Kitbash 4ft Dragon - new pics 2023-07-02

[Foo fighter]

I am running out of superlatives such as "awesome, amazing, cheek warbling, mind numbing...". Very cool. Now get back to work and finish this thing.

[Zeiram]

[tay666]

Thanks guys! I will post lots of bigger detailed phots when I finish.

[barad_dur]

Done.
I am not a good photographer, so pics really don’t do it justice; and for once I am actually pretty happy with the paint job. Thanks to those of you who followed this build and offered encouragement and positive feedback.

[Heavy Metal Spike]

Gorgeous! Detail is amazing - everything about this is great

So much work and it totally paid off.

Love the way you painted the support to match the wall - clever!

Shots from your home blow me away every time I see them.

Thanks for taking the time to share the W.I.P. and for all the photos and explanations


.

[bucketfoot-al]

Spectacular!!! BRAVO!!! Were the lights in the castle an "add-on" or did it come with them?

[barad_dur]

Thanks guys! Can’t say enough of how much I appreciate your interest in this bash!

The lights were an add on, I drilled out the windows and put in a bunch of little flicker lights. Great part is the lights are remote controlled. The flicker effect really looks cool. Wish I could take better pics .

[tay666]

You keep complaining about the pics, but all I see is an awesome piece of work.
It looks like it came out of the mold like that. Everything is seamless and works together beautifully.
Your paint work highlights the details while looking so natural.

And the way you have it displayed is just amazing.

The shots of the room just show so much amazing stuff.

Thank you for taking us on this wonderful journey.

[Foo fighter]

Fantastic! Adding the lights to the castle was very clever. I cant help but admire your Dragon Room in general. The finished project looks amazing. Okay, what's next? Hmmm?

[barad_dur]

Thanks Trevor and Foo Fighter !

I have a couple ideas for LOTR Balrog bashes next...

[Foo fighter]

Great choice! Quite wasting time and let's get started!

[barad_dur]

Hah! I Got 2 ideas, stay tuned Foo!

[overspray]

This is so cool. The beast is magnificent - especially like how you painted the wings. Love the lit windows in the castle - great touch. Thanks for sharing the entire saga.

[barad_dur]

Thanks overspray!

Saga is a perfect description of this bash.

I must of restarted the painting and reprimered the whole kit at least half a dozen times.
It is surprising that there is any detail left of the sculpt with all those layers of paint.....

[barad_dur]

started my next kitbash; actually, it’s a statue-bash of weta balrog and sideshow deathwing dragon wings.

In progress pics are posted in the kustomizers section.

[barad_dur]

I decided that I didn’t like the head, underside of the neck, and the overall paint job, especially the paint on the wing webbing which looked more like wood than the leathery effect that I was after.

So, I started reworking the head by cutting off the jaw spikes, reworking the upper jaw line to not be so straight and boring, and cut off the underside of the neck. Not sure yet exactly how I will rework it.

And decided to repaint the whole dragon starting from a blank white slate.

[tay666]

Just can't help yourself, can you.

[barad_dur]

Hah, yeah, you know it.

I had the dragon displayed where I would see it every day and it just didn’t look totally how I envisioned it,
so I finally decided that I have to do something to (hopefully) improve it.

Thank you for your continued interest in this project.

[barad_dur]

The previous head was basically just a very boring geometric triangle shape both from the side and top view.

Now making the head more organic and visually interesting by dropping the nose lower after the eyes, and arching it versus a straight line directly parallel to the top of the eyes and horns.
significantly narrowed the nose versus the previous very flat triangular shape.
And made the upper jaw line curved versus straight.

Still need to smooth out and soften some of the new forms and details.
And need to rework and sharpen the teeth as they got all gunked up from too much repainting.

[barad_dur]

Replaced the wrong scale jaw spikes with smaller simpler spikes. Reworked larger head horns.
Added more details to head. Has more character and visual interest now.

Also reworked wing webbing.
I previously tried horizontal and then vertical very thin cuts in the wing and neither worked.
So now I have added much thicker deeper ridges, valleys, and grooves (but hard to see from the pics).

Put on first base coats for repaint.