Smaug Diorama

[FONT=&quot]Hello here is the start of my Smaug diorama. I was originally going to wait until after the Hobbit movie came out later this year to create this piece, but I couldn’t wait (maybe I'll make another once miniatures, statues or toys of the screen used Smaug are created). All of the individual gold pieces were punched with a craft punch (very time consuming process. The dragon is a Larry Elmore dragon from the dark sword miniature line. I've always thought this dragon would suit Smaug. I'll add more weapons to the treasure pile. In addition, I will eight gem variants. I purchased the gems at Michaels, they each measure <2mm diameter. Smaug I'll paint a dark crimson red (similar dark red as the lord of the rings Balrog).

Ryan.
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I love nasty dragons! Is this a resin cast or metal? Looks great so far! Keep us posted as it progresses! Very cool....

It looks amazing!

Looks good can't wait to see all the fine detail on this.. I fine the painting on a dragon interesting you can really capture all the detail.

great job

The dragon is a made out of pewter I believe, manufactured by dark sword miniatures. This one in particular was based on a Larry Elmore painting. I'll post more progress pics soon.

Nice! And timely, too, considering we're not too terribly far off from a release of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey". :

Nice work so far!

I recognised the name but couldnt think where I heard it until I saw the image.... Brings back memories of reading the hobbit over and over again. My copy had Smaug on the front on top of the gold coins( i cant remember the artist).

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished piece and I think the balrog colouring will look great. It would be cool if it had that crimson/orange glow...And i dunno how you had the patience to put out all those coins! much respect.

jaybible said:

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I recognised the name but couldnt think where I heard it until I saw the image.... Brings back memories of reading the hobbit over and over again. My copy had Smaug on the front on top of the gold coins( i cant remember the artist).

Did it look like this?



That painting was done by Tolkien himself.

This is outstanding!

Nope, it was this cover. I've never seem that pic before.. is that a cover??

That last picture is one of John Howe's depiction of Smaug. My guess will be that Smaug for the hobbit movie will look similar to this dragon since he and Alan Lee are in charge of the art conception for the movies.

Well I've got some more progress on my Smaug piece. All of the base colours are painted and I've painted my first wash layer. I'll post pics when complete.

Ryan.

Phenomenal work! I can hear him shouting, "I can smell you lake man."

Nice work! Do you plan on gluing any gems to his underbelly? Smaug's belly was covered in them you know, except for one spot ,which was his undoing.

I'm not planning on gluing any gems to Smaug's belly. It would be very difficult to achieve that cool effect for this piece.

Well here are pictures of my complete Smaug diorama. I apologize for the poor pictures. I finally purchased a new camera recently, a Panasonic Lumix FZ150 and I'm trying to get used to the settings.

If anyone is interested, I used pure gold for the base colour of the gold coins and a darker wash over the coins with Inca gold as a dry brush. I was planning on dry brushing Smaug itself, but was unhappy with the results. The accents look too bright. I may do more darker washer at a later date.

The gems took quite a long time to glue down, they were sticky to the tweezers I was using. I'm quite happy with the effect achieved. There are 8 different coloured gems (2 reds, 2 blue, 2 green and 2 purple).

Now I can start my ambitious project, a scratch build rebel blockade runner (1/2 studio scale).

Ryan

Wow excellent job....it's cool to see the
black color coat coming through!