Wednesday 28 April 2021

DRAGON EVOLOUTION

 With MONSTER MAY(HEM) only 3 days away, I've been thinking about Dragons. Over the years I've built a few which I will show in the order they were created, with a question at the end.


First up is the South American Coatyl, this was the first dragon I ever sculpted, and was an exercise in showing what I could do while building up the business, it also happens to be my favourite Dragon.


This traditional style Dragon on ruined keep was a commissioned sculpt for Model Display Products, the balance on the model is such that he is only resting on the keep, no glue holding him on.


This was also a commissioned sculpt for Model Display Products, and depicts a Chinese Dragon, the gate has a dip in the roof as was normal in China, the straight topped ones were found in Japan.


The next Dragon is a Sea Dragon, really wanted to look at how a creature would adapt in certain surroundings, so had his wings evolve into a sail on his back, one day I would like to go back and add resin water effect over the base.


Next I tried pushing the boundaries on how few balance points I could get a model on, with the Fire Breathing Dragon. He only has two balance points and the arch holding up all his weight.


This next dragon was a request, the Zombie Dragon, this one was the most intense build, as I had to build it by layers, so all skeleton, then muscle in the places I required, and finally skin and scales to finish off.


I then decided to build an Oriental Dragon for myself, but wanted to break from the norm of lots of coiling. So I had him leaping from a summoning stone, with some undulation along the spine.


The last one I built for myself was the Wyvern, which I wanted in full flight, so the ruin wall has a brass bar running through it, to help support the weight, it had to be very well balanced to secure it from this one point.


I then built two dragon's for Heroes of the Dark Ages, now it is effectively the same dragon but with options, you can have it single headed or twin headed, walking or in flight, this involved a lot of making connection points standard between the two.

Now the question, I'm feeling the itch to build another dragon, but not sure what to do, have had a request for a Hydra, or could do a mutating dragon where the head is becoming two heads, really not sure so would love your input.

That's all for this post and we will now return to our normal broadcast, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

23 comments:

  1. Very fun seeing these again. That Coatyl is by far my fav of the bunch though.

    For your next I think the hydra idea would indeed be a very cool one or in the same multi-headed vein of thought, your take on Tiamat with her multi-Chromatic heads from the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon/setting would be amazing. Another for me would be your take on a "Toad Dragon" - Games Workshop's specialist company Forgeworld used to make one for their Nurgle line which was super cool, but I think you could do better and it's a very different style from the traditional or Asian ones you've done in the past.

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    1. Thank you Dai, funnily enough he's still my favourite too ! LOL
      Those are some very cool ideas, hadn't thought about Tiamat, and a Dragon Toad, would be cool as not necessarily a large dragon as most of these are pretty large ! LOL

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  2. Wow, that is a lot of nifty dragons. Oddly, I've been thinking about dragons quite a bit myself lately. I'd also vote for some kind of hydra. Maybe that crazy Lernaean Hydra where when you cut off a head two more grow back?

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    1. Thank you Ann, do you think a hydra should have two legs like the one in Jason and the Argonaughts or 4 legs ?

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  3. Lots of lovely dragons there Dave and all beautifully done!

    Do you know I don't think I've ever painted a dragon!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thank you Roger, quite a variety.
      They can certainly be a challenge, with the size and weight

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  4. As a Welsh bloke I'm a fan of dragons and all these are excellent; the fire-breathing dragon is my fave. I've got a couple lined up for Monster May(hem) and am looking forward to painting them.

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    1. Thank you Matt, can fully understand liking Dragons because your Welsh, would be unpatriotic otherwise ! LOL Look forward to seeing all your entries.

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  5. You have been a busy chap over the years, I wonder if you have some sort of dragon-related record ?
    Yje coatyl, is veyr good, but as a traditionalist I favour the drgon resting on the keeo as it shows off its size admirably.
    As for another dragon (should you really need to) I'd go for the archetypical Jason opponent 0 the Hydra !

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    1. Thank you Joe, when I first started building them it could take up to 3 months to build, but over the years and finding quicker processes I can now get it down to a month, if I'm not doing too much else at the same time.
      Another vote for a hydra it is

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  6. That is a great group of sculpts! I'm impressed you did work for Model Display Products too. I used to order from them regularly when shipping was cheaper to the US as they have some great stuff.

    I would certainly vote for a hydra as they look cool and will be a sculpting challenge. While not dragons per say, a Chimera or Manticore would be amazing too. Another thought is that the Warhammer High Elves used to ride dragons and GW has moved away from that. For my money anyway, that would make being able to buy an elf on a dragon that much cooler and more desirable to me anyway :)

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    1. Thank you Jeff, done work for many companies over the years, and know what you mean about shipping costs now !
      That's another vote for a hydra, and agree a Chimera and Manticore would be cool. May have to look at doing some riders for some of the dragons I've already done, as I wanted to do ones without riders to begin with, but can see the advantage of doing some with as well

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  7. Splendid looking collection of mega reptiles! I had a go decades ago at building a dragon based on the traditional red dragon on the cover of the basic d&d book, great fun but never finished it, I wonder if a smaller dragon might make a nice change?
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain, shame you never finished your dragon, as would love to have seen it. My wife would definitely agree with you on that one, as her normal response is " where are you going to be able to put another dragon on the display stand ! " LOL

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  8. Bloody hell, Dave - every time I see more of your sculpts the more impressed I am. That's one hell of a dragon collection, and the fact that you sculpted them makes them is just crazy.

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    1. Thank you Azazel, I do like sculpting Dragons, and trying to do different takes on them. Would love to see your painting style on one of my sculpts one day

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    2. Cheers Dave - we may have to sort that out one day! You know I haven't actually managed to paint a single dragon to this date? I've started on a couple ones over the years, but the closest I've ever gotten was the Bones Hydra. I think it started out with a fear of "imperfection" - as in not getting the model to look as good as it could be (plus fiddly assembly). Now it's still a bit of that, though with a larger hatred of assembly and a good chunk of "they look so good airbrushed, and I'm crappy at using an airbrush, and have nowhere I can really set one up permanently to learn it". One of the reasons I end up doing so few larger models overall (including vehicles).

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    3. Also the Dracolich from Ravenloft, I guess...

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    4. I can fully understand the fear on painting large models, especially vehicles, it held me back on painting so many models over the years. The Dragons helped me get over it a lot, as I needed painted ones to display at shows. I feel you on the airbrush, I've got one and haven't had time to get used to the new set up, to really get the use of it. All the dragons above were done by brush. With your brilliant painting style (you can make crap models look great !) I'm sure a Dragon even done with a brush by yourself would look awesome !

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    5. The Dracolich was a great one of yours mate, I think you would be awesome on a big Dragon, especially with your attention to detail

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