Magic of the Orb

25mm Ral Patha Amethyst Dragon

by Lorraine Johnson (Mrs Madmike)

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Silly Week 2008

 

A Background 

This particular modelling project came about when Michael was cleaning out his resin and accessories cupboard and he came upon an Amethyst Dragon still in its small Advanced Dungeons and Dragons wrapper. This was immediately handed to me with a “Here you go love, enjoy” and a hug.  My eyes lit up and I went straight into “research mode”. Much of my research was looking at Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Gaming Books and talking to our eldest son Douglas.  

It was Douglas who informed me that Amethyst Dragon’s love anything magical and this brought to mind the fact that I had in my miniature stash a number of smaller pieces that would do the job wonderfully. These pieces came from the excellent Reaper Miniature group of 25mm gaming pieces. 

The Kit 

The Dragon

The dragon is a white metal miniature made up of five parts.  

The Magical Treasure Hoard

The magical treasure hoard pieces are from the Reaper Dark Heavens Legends gaming pieces. They are made of white metal and came from a number of different blister packs; from which I chose some choice pieces for my vignette. The magical weapons were an after thought. 

The Dome and Circular Plinth

The Dome and Circular Plinth came from an old anniversary clock that Mike owned and had ceased to work. I simply removed the clock and was left with the dome and plinth. 

Construction 

The initial step of construction was dry fitting all the parts of the dragon together and seeing whether there were any gaps that would need filling or perhaps surgery to make it fit properly. 

Dry fitting proved that there were no major problems and both feet would sit properly on the ground. So after carefully removing excess flashing and lightly filing away seam joints I began the task of super gluing the parts together.  

I chose to glue the wings in place first and was a little disturbed to find that I would not only need to fill a small gap at the wing joint, but would also need to rebuild the gem like scales around the back of the neck. Gluing the leg was simple and apart from needing a little putty to hide a gap and some scribing to keep the gem formation of the dragon’s hide crisp and detailed looked great. 

Finally I glued the tail in place and was pleased to find that all it required to finish it off was a light sand to remove some excess super glue that had oozed out of the join. After gluing all the components together I left it for 24 hours to allow everything to cure.  

Using Tamiya Putty I filled in the small gaps and rebuilt the gem scales behind the head near the wing and neck joint. As I put it aside to cure I made a rather disturbing discovery that the dragon’s right hand leg was slightly higher than the left hand one and he would no longer stand upright properly. 

Silently I cursed and placed it face down on a small piece of foam to protect the dragon’s mouth detail while the Putty cured. I went to my miniature stash and found some of the Reaper magical treasure hoard I had amongst my other acquisitions. Once back at the desk I opened up the different blister packs and looked through them. I found a little Leprechaun sitting on his crock o’ gold statue, a table with a book on it (with spider detail), an orb held by three arms table and some weapons on gold treasure, perfect for what I had planned. All the pieces of the treasure hoard needed to make them ready for painting was a light filing of the seam joints and the removal of some of the excess gold underneath the treasure. 

It was at this point that I came up with a solution for the dragon’s foot of the floor problem; I decided to put the weapons on gold treasure underneath the dragon’s wayward foot and make it look like he was deliberately putting his foot upon it. 

The Painting 

So that everyone can understand how I painted each of the individual pieces that make up my vignette I have separated them into their individual painting schemes. 

I primed all the pieces with Citadel’s Chaos Black and I put them to one side and left everything over night to dry or cure. 

Next morning after checking that the putty had completely cured on the dragon, I primed him in Citadel Chaos Black and placed him to one side to dry. At this point I decided to paint the Magical Treasure Hoard pieces in between painting the different areas of the dragon; this allowed time for each layer of paint to dry on the dragon and kept the project moving along.   

The Dragon

I began by painting his upper body and wings with Citadel’s Imperial Purple, followed by a wash of diluted (using Distilled Water) Black Ink and Imperial Purple Mix. I used varying degrees of Imperial Purple mixed with Liche Purple to dry brush up the details finishing this area of the body with a Liche Purple and Mithril Silver mix.  

Once the upper body and wings were dry I started work on his Under Belly and Lower Wings. These areas were painted with Citadel’s Liche Purple, followed by a wash of diluted Imperial Purple. I used varying degrees of Liche Purple and Vallejo’s Violet Blue to dry brush up the details finishing this area of the body with a mix of Vallejo’s Violet Blue and Citadel’s Mithril Silver. 

The Dragon’s armbands and necklace were painted with Tin Bits and finished with a dry brush of Beaten Copper and Dwarf Bronze. The necklace has jewels in it so I used Enchanted Blue followed with a dry brush of Lightning Blue to show them off.  

The Dragon’s teeth began their transformation with the gaps between them being washed with diluted Black Ink, and then they were painted Bleached Bone, followed by a dry brush of Bleached Bone and Skull White mix and finished with Skull White. The Eyes were painted Chaos Black, washed with diluted Black Ink, dry brushed Black Grey and the Iris painted Blazing Orange. Finally I painted the Dragon’s talons and horns Chaos Black and dry brushed with Vallejo’s Black Grey. 

The Orb in the Dragon’s hand was painted with Enchanted Blue, dry brushed with a mix of Enchanted Blue and Ultramarines Blue, then with Ultramarines Blue, followed with a mix of Ultramarines Blue and Lightning Blue and Finished with Lightning Blue. To make the Orb look like light was reflected off it I painted a Dot and Curved Line in Skull White and then very lightly dry brushed over the top of this with a mix of Lightning Blue and Skull White. 

Now that painting was finished I spray varnished him with a coat of Citadel’s Purity Seal before finally using a coat of Future to gloss finish his eyes and the orb. 

Leprechaun sitting on his crock o’ gold statue 

The Leprechaun’s crock o’ gold and the gold that was underneath it was painted with Citadel’s Scorched Brown, followed by a dry brush of Tin Bits. I finished the gold with a dry brush of Burnished Gold and another dry brush of Shining Gold. The crock was finished with a dry brush of Dwarf Bronze and Beaten Copper. 

The Leprechaun’s clothing was painted with Citadel’s Dark Angels Green and I dry brushed up the detail using a mix of Goblin Green and Bad Moon Yellow. His face was painted with Scorched Brown and dry brushed with Dwarf Bronze and Beaten Copper. He was placed to one side to dry before spray varnishing with Citadel’s Purity Seal and then carefully put in a thin cardboard box with foam to protect him. 

Table with book and spider

I began with the table painting it Scorched Brown, washing with diluted Brown Ink to bring out the grain of the wood and dry brushing with Bestial Brown to enhance the grain some more.

The Book’s cover was painted Bestial Brown and then dry brushed Snakebite Leather. Its inner pages were painted Bleached Bone and dry brushed with a Bleached Bone and Skull White Mix with the edges of the pages being dry brushed Burnished Gold. The centre seam of the Book was enhanced with Bleached Bone. I then used a Pigma Micron .25mm black     archive pen to draw the squiggles, lines and different shapes to represent ancient, magical runes.  

At this point I stopped as I wasn’t sure what sort of spider I wanted sitting on the corner of the book. Mike suggested an orange kneed tarantula would not be out of scale with the size of the book if it was an old tome. With this in mind I went and found a spider book in the children’s bedroom and found a decent picture of an orange kneed tarantula. Back at my desk I carefully painted the spider Chaos Black, dry brushed it with Vallejo’s Black Grey and finished its knees with a dot of Blazing Orange. 

Once all the paint was dry, I spray varnished it with Citadel’s Purity Seal and added a coat of future to the globe for added shine and once the future was dry carefully put it in the same thin cardboard box as the Leprechaun for safe keeping. 

Click on images below to see larger images

  

Orb held by three arms table

This little treasure was going to be fun to paint or so I thought, in actual fact it was one of the more difficult pieces to paint. II began by painting the Mirror in the centre of the table Boltgun and followed this with a dry brush of Chainmail and finishing with Mithril Silver to give it a shiny look. Putting a dot of Green in the centre of the mirror to make it look like the Globe was reflected in it.  

The Orb that was held by the hands was painted with Dark Angels Green then dry brushed with varying mixes of Dark Angels Green, Goblin Green and Sunburst Yellow and finished with a dry brush of Scorpion Green. To make the Orb look like light was reflected off it I painted a Dot and Curved Line in Skull White and then very lightly dry brushed over the top of this with a mix of Scorpion Green and Skull White. 

The Wooden Base of the Table was then painted with Scorched Brown, washed with diluted Brown Ink to bring out the grain and then dry brushed with Bestial Brown and finally, to make it look slightly different in appearance to the Table with the book, very lightly dry brushed with Vermin Brown. 

The Gems around the Edge of the table were painted Scab Red, dry brushed Red Gore and very lightly dry brushed with Blood Red. 

I decided the three hands needed to be metallic in colour and opted to paint them Tin Bits, dry brushed Beaten Copper, Lightly dry brushed Dwarf Bronze and finished with Burnished Gold. 

I spray varnished it with Citadel’s Purity Seal and added a coat of future to the globe for added shine and once the future was dry carefully put it in the same thin cardboard box as the other pieces of treasure. 

Magical Weapons on gold

I began this piece by painting the gold underneath the weapons using Tin Bits, dry brushing with Burnished Gold and finishing with a light dry brush of Shining Gold. 

The armour’s arm and the shield’s ornamented centre were painted with Boltgun and dry brushed Chainmail as were the small metal clips on the edge of the shield. The chain mail and helm began their transformation with the same scheme as the armours arm but were finished with a very light dry brush of Mithril Silver on the edges. 

The sword and axe head started their transformation with Boltgun. At this point I changed the sword and axe heads’ colour scheme with a mix of Chainmail and Violet Blue followed with a light dry brush of Mithril Silver and Light Blue mix on the edges to give them a magical glow. 

The sword hilt was painted with Tin Bits, dry brushed with Beaten Copper and finished with a light dry brush of Dwarf Bronze. The horns, crest on the helm and large dome in the centre of the shield were painted with Tin Bits, dry brushed with Dwarf Bronze and very lightly dry brushed with Burnished Gold. 

The armour’s arm’s elbow guard, upper arm decoration and edge of the glove were started with Tin Bits and then dry brushed with Beaten Copper. 

The shield’s edge was painted with Scorched Brown and dry brushed with Bestial Brown. 

Two of the shield’s quarters were painted Golden Yellow and dry brushed Sunburst Yellow and the other two quarters were painted Goblin Green and Dry brushed Scorpion Green. All the bolts on the shield were painted Tin Bits, dry brushed Beaten Copper and very lightly dry brushed Dwarf Bronze. 

A quick spray varnish with Citadel’s Purity Seal saw this piece completed and once dry was dry carefully put it in the same thin cardboard box as the other pieces of treasure. 

The Final Construction 

Now that all the pieces of my vignette were finished it was time to put the whole thing together, this is when I hit my first hurdle how was I going to cover the holes in the plinth where the columns for the clock had stood. A trip to Stanbridges Hobby Shop found me looking at the different types of decorative papers for doll’s houses. Much to my relief I found a piece of decorative paper with a suitable tile pattern that would do the job. 

Back home I carefully found a saucer that had the same circumference as the inner circle of the plinth, this I used as a template for drawing and then cutting out the circle on the decorative paper. Finally I glued the decorative paper onto the inner circle of the plinth using diluted PVA glue and a straight edged metal ruler to smooth out any air bubbles. 

After allowing this to dry I played around with all of the different metal pieces and dragon for placement and when finally happy with how they looked began gluing them to the plinth using super glue. As the dragon had one foot slightly higher than the other and would not sit properly; I carefully placed the magical weapons on gold underneath his right foot; this turned out better than I had hoped. 

Only one part of the final construction caused me a problem and that was aligning the two small reflective white dots and curves on the two globes that were in the vignette. 

When everything had been glued in position I carefully put the dome back in place and was somewhat annoyed to discover that there was a large gap between the top of the dragon’s wings and the top of the dome. Off to the business phone directory I went and looked up a number of companies that cut clear acrylic plastic. After phoning around a number of these companies I was delighted to find one that was only a couple of suburbs away from where I live. 

One car trip later and a friendly chat with one of the foreman asking him to remove 4 cm from the bottom of the dome and bingo one cut down dome with a 5mm chip on one side. Back home out came some 400 grit wet and dry sand paper and sitting at my hobby desk carefully sanding down the cut edge of the dome in slow circular movements to remove the chip. Tedious and boring as this was; taking 2 to 3 days to get it right; it was finally finished when the chip was completely gone and I used a piece of 2000 grit wet and dry paper to smooth the edge off. 

Holding my breathe I placed the dome back over the dragon and was relieved to find that it is now the correct height for the dragon. Finally I needed a name for my creation; after much deliberation and many conversations with Mike, his sons, Doug and Adam and my daughters, Sarah, Alison and Kelly; it was Mike who suggested “Magic of the Orb” and thus the vignette was born

Lorraine

Photos and text © by Lorraine Johnson (Mrs Madmike)