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Feeding your dragon

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6.1K views 25 replies 7 participants last post by  Dave Meashey  
#1 ·
Hello All;

These figures are part of a project I hope to have finished in time for ECLSTS. It will be the Brandywine & Gondor Railroad's first freight train.

The small dragon is one of many that have started to hatch in the lands that formerly were Mordor. The men of Gondor have secured several of these young dragons to train to carry dragon riders aloft as part of a new plan for aerial defenses for their realm. They remember all to well the destruction carried out by the flying Nazgul in the Great War of the Ring. But even the Nazgul did not have dragons to carry them.

It seems that Sauron had found a way to keep dragon eggs in stasis. Once Sauron was destroyed, the dragon eggs hidden within his borders began to slowly develop and hatch. The men of Gondor discovered these dragons while they were still quite young. They cannot fly or spout flames as yet, and they are both tamable and trainable. But they still have to be fed.

The Knight of Gondor is a Papo figure. Chris Walas sent me the dragon figure several years ago. The haunches were cut from the rear of a chimera that Chris sent with the dragon. I had to do some repainting, and use Plastruct white tubular rod stock for the "bones." It's not perfection, but still looks pretty convincing - at least to me.


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Brought to you by the folks who run The Mainline of Middle Earth!

Have fun,
David Meashey
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
But Tom;

Dragons only eat knights if they have an iron deficiency (lots of iron in that nice crunchy armor). This dragon is getting plenty of iron from that good red meat.
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Keep those batteries charged,
David M.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
Bump!

Well, the basic carbody is done, and the trucks and couplers are under it. The main elements of the car are all in place. Now I have to remove them so I can add the decking and the pen for the dragon. (Dragon pen? Pen dragon? Oh yeah! That was King Arthur's surname, but that's another legend all together.
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Anyway, I wanted to show that there was some progress since my last post. My main concern now is that with work, church, and family obligations, I may not get this project done in time for the 2010 ECLSTS. I'll try to post photos on this site once it is done, but I have serious doubts that the car, let alone the whole train, will be ready in less than two weeks. I think I'd rather get it right than just get it done.

I'll probably bring another project that has been embellished since I first showed it. I'm looking forward to seeing some of you soon.

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Best wishes,
David Meashey
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
Another Bump!

Well, work on the dragon transport had to be suspended again. Our local club is participating in a show at the O. Winston Link Museum in about two weeks, so I had to turn my attention to the rest of the train. I got the graphics on the locomotive and caboose today. Other cars will follow soon. The dragon transport is waiting for me to finish the dragon pen and its gates. This is not hard, but cutting out all those vertical posts for the pen on a small miter saw is beyond tedium!

I have a view of the locomotive and the caboose. The graphics did not show up, but I don't know whether my camera is at fault or it was just tricky lighting. If the lighting is more favorable at the show, I will try again there. I had to give up on using the troll as a fireman. He is just too big for the tender deck on this little locomotive. I ended up using the rest of my Rogue County dwarves for this train. Chris Walas gave them to me several years ago. One dwarf is now the fireman, the other is the conductor. They were battle ready, so I had to replace their weapons with railroad tools - a shovel for a spear and a lantern for a war hammer. They are still in full armor and could be ready to fight in seconds.

The second photo shows the conductor. It took some fancy cutting to replace his war hammer with a brakeman's lantern.

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Yours,
David Meashey
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
Vic;

If I remember correctly, the second Dragon Heart movie was even worse than the Far Side cartoon. The young dragon in that movie had never breathed fire. The first time he tried to breathe fire, it emerged, uh, from beneath his tail! He ended up incinerating several haystacks that were behind him!

Regal;

Well, its got eight "slicks." But I forgot to put in a big mill and a tranny. I guess once the wee beastie learns how to spout flames, it could still "Burn up that quarter mile." Just as long as he doesn't burn up the car first.
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Have fun,
David Meashey

OBTW - I have to go out of town for several days, so if I don't answer postings, it's not rudeness - I'm just offline.
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
As I mentioned earlier, I took some photos of the train - minus the dragon transport - at Saturday's event. The first photo shows almost the whole train. The Kalamazoo cars are crude, but they look fine as cars hobbits or dwarves would build. The locomotive is named Peregrine Took, and is dwarf-built. Small and chunky, but deceptively strong. The first boxcar is a private owner car for Prancing Pony Ale "If it's not brewed in Bree, it's NOT for Thee!" (I have moved a little bit of Madison Avenue to Middle Earth). The second boxcar is another private owner car for Longbottom Leaf "The Finest pipeweed in all of Middle Earth." The B&G gondola carries primitive private owner tanks for Fangorn Forest Water "It makes things Grow!" (A reference to what Treebeard's water did to Merry and Pippin.)

Several people got the humor in the messages and enjoyed the idea of a railroad for the Fourth Age of Middle Earth. One family has a bearded dragon lizard as a pet, and really liked the dragon car. If I ever finish the thing, I'll post it on this thread.

The photos are below.

Yours,
David Meashey


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Discussion starter · #16 ·
It's already been done with a dragon Chris Walas made for me. That post is probably way back in the Whimsicals archive. When I have some time, I will try to post those photos in this thread. It could be Thursday night before I get a chance. My computer is ancient and very slow.
 
Discussion starter · #18 ·
Richard;

As promised, here is a photo of the other dragon, the one Chris Walas made for me. This dragon has fiber optic strands running from her throat to the firebox door. You can just see the strands leaving her mouth in this photo. I found out that I will need to sand the sides of these strands, since currently they only glow red at their ends. (The things one learns through this hobby!) The red pulses are provided by an electronics module sold to simulate the emergency lights for an HO police car. The two red LEDs to the job nicely.

This dragon rides the tender of a Bachmann Indy. The LGB 2-4-0s and 0-4-0s are too small to hold such a large beastie. And the two dragons I have would look like flies next to Smaug!

The photo is below.

Yours,
David Meashey

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Discussion starter · #21 ·
Finished at Last!! It has imperfections, but there is not another vehicle like it, so I'm happy. I have learned to appreciate the virtues of florist's wire. Not only is the material good for fastening stuff together, the thicker variety makes good grab irons (& other hardware). The photos are below. This car would definitely NOT be safe for children - too many very sharp points. The poles for the pen and the gate are made from bamboo shish kebab skewers. The look is appropriate, but it is definitely not for touching. Anyway, it was a fun build (once I found a quicker way to cut the skewers - rose bush trimmers), but I'm glad this project is done.

Yours,
David Meashey

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