Draco the Dragon
from Dragonheart

by

Chris Wauchop

Introduction

This is Draco the Dragon from the movie, Dragonheart. The kit was released by Revell but is now out of production. It is presented in approximately 1/30 scale.

Construction

The main dragon figure is moulded in vinyl, as is the base. The figure of the Dennis Quaid character is supplied in white metal.

The techniques for building a vinyl kit are not complicated, but they are slightly different to a hard styrene model.

Vinyl parts are quite flexible and relatively lightweight for their large size, so some reinforcement is advisable. The base was filled with Plaster of Paris, as were the legs of the Dragon. This lent some weight and rigidity to the finished model.

The seams of the soft vinyl parts were cleaned up using a sharp hobby knife. Following this simple preparation, the small number of parts were joined with super glue.

White Milliput (a fine grain two-part epoxy putty) was used to fill the gaps at the joins. The joins between the wings and the body required some extra work due to poor fit.

Painting and Markings

Draco the Dragon, the knight Bowen and the base were all painted with a personal mix of Acrylic paints using the Aztek A470 airbrush fitted with the fine (tan colored) tip.

The colors were mixed to match photographs of Draco and Bowen in a reference book about the making of the Dragonheart movie. This book included a number of images of the original computer graphics used in the movie.

Only a few details were picked out with a fine paintbrush. These details included Draco's teeth, eyes and mouth; plus Bowen's shield and silver studs.

The Aztek A470 airbrush was used for all the remaining aspects of the model including the convincing shading effects on Draco's scales, the mottling under his wings and the weathering of his teeth and horns. Even Bowen's hair was styled with the Aztek!