Tom Meier Golden (now Green) Dragon

                                     

Knocked off one here that's been primed for a few weeks - it's an ancient Golden Dragon sculpted by the legendary Tom Meier for Ral Partha back in the 1980s. I have a soft spot for these old dragons and this one is just superb isn't it! (This was originally posted on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge blog).

Such a characterful face on this magnificent beast... I just had to paint him green.

Let me tell you it was a bit of a struggle to find an appropriate base for him but Challenger ByronM came through for me with an mdf base from his Northern Lights Terrain shop. Cheers Byron!

Shown here for scale with a Citadel knight (of about the same era) from their BC1 "Adventurers Starter Set." I like the unusual pose of the dragon - sort of just checking things out rather than roaring and being all intimidating. But by the look of him you'd still think twice about trying to steal his gold - he just looks clever and sneaky.

Here he is with one of the old Metal Magic female adventurers by Josef Ochmann. Looks like they're having a nice chat.

This was a fun model to paint - mostly - the only difficulty was reaching some of his scales that are blocked by the wings, and the underside of his tail. But I think he turned out OK.

Challenge Submission #8 - T'rana from Strike Team Alpha

 

This submission is a batch of 'old school' Ral Partha miniatures from their Galactic Grenadiers range from the late 1970s. These figures were sculpted to go with the Strike Team Alpha rules that came out at the same time. 

 

Front cover of the Strike Team Alpha rules set

One of the three types of aliens in the rules is the T'rana, a reptilian race that makes me think of what might have happened to the genus of velociraptors had dinosaurs not gone extinct.  I have a large collection of the various human figures in the range, all of which were painted many years ago. For some reason, I never finished the T'rana. They had been primed grey, and a base of dark green had been applied to the bodies, but then they languished in a drawer for decades until now. (The Challenge Quadrant has certainly proved its worth in inspiring me to get some of the deadwood completed and ready for the tabletop)

To complete these miniatures, I mounted them on 1" fender washers and glued on sand and a few pebbles to blend everything together. The earlier dark green I had used wasn't working for me, so I repainted the figures using Vallejo Lime Green for the bodies and Gunship Green for the crest along the spine and tail. Gunmetal and Black were used for weapons and equipment respectively. When that was all done, they all got a treatment of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. Eventually I will hit them with some matte spray when it's warm enough to use it outside. I was thinking 'Jungle' with these minis, but the bases ended up more like 'Desert'. Still I am happy to transfer these to the 'Out' basket.

 

Lizards, Mr. Frederico! Zillions of them!

T'rana (Reptilian)w/Hand Weapon

T'rana (Reptilian) Advancing

 Thanks for reading.