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
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