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Mannfred Von Carstien on Dragon
By Anthony Karl Erdelji
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This project was inspired by Jeff Wilson's stunning Forest Dragon that won second place at the 99' Games Day and is pictured in White Dwarf #237. It should of won first place in my opinion. The Forest Dragon is one of the best dragons made by GW, period. |
Starting with the dragon, I did some minor conversion work by straightening out the neck and tail a bit. I used a pair of pliers with the jaws wrapped with masking tape to prevent them from gouging the metal. I also bent the tongue to hang out of the side of his mouth. A few additional horns were made from the claws of a hormagaunt and pinned to the top of the head. The entire model was then assembled, except for the right foot, and glued together with IC-2000 cyanoacrylate glue. Large gaps were filled with Magic Sculpt smoothed with water and smaller gaps were filled with Testors Red Putty mixed with acetone and brushed on with an old brush. The Testors Red Putty and acetone works well on gaps on the scales because it won't cover up the details.
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The dragon is all ready to be attached to the base, primered, and painted. |
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The saddle was from the head of Dechala - The Denied One. Half of her hair was cut off with a razor saw. The head was then pinned and glued into place. Using some Magic Sculpt and a hobby knife I then proceed to sculpt a mane of hair that would be the bottom of the saddle. After the hair was sculpted I pressed a saddle cut from a plastic horse into the hair.
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After the saddle was completed and left to dry 24 hours. I went back and touched it up with Testors Red Putty mixed with acetone. |
The base was next. I wanted the dragon to be swooping down so I would need a fairly tall base. The core of the base was made with chunks of balsa wood. The model would be front heavy when finished, so I buried a 1 ounce lead fishing sinker near the back of the base. The base was then covered with a thick layer of Magic Sculpt. I test fit the dragon several time on the base and when I was happy with his position his right foot was pressed in the putty and a hole was drilled all the way thru the base to accept the pin running up the dragon's right leg. After letting the putty set for 45 minutes, I scored it with a back of a knife and then pressed a real rock against it for additional texture. After letting the putty completely harden, areas were textured with Basetex® and kitty litter was glued down for rocks.
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The base is now ready for the dragon, but I'm not attaching him yet. You'll understand why later. |
All that's left is Mannfred himself. The only major conversion done to Mannfred was his staff. I cut the staff right above his hand. The staff was extended using about 3 inches of brass tubing and the staff head was glued back on top. Next I needed some rope. I used 28 gauge steel wire that's normally used to hang pictures. I cut two equal lengths of wire and holding them together I placed one end in my cordless drill and held the other end with my pliers and then hit the trigger. Rope in seconds! I could of twisted the rope by hand, but it comes out much nicer this way.
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A cordless drill is a good investment for modelers. Its not only helpful in projects like this, but also at drilling pin holes. |
The rope was cut in various lengths and six were glued on to the top of the staff right below the staff head. I glued a variety of zombie and skeleton heads to five of the ropes, holes were drilled into the tops of the heads to insert the rope. Some additional wire was wrapped around the end of the ropes glued to the staff for extra support. The staff was then pinned to Manfred's hand. With the staff in place I could finally glue the sixth rope under his hand, and then I glued another short length to rope coming out from under the bottom of his hand . All of the ropes were then bent into a pleasing shape.
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The staff was the most difficult part of the model, but it was well worth the effort. The staff went from a short stick to something eye-catching that a powerful general or wizard might wield. |
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With the staff done, all of the model parts were ready to be primered and painted!