Dragon Part 2

 Been trying to think of a new layout and template, something mainly to do with scale modeling maybe. It might take awhile though.

 The other day I started a new model, a 1/16th Greek Hoplite from miniart.

 I hope I can do it justice as it will be my first figure of this size. I can already see that it will take a lot of putty, scraping and sanding.

 I do have a couple of finished WWII models, that are worthy of showing off, I might add, that I'll try to take some pictures of. I just finished a diorama of an M-18 hellcat that I'll be posting WIP pictures.

 On to the dragon:

 Black primer, ran out so I wasn't able to get everything but no biggie. You'll notice a divet in the first picture at the end of the horn. That area gets taken care of later.

 I added some scratches to the end of the horns (not sure if it comes out in the pictures), the idea being (s)he rubs them against cliffs and stuff to keep them sharp or clean...you know...hygiene and stuff. I also scratched up the one eye, you can clearly see in the first picture. Gives it some character I think.

 I don't actually have too many in depth work in progress shots, so some steps might be pretty short. I'll just fill the post out with more pictures than is needed in that case!

The red base coat was laid down with an airbrush:

Not sure what colors would work for the spire, I took a different approach. When I tried envisioning the finished statue I always saw the spire covered in snow. So...the mountain turned to snow.

And many many coats of white were needed. Not sure what I was thinking, white over black I ended up using oils for the majority of the snow, the brush strokes and paint buildup adding to the...atmosphere, or ambiance. Or some other big word that...might not fit...

  Next time I'll show you how I painted (and repainted) the jewels on top, how I added a blue hue to the spire and how I fancied the dragon up with gold.

 Thank for looking, hope It's not too boring.

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Today I started a blog, this is it.

 First blog, don't know what the hell I am doing.

 Maybe I'll show of some of my bad painting jobs. I've been painting plastic models for about six years, on and off. Mainly 1/35 WWII stuff but occasionaly branching out.

 Or maybe my bad guitar playing. I've actually only started eight months so I have an excuse for being bad at it, heh.

 Or we could just talk about movies, bad ones in particular. I love "The Brain That Wouldn't Die".



 For starters I'll show you a statue I remodeled and repainted, here's the story:

 My grandma used to have a booth at a flea market where she would try to sell anything. She would have cheap plastic toys that you find in those super market quarter machines for a couple cents, things like those plastic bright green finger "handcuffs" or a mound of black twisted plastic that is supposed to be batman, sitting right next to a nice fifty dollar craftsman drill.

 One day a booth next to her received a couple Dragon statues so she bought one for me, she usually bought all of us something every now and then, even if it was just a cheap hotwheels coloring book. The dragon was wrapped around a tall mountain like spire, a spiral foot path leading to the top where a clear crystal orb sat. Small doorways all along the edge, she said it reminded her of Lord Of The Rings.

 I picked it up and out pops a knife. That's right, a knife blade is hidden inside the spire, the glass orb portion of it being the handle for the blade. She said she had no idea...my mom wasn't too happy but I was able to keep it. However the statue always looked off to me, it didn't look right, or good enough perhaps.

That's the original. It sat in my room for a couple years before I decided I really wanted to repaint it. It started to look less like a dragon and more like the hyper nerdy outcast from sea serpant school. I'LL TRADE MY JUICEBOX FOR YOUR PENCIL SHARPENER!

 I decided on the classic red and gold scheme but before I painted I needed this thing to look like a real dragon. So some surgery was needed.

I cut down the flaps on the side of his head to make room for horns. His bulging eyes were goughed out, making room for flatter eyes and actual eyelids. His tongue was scraped down so I could add a forked end to it. Other seams and oddities were scraped down or sanded off. The orb was pried off too but some of the handle came off with it, you can see the break line right in the middle. Some putty cleared it up though.

 To attach any of the horns I had to drill a small hole and use a piece of wire to use as an anchor. Otherwise the horns would just be held on with glue, the wire gives a sturdier base for the horns to grab onto.

I bashed up the orb to make it look like a pile of gold and jewels, cause that's what dragons horde!


 That's all for now, I'll try to get the other pictures up soon.


[Edit]

 Added some more pictures:

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