Here there be dragons!

Back again. My absence was not force upon me by lack of painted lead, but rather because I did not have the time to sit and write anything. Finally, after over a month, I have a full weekend at my disposal, and thus some time to post stuff.

After forty Afghans in various shades of white, cream, grey and sand, I decided to get involved something more colourful. I was not in the mood for Sikhs (which would have been colourful enough) so that meant going back to my fantasy projects. The idea of wargaming Middle Earth (and particularly the area around Mirkwood) has been in my mind for a while. I had originally wanted to do this in 28mm, but 15mm has been my love. I have found most of the miniatures for it, except for good wood elves. I've painted Gandalf the Grey, Beorn, Bilbo and some more of the characters, as well as goblins, but I'll save these for another time. Looking for some minutes, I came across a Ghoul Dragon in 15mm.co.uk, one of my favourite sites for 15mm fantasy and sci-fi goodies. It looked like it would be a lovely wyrm for Mirkwood. Not Smaug, and definitely non canon, but its old Saxon look was close to what I had in mind for my Middle Earth.

I envisioned this as a forgotten wood wyrm, and painted it in a variety of dark greens and black that would match the oppressive environs of Mirkwood.

It is a lovely figure with lots of detail. The wings are separate pieces and attach easily enough. I glued mine with epoxy glue and used green stuff to smooth the joints. The only problem I had was a casting feeder on the back and some loss of detail around it, but that was solved easily enough with some filling and resculpting with a sharp X-Acto knife. It does look the part, and at £10, it did not break the bank (one of the reasons I like 15mm).

Since we are on the subject of dragons, here is one more, painted a few months back. It's a red dragon by Reaper. It comes in their Bones series, and thus also cheap. It did not look like a red dragon in my eyes, but more like a blue, and thus it became a blue dragon. It would not have been a great wyrm in 28mm, but it is more than respectable in 15.

I am happy about the way both turned out. The second won't have much of a place in my Middle Earth games, but it would work pretty well for any other fantasy setting.

Here is a comparison shot of both:

That is all from London for now. Game on!