HotT Dragons Part 1

 A big dream of mine is making miniature representations of the creatures in the AD&D monster manual. I've never had a lot of funds for miniatures which has instilled in me an interest in gaming on a budget. The holy grail of  D&D and cheap miniatures are the chinasaurus - plastic dinosaur toys which gave rise to creative monsters like the bulette, owlbear, and rust monster.

Examples of figures I started with. 

With this inspiration in mind, a bought a pack of cheap plastic dragons from the dollar store to use to make the different D&D chromatic dragons to use in various games. I started by going through the pack, choosing dragons that best matched the description and artwork in the monster manual. In addition to have one of each of the classical chromatic dragons, I managed to make two wyverns (allowing for one with a rider) buy trimming the front legs off of two of the smallest dragons in the pack. I also removed the wings from two of the beasties to use as a brown dragon and an albino wyrm. 

Finished dragons!

The first dragons I finished were the blue, yellow, and brown dragons - all native to the desert and therefore useable alongside my Blemmyes/Beja. Painting was fairly simple, two coats for their base scale colour, a lighter colour for their bellies and wings. Then I dry brushed them with lighter tones. Finally, I picked out the details like the dragon's eyes, teeth, claws, and inner mouths. The bases are 4x4cm (they wouldn't fit on anything smaller!)

Stalking the desert for hours, the horsemen finally spot their prey beyond an oasis. 

I've already managed to get the blue dragon out on the gaming table with a little 'dragon hunt' scenario using 3rd edition Warhammer and my mounted Beja. After chasing the beast around the desert, staying toward its back and away from its fire breath, the beast remembered it could fly up out of the range of the horsemen's bows. After that, it was short work for the dragon! After a couple of firebombing runs the horsemen were either dead or fleeing to the hills. 

The dragon drops on the horsemen from above, wiping out a column of five with a single breath. 
This was the beginning of the end.

Comments

  1. Yanni NitamakiAugust 21, 2024 at 6:02 AM

    Dragons are looking sweet! Way to be resourceful with the chinasauruses

    ReplyDelete

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