Ok here it finally is: the Zombie Dragon.
When I decided to make Death my secondary army I wanted to make a big horde of Skeletons, so the natural choice was Deathrattle. But I quickly noticed there are no big Deathrattle units. I had hoped for a bone giant or a skeleton dragon. I found the latter in Soulblight though, and since I need Necromancers from Deathmages anyway I went for a grand alliance Death army, making a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon my big centerpiece.
Being a big fan of magnetizing for options I instantly went through the building instructions when I got the box, trying to determine if it is possible to make those versions convertible.
And indeed I noticed that besides the obvious weapon options for the Vampire Lord (I will mostly use the sword I guess but wanted to have the option to use the Lance as well) I saw that while the two monsters share all of the parts they have different poses, and the neck parts are overlapping in a way that doesn't make it easy.
So I tried a few things and came to the following conclusions:
- The Terrorgheist pose works only for that version (the Dragon bends its head down do it would hit the ground with his tongue), but the Dragon pose works for both. The Terrorgheist pose is much cooler but I had to choose the other one. The only way around that would have been a raised base but I had already planned how my base should look so that wasn't an option this time.
- I had to saw off a part of the spine to get rid of the interlocking parts, otherwise I would scratch the paint too much when changing the necks.
I also glued the ribcage on, but only on one side, that way I can move it a bit to get more space to swap the necks. When I attached the wings I notived it droops a bit (creating a crevice near the spine where it would normally be glued in place) so I used a tiny amount of poster putty to keep it in place.
- I had to be very careful with the amount of shade and drybrush used on the optional parts so they would look the same, hiding the seam where the neck attaches to the body.
- I had to harmonize the colors. I chose black for the skin because that fits better. Grey looks cooler on the Terrorgheist but worse on the Dragon IMO. It is a compromise looking worse than if I had gone for just one version but it looks good enough for me.
The Dragon being convertible also meant that I had to make the riders exchangeable. Since I didnt like the elevated stone pose for the Ghoul King anyway I just made my own, flat base that fits both.
The Ghoul King's feet were magnetized in a way allowing to fit him both on the cork stones on the base and on the Terrorgheist's neck. Normally he is glued on there so I had to find a pose that makes it is possible to hide the magnets for attaching him a bit.
The whole model was primed white (I had used up all my skeleton bone primer).
The bone parts are Skeleton bone, shades soft tone, and drybrushed brainmatter beige in a few spots. The flesh is dark red shaded red and then shaded soft tone.
On the wings I blended black and dark red together by drybrushing before applying the shades (red and sepia again), and I think the gradient worked quite well. It was a lot of work but the result is worth it.
For the base I wanted to try out ice. The shores of a frozen lake were the plan.
So after putting the Dragon on the base I drew a shore line and placed some rocks, then applied sand to one half of the base, and painted the other half with Temple Guard Blue and shaded it blue. That color would later shine a bit through the cracks in the ice. Then I applied my Ziterdes Dead-Earth-Paste. The advantage over GW's Agrellan Earth is the price and that it is white instead of brown. Otherwise it seems to be pretty much the same stuff.
I waited a full day for it to develop the cracks and fully cure, then carefully shaded it with watered down blue tone. A bit of white drybrush and a coat of Vallejo gloss varnish makes the ice effect as I wanted it.
Of course I first tried that ice technique on two small bases. It is nice how you can go for small or big cracks just by applying the paste thicker or thinner.
You can also vary the structure by making it more flat or not.
Here are my test bases:
On the shore I applied some moss flock and a grey drybrush over the brown earth to make sure that the parts not covered by snow look decent as well. Then I applied the snow, making sure I also got some snow onto the rocks and the Dragon's tail and feet. Also put a few thin snow patches on the ice to make it look more natural.
Pictures of the Terrorgheist version and the base will be in the next post.
