I have decided to start a new thread for this instead of it being just a section within my painting log since it is such a big project and is pushing my expertise to it's limits. I decided to try it knowing it was faaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr beyond anything I had ever even attempted before mainly because I believe the only way to discover your limits is to test them and the only way to expand the limits of your skill set is to exceed them...
I dislike the common dragon coming off the top of the rock mainly because it is common. My idea was to have the dragon perched leaning against the rock and fighting around it, though I'm still using the plastic set as the basis for this dragon. I then found this guy had had a similar idea (
http://www.coolminiornot.com/209495) however I wanted mine to be far more of an action scene, I stole a couple of his ideas which he had left as 'what he wish he'd done' and I added them to my own.
So I now have the whole dragon built including three dead dark elves, or at least I nearly do. The body of the dragon is built, the diorama base is built, everything else is pinned so now comes the true test greenstuffing it to turn it into a complete model. This is more than just gap filling for most of this. For me green stuff work can only be classed as 'gap filling' when you are filling gaps which are around 1-2mm thick or less, these gaps are in places up to around 10mm thick and there are areas which require some serious sculpting. The list of things that still need doing is:
Greenstuff the head - this head has been massively modified the top jaw is a head I found on ebay no idea of the original model, the bottom jaw was originally the top jaw of the HE dragon except I chopped it open and flipped it over, his eyes were then covered over but this needs cleaning up. There is also a dark elf inside the mouth and lastly the join between the head halves needs work.
Neck - To make the head seem natural (in fact to fit it at all) I had to extend the neck by around 8-10 mm, I pinned the neck to both the top and bottom jaw so it is very secure however this now also needs extensive work to bridge that gap.
Both wings - I used Imriks wings which don't fit perfectly into the slots for the plastic dragon, but then I didn't think they would. I made a bad attempt over christmas to greenstuff it without pinning but I just found my long lost drill so hence the sudden surge in activity.
Saddle - This needs to be resculpted about 8-10 mm further forward and 5 mm higher to accomadate for the riders fitting around the new wings, I've tried them in this position with blue tack and it fits perfectly, I'm going to cover over the old saddle a little and give them cloaks to cover it up as much as possible. I may even sculpt a small back to the saddle though nothing near the GW one which comes with it.
The tail - I had to cut this in two reposition it, by the time I had it in two pieces I thought I may as well use the tail which had come with the head I bought on ebay. Again this is pinned securely but there is a large gap.
Both back feet - Not entirely sure how best to model these in terms of whether I should cut the rock out of them and start from scratch or whether I should run with whats already there and build a rock around it. I know it's more effort but I'm currently leaning towards cutting and rebuilding, we'll see.
The rock - Needs greenstuff still to finish off the hole in the rock where the dragons foot would be, I haven't touched this still as I'm tempted to just use that bit of the rock off his foot but again we'll see, it's one of the smaller aspects. Other than this the base is finished.
Both riders are finished though unpainted, I didn't want to make a start with them in case they needed minor alterations to fit the dragon build.
So That's the work required... I will post up to date WIP pics as and when though the first of these will have to be monday, for older pics feel free to check my painting log, both the prince and dragonmage are shown in there along with a rough mock up of the diorama using blue tack
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Bring me my bow of burning gold, bring me my arrows of desire, bring me my spear O' Clouds unfold, bring me my chariot of FIRE!
Check out my rather slow caledor themed
painting log and my
dragon project... also my faster moving nurgle themed Warriors of Chaos themed
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Now as you can see the model still needs his neck doing, his wing joints need finishing off, his saddle is now at the right height and shape but it needs smoothing over and also needs a design cut into it (I tried cutting a design into it while it was still semi soft but it just ended up deforming it so I decided to let it set then put a thin layer over the top and do it with that), the tail as you can see needs gap filling in 2 places, both feet need doing, and the rock needs a little greenstuff where his foot would have been but otherwise I am very happy with the base! Both Dark Elves will have shields eventually, the guy on the rock will have dropped his to the position I placed it in the photo though I haven't glued it yet...
