There comes a time in every Creep's life when he looks upon a thing that he loves and thinks, 'I need to cut this until it looks more pleasing to mine eye.' Such was the case with the Citadel Nightmare Dragon, sculpted by Nick Bibby.
I know what you must be thinking. "But Crooks," I hear you cry, "Crooksie, you said you were going to paint a Tom Meier dragon for this challenge?!"
Hush now children, that was the plan, yes, but... it didn't work out.
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| "Don't leave me like this! Father WHYYYYYY?!" |
The Citadel Nightmare dragon is not a pretty sculpt. In fact it's downright goofy.
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| Image borrowed from Stuff of Legends - cheers! |
In an unusual departure for Nick Bibby, a sculptor known for his emphasis on realism in his work, this creature looks all kinds of wrong. It has giant, beefcake arms raised in a 'Boogedy-BOO!' pose. It has tiny, surely vestigial wings. It's only saving grace is it's amazingly sculpted head. I fell in love with it's head at first sight. This dragon is a reverse butter-face.
So what to do? For many months I pondered the question. Then some nameless, forgotten hero whom I couldn't find in time for this post gave me the idea I needed [EDIT: That hero has been discovered, it was in fact Matthew Dunn from Fistful of Lead!] - this dragon isn't really a dragon, it's a wyvern! All you need to do is leave the arms off, give it some bigger wings and, as a finishing touch, a rider to goad this ugly, wonderful beast into the fray!
Ladies and gentlemen, I present, the Dark Elf sorceress Joh'dee and her wyvern mount Djh'mee.
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| A size comparison of the wings - the green ones are the original ones, very tiny indeed! |
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| Saddle bags are becoming my favourite thing to sculpt. No really. NO REALLY. |
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| Citadel Nightmare Dragon... wyvern... thing |
My overall theme for the model was something like a Tolkienesque 'fell beast', but with a Herohammer twist, hence the mostly naked girl riding it. The soothing sounds of Heavy Metal washed over me as I sculpted and painted this marvel of shiny, glistening death-from-above. Surely Djh'mee was spawned in some hellish Naggarothi slime pool deep within the bowels of the dark elf mistresse... fortresses, and his mistress was not far behind him.
The relationship between rider and mount is based upon a mutual respect for the other's extreme brutality. A wyvern, in the traditional sense, is a less intelligent form of dragon-kin, but I've always viewed them as more violent and brutish, and in some ways a lot more FUN - especially from a narrative perspective.
You'll be seeing more of this nightmare pair on the Wenis Rodeo in good time. Now I shall wield the mighty WiPster wand and nominate Cheetor as the next Dragon Metal Tagger. Cheetor is returning to the fantasy scene after a long hiatus and is renowned for taking his time, so for a big model like a dragon, it's going to be a while before we see anything from him - so for now, content yourself with a gallery of some of my other dragons, d-dragons, d-d-d-DRAGONS!
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| Nick Bibby Citadel Dragon Masters dragon, in desert camo |
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| Tom Meier Citadel blue dragon, in blue scheme |
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| Nick Bibby Citadel young dragon, in murderous scheme |
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| Nick Bibby Citadel scorpion dragon, huntin' frogs |
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| SNOTLINGS |
This is brilliant, you have an ability to force awesomeness into very flawed models. The wivern transformation and the new rider really make this work and this colour scheme you've chosen works a treat.
ReplyDeleteImpressive.
Thanks mec, I believe there is a place for every bad model, you just have to find it's niche...
DeleteThe nightmare dragon could find your niche I bet.
DeleteGreat work, it turned out brilliant. The colours you chose for the dragon worked out tremendously well, I love it's head in particular.
The head is the stand-out feature for sure. The tail is the same as most of the big Bibby dragons as he reused them numerous times, and the legs are nice but somewhat awkwardly posed as well (constraint of the mould I guess). The head is just magnificent though, chock full of detail and character. It was a pleasure to paint.
DeleteVery cool Captain!
ReplyDeleteI always thought that the failings of this mini were too vast, bar the head as you mentioned, but you've managed to fix him up good. That sculpting of the saddle bag is great too.
Cheers :)
I could jabber on about how much I love this dragon's head all day ;) I want to find more excuses to use it, maybe some sort of giant alien head on a beefy humanoid body, hehe.
DeleteYou did a fabulous job on that, well done Captain. The finished model illustrates how artificial the distinctions between the various eras of miniature manufacture really are.
ReplyDeleteThe conversion work to bring the concept together worked fantastically well too.
Im less thrilled about you mashing five (?!) dragon of yore into the dragon post before I have to post mine, you colossal douche ;) How am I supposed to compete with that?
Are there more Dark Elves in the pipeline?
The plural of dragon is dragon? First cannon, now dragon. What else have I been saying wrong for decades?!
DeleteI have begun collecting a retinue for Joh'dee, the theme will be a travelling force of dark elves with a specific murder-mission in mind, so I need to convert some Har Ganeth executioners and get some corsairs etc. Moar minis!!
DeleteYou win this round Axiom...
DeleteI cant wait to see your Dark Elves Cap. Im fierce keen on dismal self-loathing in miniature. Ill be joining you in the Land of the Chill soon...
Well met on the challenge! Great work on a challenging model. I actually like the original model, but you have created a thing of beauty from a mongloid monstrosity.
ReplyDeleteI don't hate the original model, I just find it very difficult to understand ;) it challenges me! Sadly Nick Bibby didn't answer my emails/calls/love letters as i was hoping to get some of his insight into the briefing and concept of the model. Oh well.
DeleteSplendid! Wow, this is all jaw-dropping material!
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens when you accumulate so many talented and, lets not be shy, very handsome hobbyist in one blog. Jaw dropping material, excessive nudity and explosions.
DeleteJaw dropping material is why I come here, explosions are great, excessive nudity that's very much depending on who or what lol, a lovely bit of work on the Dragon Captain.
DeleteNooo you took away his goofy looming arms, you monster! I always found the model amusing, even if it's not the most elegant sculpt ever made.
ReplyDeleteI actually had trouble painting this model. I found a lack of detail to work with over most of the model. You've done a fine job on your mutilated wyvern version - you've managed to pick out a lot of the stuff I must have missed.
Another Aussie blogger :D Welcome Hoodie! This model has a lot of quite subtle scale work that made emulating it in Greenstuff very tricky, to the point I sent an email to Mr Nick Bibby requesting a detailed description of how he did it. I'm sure he's going to reply any day now. He's probably just busy.
DeleteAnyway, I used a combination of zenithal priming, washes and luck to realize the details on this monster - I'd sure like to see yours :D
DRAAAAGGGOOOOOOOOONNNNZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! Dude, this is just spectacular.
ReplyDeleteYou'll be joining the dragon club soon enough Lope. Well in 10-15 days at any rate ;)
DeleteNear seamless conversion, concise menacing paintjob. The green stuff saddle is absolutely fantastic. Cheetor has some big boots to fill.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you're probably aware by now that Cheetor has produced a magnificent dragon, as we all knew he would :D Now we all have to stare hard at Mr Assless until he produces something amazing too! (SPOILER ALERT: He will).
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