Real-life context:
The first meeting of the local IPMS chapter is traditionally at the LHS, and the owner always specifies a theme for the informal competition. For 2024, that theme is Fokker DXXI, and the owner generously handed out the 1/72 PM kit to anyone wanting to take part in the competition.
The thing is, I couldn't possibly care less about the Fokker DXXI. So, I'm going to cheat like crazy. The jury for the competition consists of the wife of the owner, and occasionally his daughter. And I just happen to know the wife's got a thing for dragons, especially purple ones (really BIG thing; she had a full scale hot air balloon custom built in the shape of a purple dragon). I happen to think dragons are a lot more interesting than the Fokker
The rules say that Fokker has to be in there somewhere, and recognisable as such. There's absolutely no rule saying it has to be in remotely airworthy condition, or that you can't hand it over to a dragon
Backstory:
In the late 1930s, Hitler's obsession with supernatural forces paid off, and his cronies, with typical subtlety and diplomatic finesse, janked open the door to a larger reality. The folks, and I use that term broadly, for few even resembled humans, on the other side of the door were distinctly unamused by this most uncouth intrusion into their affairs, and sent a largish delegation to explain this in some detail. Or, to put it more bluntly, sent back a host that beat the everloving crap out of anyone and anything that showed the slightest bit of attitude in record time.
Peace and quiet so restored, and Earth as we know it swiftly annexed, time passed as it rather stubbornly insists on doing.
Centuries after the annexation, a prominent archeologist has tracked down an artifact from what became known as the Age of Monkeys..
What? You thought that dragons spent their millenia long lifespans dozing on a pile of gems and precious metals, occasionally going on a trip to torch the countryside and snack on some virgins. Puh-lease, that gets so incredibly, mind numbingly boring after a few years..
Hobbies and academic interests rule! I also have a model somewhere of a dragon that is, with intense concentration, painting a model. I'll get around to that one eventually.
Back to the model.
The PM Fokker will be there, of course, but my (probably overambitious) plan is to reduce it to a mostly rotted skeleton, pulled out of a bog by a big ol' dragon with a fondness for history and a knack for earth moving magicks (it takes forever to get muck off your claws, and shovels are clumsy). Cast in the role of our dragon is Citadel's Great Spined Dragon, a model from the late 80s that clocks in a 300 grams of 'eavy metal (as Citadel used to call it), even without the wings. It was a gift from a fellow modeler a few years back, since he had no idea what to do with the critter. I warned him at the time that I suspected he might be giving away a very valuable model. Neither of us realised that the 15 pound sticker price is now just a few percent of the price collectors will pay.
Silly collectors, models are made to be built
To give an idea of how big this dragon is, a rough layout shot:
The airplane in the picture is not the one that will end up in the actual vignette, but a roughly thrown together 3D print of the same subject. It will never be finished, but will help me build up the base, in particular the crater it will sit in.
The core on the base is 10mm plywood, with the angled rims also courtesy of the 3D printer (when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail..). In the picture, they were still loose, but the've since been glued to the plywood. There will be a second pice of plywood just below the level of the rims, with scenery mats on top of that, and an unnaturally round crater still at the botom level for the wreck to sit in.
The dragon has had it's head, right rear leg, and tail attached, with heavy duty PU glue and with the tail heavily pinned. The head extends a bit below the feet, so it has to sit on something. This is complicated by the fact that the base bits around it's feet are not all in the same plane, and no amount of twisting could convince them otherwise. It will have to sit on something rounded. I found a design for a rock, actually a standing stone, that is close enough to serve as a base to build a dragon-compatible rock from. It is my intention to leave the rock loose from the rest of the base, and the actual dragon loose from the rock, to allow display under different conditions, as well as possible recycling of the dragon at some point, although it won't be a great drama is the dragon and rock become inseparable.
The kit provides the fingers of the wings, but not the skin between them. Instead, templates are supplied to cut the skin from paper. The fingers were badly bent, but due to the softness of the metal, it was quite easy to bend them back into the proper shape.
Using paper for the skin between them would look absurdly thin on a dragon this large, so I need something beefier. I'm thinking chamois leather should do the trick (dragon wings are usually described as leathery, and nothing is more leathery than leather), but whether it will cooperate remains to be seem.
Both because of the rarety of the model, and the short time left for the job, I want to be absolutely sure I don't mess up the painting of the dragon. So, there will be a second test subject. Like the earlier dragon, it's base colour will be Tamiya Gold Leaf, but I've added a duller metal colour (no point in mentioning specifics, since its from a bad batch of gold paint, but in a true Bob Ross style happy accident, it seems like just the thing for dragon skin base or the odd weathered statue) to the undersides. I'll be overcoating with the actual Hot Metal Violet intended for the big one to make sure it works out once the extra paint I ordered arrives.
In the mean time, here's the current state of 'junior':
If his left rear foot looks a bit off, that's because it is a crudely built prostetic, since he suffered some damage in transport.
As can be seen, I've made a start at reshaping the rock the big one will be sitting on with hacksaw and milliput.
