Some of my older readers may remember my prevarications over the last few years. Well no more! It is done.
This big old beastie was brought to you by Heresy Miniatures.
Hooray! The dragon is slain!
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Tag Archives: Heresy Dragon
Everyone’s gone painting, painting 21!
I have just come to the realisation that I haven’t posted any painting pictures this year. Like last year I have joined the Painting Challenge on Facebook
This year is an extra challenge, which I am trying in conjunction with the main challenge. The main challenge is to paint 52 miniatures over the year. The second challenge is to tackle 12 scary models or projects that have been intimidating and that have been put on a back burner.
I will start with the main challenge.
Now to the 12 scary things
What has been holding me up, but I am plugging along with it, is the Heresy Dragon. I have pledged to myself that I will not paint anything else until it is finished. When I have finished it, which will be another week at current progress, I am going to kick back and relax with a couple of tanks that I have been itching to paint. Plus a couple of projects that are half finished.
Yet more prevaricating
Earlier this week we took a trip across the border (luckily nobody mentioned the war) to visit the Hans-Peter Porsche Traumwerk. A new toy museum in Bavaria.
Link here http://www.hanspeterporsche.com/
This was a really well laid out and beautifully curated museum, and as is typical of Porsche no expense was spared.
An unusual camouflage scheme which I imagine would be hard to do in real life
The lighting was a bit too subdued to take proper photographs which was a pity, but you have to also understand that they are also conserving the exhibits. Upstairs was a large collection of tin toys. This description does the displays somewhat of a disservice as the exhibits covered circuses, zoos, ships, a small amount of military, fire engines and of course trains. Lots of them.
There was a gallery looking down to the main attraction, a vast train layout.
Again this is an understatement. There were wall projections of clouds and a lighting sequence that cycled between day and night. Clouds passed over the mountains and an immersive ambient soundscape.
I’m not really a train person, but I wouldn’t mind tapping into that market, so the trains weren’t all that exciting. But the scenery was to die for.
Really well done, again it was attention to detail. You would look into the windows of a house and see that it was fully furnished.
Well worth a visit, but bring sandwiches as the restaurant was expensive (I’ve never had a meal that has been up to scratch in Germany) and the kids adventure playground was very well designed.
So how is the Dragon going I hear you ask.
Well…..
I am going to stick with the colour scheme, but I have been prevaricating. Again.
Continuing the Undead theme and the Bob Olley addiction.
So now I have a command group.
And this chap, sculpted by Justin Coutange from the Oldhammer community.
This was another entry to the Warhammer Salzburg “Spooky” painting contest. I finished him with a couple of days to spare, but I didn’t get into town to submit him.
Late news.
The figure that I did enter came second, so not too bad.
And finally this figure from Grimskull Miniatures. A bit T&A but I thought she would go nicely with my Raging Heroes Not DKK army.
So there you have it. Time to tidy the desk and knuckle down with the dragon.
Honest!
First splash of paint
Here is my first attempts at a colour scheme. I think I need to step away for a couple of days and re-assess it. The pale colour is a little bluer than it appears here.
There’s something in the air
Mostly paint particles.
I decided to strike while the iron was hot and try airbrushing the wings. The set up for airbrushing isn’t quite right yet, but a few small tweaks should get it there. More practice is required. Firstly getting the paint to the right consistancy and secondly getting the airflow/needle balance right.
And patience. Take time and build up the paint slowly otherwise it runs.
Most importantly wear a mask.
Winter is coming
The leaves on the trees are changing from green to orange. The mountains have had their first snow. Our winter wood has been delivered and safely stored.
And now I have primed the Dragon.
 So far I have only used a single action airbrush. Now it’s time to up my game and break out the double-action airbrush for the wings.
Dragon glued
Finally after much prevarication the Dragon has been assembled. There is a tiny bit of filling to be done on the two wing fingers. After that time to start painting the beast.
Pinning for the fjords
I have been prevaricating around the bush about the Dragon. Mainly because I am nervous as it is the biggest model that I will have attempted. I do have bigger in the lead mountain, a Forgeworld Titan, but that model really does put the wind up me. Maybe next year?
I have been doing other things, work avoidance really, glueing together all the laser cut bits that that I have made for my scenery over the year and various DIY and painting jobs around the house.
The Wife and Kids have gone to Croatia for a week so I have the whole place to myself. This is good, the dining room table has been commandeered and all my loose ends from various corners have been spread out and collated. This has tidied up my work areas and reduced clutter.
The weather is far too good to be sat inside painting. So I am sat looking at the hazy mountains all blue in the distance and soaking up the sun. I have set some thermometers to tell me how hot it is. One is telling me it is 57 degrees. Another says 41.4 degrees, it also says it’s raining. And an older more traditional thermometer says 45 degrees. So it’s quite warm.
Luckily drilling holes for pinning is something that can be done outdoors. I am using paper-clips for the pinning because although the Dragon is resin it’s still pretty hefty and I’m not sure if my usual thin brass wire will be up to the job.
For some strange reason I’ve got it into my mind that this Dragon is Norwegian. But it won’t be blue.
Clear the decks! The dragon is coming!
I haven’t painted for four months.
There has been the Puppet’s War Robot sat on my desk half done for all this time and I think I have been using it as an excuse. So I have packed it away and cleaned the desk away of any other distractions.
Tidy desk
So the next project is the dragon.
Image copyright Heresy and is used totally without permission.
Here is the post I’d written before, for the benefit of my newer followers.
https://grumpyoldtin.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/jobs-a-good-un/
This project has also be an excuse to crack on with my workshop where I plan to airbrush and do some of the dirtier jobs.
Workbench
I’m going to have a permanent airbrush set-up as before I had been packing it away after every use which I found that it put me off using it.
Part of my equipment is a single action airbrush which was being used for primer and for varnishing. I wanted a double action but the expense put me off. I use Facebook, probably too much, and one of the groups I subscribe to is the “Artblock Social” for people who went to Camborne Tech in the 80’s. The good old days before computers when there was Letraset, Cow-Gum, Type Scales, Grant Projectors, Magic Markers and of course Airbrushes. Anyway, earlier this year was a chat about Type Scales, how totally useless they are these days and why do we still have them lurking in the bottom of our drawers. So this got me thinking, and I posted that if any of the Technical Illustrators had an old one kicking about I’d gladly take it off their hands. I got a message back from one of the guys that he used to be a demonstrator and had a spare airbrush in his garage. He sent it to me and I was half expecting something quite well worn, not that I wouldn’t be grateful. When I opened the parcel I had quite a surprise, a brand new boxed DeVilbiss Aerograph Sprite!
On to the Dragon. I’d met Andy Foster from Heresy earlier this year at Salute and I had promised that this year I would be painting it. It appears that most of the dragons are boxed up on a shelf somewhere.
The next question was what colour? Red? Or green? These are your two classic colour schemes which most painters seem to follow. I was undecided. That was until last week when I had a trip to the zoo with my Boys.
Then I came across this and had my mind made up.
This is a Caiman crocodile and I was very taken by the orange and grey markings.
I think another trip to the zoo may be in order.
Job’s a good ‘un
It’s arrived at last! And it’s huge! Flippin’ huge!
I am of course talking about the Heresy Dragon. I ordered it before Number Two Son was even thought of.
Andy, the creative genius behind Heresy, has had an absolute nightmare producing this. Originally he thought it would take a couple of months to produce. Since then…
http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=260
Here is a scale shot with a 28mm figure just to give you an idea.
The pity is that now it has to go back into the box for a couple of months until my man-cave is set up in our new house.
Did I say, “New house”? Yes, I did. More on that to come.
Image copyright Heresy and is used totally without permission.
Now go to Heresy and buy something!
http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7&zenid=663b39432d06ba7ae00dc76821cede6a
genuine grumpy old tin 