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Hey, folks. Major props to the crew working the counter at my local game store tonight; they were able to dig up (from "The Basement") the last piece I needed for this project: one of the Reaper Dragons. This allows me to finally begin a project I've been stewing over for, like, a year now.

The project is going to be a diorama of a dragon from Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, where dragons basically get turned into airborne frigates in the Napoleonic age. The dragon will be Excidium, for those who've read the books.

I'm going to convert the standing dragon into a flying pose, adding full rope-and-chain rigging using parts intended for model ships. Small-scale Napoleonic infantry minis will provide a crew, and finally mount it all on a pole so that it appears to be flying over an ocean. My goal is for the mounting pole to be hidden behind one of the wings as it makes a banking turn, and for the base to have a small ship (from one of the smaller scales) on it to provide altitude perspective.

This will easily be my biggest and toughest conversion project EVER, and will be taking place over the course of the next month. It has a deadline of August 31, since it it for a contest that ends on that date. I'm off school for the remainder of the summer, so I will definitely have time to work on it.

Things that I will be doing for the first time on this mini:
-Working with a dremel
-Working with model-scale rope/rigging
-"Solid Water" (the liquid stuff that hardens to look like water)
-Having a proper deadline
-Maybe Airbrushing

Pics are, at this point, merely "hey look, a box!", but I always like reveal shots, so here they are (they also help provide a look at the scale of the mini):

Oooooooh subscribed looking forward to seening more !

Okay, so today I was able to get to work on the model! Those who dread seeing expensive models get mutilated should hide their eyes.

When I opened the box, one of the model's feet fell off. That's okay, as I was already planning to chop off all of the feet anyways (the two back feet are connected to giant rocks, which are just not useful for a flying model). I'm going to make a mold of the top of that foot so that I can cast copies of them for the rest of the model. I'll have to hand-sculpt the bottom of the feet, but I'm OK doing that.







Next step was actually opening up the Dremel!! This is the first electric tool I've bought specifically for use with minis, though I'm going to justify buying it by looking for things to do with it around the house. It's the cheapest model, though, so it doesn't need THAT much justification.



My first cut with the dremel tool, ever, was simply to cut off the other back foot. (You can also see my first dremel-based accident: a cut-burn-mark in the cutting pad.)


The dragons in the Temeraire-a-verse don't have the anthropomorphic upper arms that this model does; they're more strictly quadrupeds with wings. On top of that, the "RAWR" pose just doesn't work for an in-flight positioning. So, the arms had to be chopped off. When the time comes, I will be putting them back on backwards, to make them look more like legs than arms. Cast-and-sculpted feet (as mentioned above) will be used to replace the claws.




The lower body got THREE pinning holes, drilled large enough for copper rod instead of my usual paper clip pins. Needless to say, this thing is going to have some serious weight being supported across the body, and it will be horizontal instead of vertical as the model is designed. Hopefully this will support the rear-end of the model properly (since the only contact point with the base will be a giant rod through the upper body and maybe a screwed-on bracket).




Finally, green stuff got stuck in between the pins, matching holes were drilled in the upper body, and the two major chunks of body are now fused to one. Tomorrow, after the under-layer of putty has time to cure, I'll be sculpting another layer of Green Stuff to match the rest of the body.

This morning I've fully filled in the gap with scales to (mostly) match the two sides of the body. Once it fully cures I'll go at it with a knife to get it to match just a little bit better.












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Oooh, the first cast of a claw came out almost perfectly. Three more to make.

I've gotten some more work done on Excidium:

First, the front arms have been fully assembled: hands chopped off, thumbs removed from the hands to make them more like the feet, re-attached, and sculpted to fill in the gap as well as to give the front legs armor plates to resembles the back legs.






The top piece of the head has been attached to the neck, but as I drilled through the forehead while installing a pin I'll have to do some GS work up there; I'll probably take advantage of it to give the dragon some scarring.


The tail has been pinned and test-fit (no glue yet, waiting until I get the legs all on before I go working on the tail or the head):




Finally, a test fit of the body as it stands with most of the legs/feet in place along with the tail. This is roughly the pose the body will be in while flying, though there will naturally be quite a bit more filling in and sculpting of additional detail (such as the foreleg muscles being extended further into the body).

Very cool!

Challenging project - how long you expecting it to take?

tallmantim wrote:Very cool!

Challenging project - how long you expecting it to take?

Not sure on the time frame; the contest I'm putting it together for ends on August 31, so I'd better have it done by then.

Right now the rate limiting step is waiting for Green Stuff to cure, mostly, which means that I'll probably add the front legs, rear feet, tail, head, and wings in separate steps of one day each. After that, it's mounting it on a flying rod, then attaching the rigging and the crew, which will likely go faster simply because that'll just need to wait for glue to dry. Figure another week and a half or so for assembly (not counting the base).

After that is painting, and I'm not sure how I'm going to go about that part of it yet.

Excellent work; especially the casting and Green Stuffing. Most impressive!

As for Justifying your Dremmel. I had to justify mine and let me tell you it is so worth it, makes mold lines and touch ups so very easy to do...

Got the mounting pins in place on the head-end of the dragon and did a test fit: I'm happy with the overall angle of the body. I'd probably like to get the front legs a little more forward, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do that with the current state of all the pins. We'll see.

Totally subscribed! Awesome project so far.
For painting, I remember seeing this http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/38273/ awhile back. Just an idea

Baron

The body fill has been completed; once it cures (tomorrow likely) I'll attach the rear feet and front legs, sculpting in fill to match. After that it's mounting it and attaching the wings, then beginning to do the rigging and crew. I'm still working out how exactly I'm going to paint it up, technique-wise, whether I'm going to try to keep the rigging/crew off until after the dragon is fully painted, or try to paint detail around ropes and tiny soldiers.

Front legs put into place, muscles sculpted into place. The scales on the muscles are a little sloppy, but I'm fully expecting the wings' muscles to cover a good chunk of that.

Wow. Looking good.

Don't stress over those front legs. More than likely, all of his legs would be tucked up in, close to the body, for aerodynamic purposes. Failing that, they're more likely to hang down that to go straight out ahead, Superman style.

Can't wait to see how THIS goes!

Eric

Been a few days; on Friday I kind of broke the model trying to put a screw in the side of the body to mount it, so I had to spend a couple days slowly rebuilding the middle GS join. Today, though, time to get it on the base!

This isn't a permanent mounting, as neither end has been glued/green stuff'd. I've got a coupling bolt in the base, another one GS'd to a screw driven into the side of the dragon. Next step will be mounting the wings, and then it's to putting on the crew!

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.

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.

Dragon is looking pretty sweet, any thoughts on the painting yet?

monkeytroll wrote:Dragon is looking pretty sweet, any thoughts on the painting yet?

I think I've got a plan in mind after doing some heavy thinking on the subject.

1. Assemble all rigging permanently. This includes chains (which have been installed, I just don't have pics yet) and rope.
2. Prep all crew, and drill small holes for their feet to be glued into in their locations, but do not glue them into place.
3. Prime; paint dragon and crew separately. Also paint the small-scale ship at this time.
4. Glue crew into place.
5. Glue fine thread between waist of crew members and dragon's rigging (the crew's safety lanyards).
6. Place ship onto base.
7. Fill in base with solid water.
8. Glue "clouds" to further obscure support rod.

I'm hoping to have the rigging complete some time over the weekend, then I can begin crew placement.

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.

I loved these books. I know this is gonna turn out great!

Heh, rigging looks like it was 'fun' to do Good job
How many crew does it get? (Not got round to reading these yet)

monkeytroll wrote:Heh, rigging looks like it was 'fun' to do Good job
How many crew does it get? (Not got round to reading these yet)

Yeah, the rigging was a mess to do, especially since I have no real experience with model ships and the like.

I'd been asked the crew count question over at the Reaper boards, so here's my response just pasted from there:

Magc8Ball at Reapermini.com wrote:
The author is really careful to not give an exact count, I suspect because she doesn't want to get tied down into technicalities when they get in the way of a story. That said, from reading the books I'm going to go with the following crew for this dragon (which is sort of a mid-weight one as they go):

1 Captain
2 or 3 Lieutenants
4-6 Riflemen
1 Signal Ensign
6-8 misc. crew (lookouts, mainly, but they also repair rigging and drop bombs)

Total: 14-20

When not flying directly into combat, the dragon may also carry its ~3-man ground crew (especially when specifically in transit) but that's not really needed here. (In the books, the protagonist dragon is one of the larger breeds, and carries upwards of 30 crew and has a 6+ man ground crew.)

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 Gamescape North's Pizza* and Painting Night.

*: May contain other foods than pizza.

It looks realy grate ! I can't wait to see it painted.

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.

The first image's contrast is a little higher than expected; the Dakka Gallery did that.








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Aaaaaand there's now paint on both wings, top and bottom.

The contrast on the scales is brilliant, especially the larger ones down the spine. The bolt it is supported on... really hoping that you can disguise it in some fashion, it's taking a lot away from the model at the moment.

Morgrim wrote:The contrast on the scales is brilliant, especially the larger ones down the spine. The bolt it is supported on... really hoping that you can disguise it in some fashion, it's taking a lot away from the model at the moment.

Yeah, the bolt will be disguised both by the final alignment of the model (the wing on that side was positioned so that it'll cover up the mount from the front) and by "clouds" made from cotton that I'll have on there. I'll probably also slip some plastic tube over it so it's at least a smooth surface, too.

Wow, that looks pretty damn cool. I have to say that not having read the books this is inspired by, I was expecting some kind of cabin or platform for the soldiers/crew (especially given the extent of the rigging - which looks exceptionally good by the way). However, that was my expectation and the model itself still looks great.

Can't wait to see this finished.

Coming together nicely there, love the colouring on the wings. Is some of the red going to be appearing on the body too?

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.