Fire Wings w/ mounted Beelphegor Part 13

Base continued...

Last time we posted the start of the painting of the base for this project which detailed the priming, washing and drybrushing of what is ultimately the undercoat for the rest of the painting.

The photo below shows couple passes with a couple of Garage Kits US transparent paints sprayed through my airbrush. I used Giger Aqua, Bruise Purple and Smoke. The primary highlight color is the Giger Aqua with the Bruise Purple being the primary shadow color. I sprayed a couple passes to build up the transparents to achieve the look that I was going for. After getting a good foundation of the colors I did another more targeted drybrush highlight with P3 Morrow White in certain area to provide more interest. All of these highlights were then sprayed over with the transparents again to blend then into the existing paint scheme. The last thing that I did was use some Smoke in some of the deeper recesses to reinforce the shadows more.

Once I was done with any airbrush work, I base coated the icicles with P3 Morrow White and the bones with Vallejo Game Color Bone White.

To be continued...

Fire Wings w/ mounted Beelphegor Part 12

Time to start painting...

So for this project, I decided to start with the base. I have a specific vision in mind for how I want the base to look, so I'm going to begin here to ensure that I can tie everything in together in the end. And as far as the theme of the project goes, the base is a pretty important element in the story.

I started with the base primed in gray using DupliColor automotive primer. After getting a nice even base using a couple of coats of the primer, I then washed the entire base with the Nuln Oil shade from Citadel. The whole washing process took a little bit of time so that I could makes sure that I got everywhere and that it covered pretty evenly.

Next I did a couple drybrush passes using Frostbite from P3, as seen below:

And another drybrush pass using Morrow White from P3 and you can see the results below:

The initial drybrush passes were meant primarily to pull out the detail after the wash and the final drybrush pass was meant to reinforce the overall highlights even more. Overall these were just the initial set up steps for the base and all of this will soon be covered up with the actual colors that will make up the final base.

To be continued...

Fire Wings w/ mounted Beelphegor Part 11

Assembly continued...

And now we get to the rider. The pic below shows the head attached to the cloak and the legs still separate. This is the final sub assembly for the rider as he will be paints as is. The rider fits together flawlessly and also attaches to the dragon seamlessly. He will be painted separately and attached at the very end.

The photo below shows all of the left over pieces which include the saddle, bridle reins, tongue and face for the dragon. Additionally included are the rider's arm, sword and lance. All of these pieces will be assembled after certain parts of the paint process are complete.

And there we have it, the assembly process is as complete as it is going to get until some painting phases are complete. I will include pictures as we progress through the paint process that will detail as things are assembled.

I know it has been a rather long road to get here and this set of photos is rather lackluster for the final assembly post, so in order to end on a high note I'm including the following pic of the dragon primed and as it would look if the wings were attached.

To be continued...

Fire Wings w/ mounted Beelphegor Part 10

Assembly continued...

So up until this point I haven't made any mention of what color I am planning to paint the dragon. I realize that the kit is called Fire Wings, however I believe that the title of my piece would be better suited as Ice Wings. That is correct, I will be painting a blue dragon...

Why is this important, well this post outlines the modifications that I am making to the base and they wouldn't really make much sense without divulging that little tidbit of information.

Let's make some icicles.

The photo below shows some pins cut to various lengths and pinned through a piece of balsa wood. The wood is there to provide me a way to work on several of these at once with the added benefit of providing a flat top surface to the icicles themselves.

Now comes the fun part, making the icicles themselves. The following pic shows the final product of two passes using Golden Regular Gel (Matte) medium. The gel was applied liberally with a brush for both coats and shaped accordingly. The gel dried semi clear which doesn't phase me as I intended to paint the icicles from the beginning. If I had desired clear icicles I would have had to use something other than pins for the basis of my forms and a different product such as Woodland Scenics Realistic Water.

All in all I was thrilled with the results especially given the fact that this was my first attempt at making icicles. After allowing the medium to dry fully, I then used a hobby knife to cut around the base of the icicle where it meets the balsa wood. Next came the task of separating the pins from the wood which took a little doing. In hindsight I should have used much thinner balsa wood, but I went with whatever scrap I had laying around at the time.

Finally we have the photo of the base with the icicles attached. In the end I used a total of 5 icicles, but I created many more so that I could choose what worked best in the end. The icicles are all attached via the excess pin that went into the balsa wood.

To be continued...

Fire Wings w/ mounted Beelphegor Part 9

Assembly continued...

In this post we are going to feature the base.

This first photo shows the bottom of the base. I drill out a hole in the bottom of all of my bases and insert a nut that is fixed in with epoxy. This allows me to use a screw through a piece of wood to mount the finished piece for transport without having to worry about it shifting around and potentially breaking fragile pieces.

The next pic shows the dragons base which will connect to the display base using a piece of brass tubing. I opted for a medium sized piece of brass tube in order to ensure a strong connection point. The dragon as we have seen is rather large and I wanted to make sure that the join to the base was as strong as possible. Upon completion the brass tube will be epoxied into the base and I will also be rather liberal in my application of epoxy between the two pieces.

To be continued...

Fire Wings w/ mounted Beelphegor Part 8

Assembly continued...

Today we have the mount points of the dragon to the base. Below you can see the individual feet and how they will be pinned to the base.

Below we have the mostly assembled dragon temporarily attached the base as they will be painted separately. These pieces fit together perfectly and won't require any extra work during final assembly.

I've included the picture below in order to provide a size reference, as this dragon is anything but small.

 To be continued...

Fire Wings w/ mounted Beelphegor Part 7

Assembly continued...

And today we have the assembled wings shown below. The assembly of the wings was extremely easy since the separate parts were only the two front claws and a single spine.

The following picture shows the wings and the body. The wings and fully assembled body will be painted separately and due to a pretty good fit, very little work will need to be done after the parts are painted for final assembly. I'm expecting that at most a little putty and touch up will be required at.

To be continued...