Smaug the Magnificent

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 2:25 pm

Love the howdah!! Striking colour and detail.

Natarn · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 2:27 pm

Thanks, the fabric is just strong paper that I cut to size and painted.

Oldman Willow · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 2:42 pm

Some wonderful work

Lord Hurin · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:56 pm

That Smaug is magnificent! I'd happily pay $600 for something like that!

Natarn wrote:

Er, no.
Nothing to do with Peter Jackson's pitiful travesty. I've only seen the first effort on DVD and didn't bother with the other two.

I hear ya on that note! It's sad, for the first four films my father and I had always gone opening night. Hell, for Fellowship we even took along about 30 people and for Return of the King we managed to get to the Hollywood premiere.

We waited about a week to see Desolation of Smaug. We still haven't seen BoFA.

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:58 pm

Lord Hurin wrote:

We waited about a week to see Desolation of Smaug. We still haven't seen BoFA.

I am still to watch ANY of the Hobbit movies lol

Natarn · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 6:46 pm

Dead Marsh Spectre wrote:

Lord Hurin wrote:

We waited about a week to see Desolation of Smaug. We still haven't seen BoFA.

I am still to watch ANY of the Hobbit movies lol

If you love the book, then don't bother!

However, if you've never read the book and fancy a comic fantasy romp (with massive cgi content, implausible stunts and weird interpretations such as Radagast pulled on a sledge by a team of bunnies), which is very loosely based on a children's classic, and you've nothing better to do with your time, then you might quite enjoy it.

Just try to imagine you are between 12 and 14 years of age.

theavenger001 · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 9:32 pm

Nice mumak Natarn. Is that a completely custom job, or is it a converted GW one?

Natarn · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 9:39 pm

theavenger001 wrote:

Nice mumak Natarn. Is that a completely custom job, or is it a converted GW one?

It's much bigger than GW's as I wanted it to be crazily large as they are in the films.

Years ago I bought an animatronic plastic elephant, ripped the head off and sculpted a new one before making the howdah out of foam board, dowel and textured paper.

It's an old project and my first bit of sculpting with miliput. I'd never heard of green stuff, let alone procreate. Still, it turned out okay.

Grungehog · **Posted:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 11:34 pm

I did a similar thing a few years ago, though I sculpted my mumak entirely It was made with a heavy wooden block for the body and sticks as armatures for the legs, yet again I think I had seen yours on either the last alliance or even the palantir

Natarn · **Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2015 3:02 pm

This afternoon I've done some more undercoating. I had to hold it upside down to paint the belly.

I retouched some areas because it's so difficult to get the paint into the fine gaps between scales. I've had to wash it in as best I can and take off any excess with kitchen roll.

Here's a view from above as it is at present.

I'm going to dry brush the wing bones then tidy up the edges and wash the wing membrane with reds and browns. Before that, I'll undercoat the wing bones on the underside of the wings.

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2015 5:05 pm

Natarn wrote:

Dead Marsh Spectre wrote:

I am still to watch ANY of the Hobbit movies lol

If you love the book, then don't bother!

I've read the books a lot over the years so i guess i'm doomed lol.

Smaug is looking great!!!

theavenger001 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:14 pm

RE: The mumak, I thought it was something like that, just couldn't remember for sure. (You did a good job for your first sculpting project though)

Smaug is coming along nicely, I really want to see how the wings look with the washes on them bringing out all the detail!

Sithious · **Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:34 pm

Natarn wrote:

I've had to wash it in as best I can and take off any excess with kitchen roll.

You know, sometimes even bought sculpts need this.
Looks great, can't wait to see it progress past the base coats.

Natarn · **Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:52 am

I did a sneaky bit of dry brushing last night, khorne red.
Looking good! I'm starting to get a bit excited about painting him.

Today I'll try to finish a bit of tidying up on the right claw. He needs a bit of putty between the knuckles and scales joining it to the forearm.

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:06 am

What? No pics? How dare you! ;-)

Natarn · **Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:10 am

Dead Marsh Spectre wrote:

What? No pics? How dare you! ;-)

I was waiting for sunrise!

Coenus Scaldingus · **Joined:** Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:14 am **Posts:** 1121

Not a fan of the film design, although M. Perry did a most excellent job capturing the image in his sculpt. This, however, is what a proper dragon looks like. Still wouldn't spend hundreds of pounds om him though.

Fantastic stuff, looking forward to the next update.

Natarn · **Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:55 am

Coenus Scaldingus wrote:

Not a fan of the film design, although M. Perry did a most excellent job capturing the image in his sculpt. This, however, is what a proper dragon looks like.

Thank you!

M. Perry is a far better sculptor than I. Different league altogether. Without NLP limitations, I'm sure his dragon would have been even more incredible. Personally, I don't go for dragons with arms that are combined with wings but then I'm an old traditionalist with the Welsh flag burnt into my subconscious from childhood days.

Coenus Scaldingus wrote:

Still wouldn't spend hundreds of pounds on him though.

Nor would I! I'd just take about 10 years to sculpt my own!
:rofl:

Grungehog · **Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2015 5:13 pm

Long live Cymru

theavenger001 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:35 pm

Wow, this just gets better and better. Already he looks great, and just that drybrush has brought out the detail you put into every scale!

Smaug the Magnificent

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