auld Grump

 

I had both of those, back in the day; they have both since gone the way of all things. I used entire TUBES of epoxy getting that dratted Great Dragon to stay in one piece and he steadfastl refused; his bits were just too heavy, and I'd come home and find a wing lying on the shelf or whatever.

And yes, the old Citadel stuff were things of beauty, weren't they? I still prefer a LOT of the OLDER Citadel to what they're making these days; my niece surprised me by preferring the old nineties Skaven to what they're selling nowadays.

 

2 hours ago, TGP said:

@Dr.Bedlam first dragon = first purchased or first painted?

 

Either way, never say never. I appear to have forgotten my first dragon. 

 

 

For purposes of this discussion where do Wyverns factor in?  Before I ever purchased any dragon I bought and painted a diminutive little Ral Partha Wyvern. (I used Humbrol model paints on it...)

 

First purchased or first painted doesn't MATTER, TGP. What matters is how you FELT about it. Was it just a clunky hunka metal, or was it near and dear to your heart? I've owned many a dragon over the years, but Skippy was special. By the same token, a wyvern's just another sort of dragon. Did it have a place in your heart? Did it bring you joy, like Marie Conehead says?

And yeah, the Jada Metalfigs stuff is die cast metal with this baked on enamel finish that you have to pound with a hammer to chip it. I stripped several of their Harry Potter figures and repainted for a friend; they repaint up nice, but the detail is far from what the Reaper peeps are used to. The dragon in the picture I took has plastic wings, although it seems to have taken the metallic paint okay; the rest of the dragon is the same pot metal alloy as for all the other Jada Nano Metalfigs. Scale is, I would estimate, around 35mm, considerably bigger than our usual scale, but smaller than your Green Army Men. I'm guessing that's why Hasbro let them have the license. 

The general consensus among the geekosphere seems to be that your serious figure people wouldn't be much interested in them, due to the low level of detail and the Chinese factory paint jobs, but they'd be fine for children to play with (so's to keep them out of the SERIOUS figures) or for beginners at D&D to assemble a quick easy collection. The beholder and the dragon, on the other hand, seem to have gotten a fair amount of attention, despite the dragon having assembly gaps that would shame an old school Tonka truck.

And not for the first time, I am awestruck at Malefactus' compositions.

 

[TGP]

7 hours ago, Dr.Bedlam said:

And not for the first time, I am awestruck at Malefactus' compositions.

 

Yes.