So, I've built out my mini collection now to well over 1,000 minis. But I still have a couple of important holes in the collection. One is, of course, dragons. I can't afford the D&D dragon minis (although I do have four of them already) so I've been looking for new ways to increase my collection.
One way I've been doing that is to modify existing miniatures by making them into dragons. I have four Mage Knight mounted figures where the mount is a really cool looking lizard beast. I cut off the mount and attached some bat-wings to the beast and it came out pretty dragonish. When I showed it to my gaming group they said "oh yeah, totally a dragon dude!"
So I'm thinking about making more. I can make a mold and cast copies of the wings and the mount and then assemble them to make more, but then I'll have a lot of identical dragons painted different colors. I could also make some minor modifications by adding spikes or replacing the horns, but in the end they will be obvious copies of each other.
My only other option seems to be to buy dragons (and they tend to be expensive) or to sculpt my own.
To show how far I've gone with this, I am using origami dragons, dragons from McDonald's Happy Meal toys, and dragons from a bucket of plastic figures from the movie "How to Train Your Dragon". That's given me a lot of dragons, but not a lot of variety.
How have others of you expanded your dragon mini collections?
Get dragons from Safari LTD and MacFarland Toys.
Hmm... those seem to be in the same price range as most of the D&D dragons. I bought three D&D miniature dragons and a couple other individual non-dragon minis for $50, so about $15 each from my local game store. That's about my limit on something like this. They have more dragons for $20 and up at the game store and I just can't make myself buy them.
The McFarlane and Safari Ltd dragons are at least that much and generally more, plus shipping if I buy online.
I suppose if I get some cash windfall I can buy a bunch of those dragons, but I'm looking to get dragons by the dozen, and I'm not looking to pay hundreds of dollars for them.
My general mantra in my mini collecting is "on the cheap".
While they can't compare to the McFarland dragons, I use a nuber of the dragon figures from MegaBlox. They are gargattuan in size, and if you remove or camoflage the lego-style brich where a rider can sit, they don't look too bad. I especially like the Translucent colored set that came out a few years ago - they make great gem dragons. E-bay usually has older MegaBlox sets for very reasonable prices.
I'll take a closer look at the McFarland ones and maybe add them to my wish list for birthday or Christmas gifts...
I'll also check out the MegaBlox ones.
Right now I'm looking into casting lots of sets of wings out of resin and epoxying them to several different dinosaur minis. There are some velociraptor minis that I think would make excellent dragons with some cleverly attached horns and spikes and stuff...
Hmm... those seem to be in the same price range as most of the D&D dragons. I bought three D&D miniature dragons and a couple other individual non-dragon minis for $50, so about $15 each from my local game store. That's about my limit on something like this. They have more dragons for $20 and up at the game store and I just can't make myself buy them.
The McFarlane and Safari Ltd dragons are at least that much and generally more, plus shipping if I buy online.
Safari dragons are $10-17 here:
http://www.learningthings.com/items.asp?Cc=SAFARIDRAGONSThat's about what you were paying at your local game store. Not super cheap, but cheaper than $20. There is still shipping to consider, though.
I think your idea about gluing wings and the like to dinosaurs is a really good one, in a pinch.
ETA: Another cheapish but nice looking option is to make tokens--print out pictures of dragons in the right size diameter for its size. If you can glue it to the underside of a glass or clear plastic disc to make it look like a nicely made token. There's a thread somewhere in this subforum to detail how to do this. The biggest problem is finding large enough tokens for things that are dragon sized. these are fine for Large size creatures. Finding huge or larger was hard; I saw one place that sold plastic discs but they were overseas (though maybe you are overseas from the US's perspective, IDK).
Hmm... those seem to be in the same price range as most of the D&D dragons. I bought three D&D miniature dragons and a couple other individual non-dragon minis for $50, so about $15 each from my local game store. That's about my limit on something like this. They have more dragons for $20 and up at the game store and I just can't make myself buy them.
The McFarlane and Safari Ltd dragons are at least that much and generally more, plus shipping if I buy online.
Safari dragons are $10-17 here:
http://www.learningthings.com/items.asp?Cc=SAFARIDRAGONSThat's about what you were paying at your local game store. Not super cheap, but cheaper than $20. There is still shipping to consider, though.
I think your idea about gluing wings and the like to dinosaurs is a really good one, in a pinch.
ETA: Another cheapish but nice looking option is to make tokens--print out pictures of dragons in the right size diameter for its size. If you can glue it to the underside of a glass or clear plastic disc to make it look like a nicely made token. There's a thread somewhere in this subforum to detail how to do this. The biggest problem is finding large enough tokens for things that are dragon sized. these are fine for Large size creatures. Finding huge or larger was hard; I saw one place that sold plastic discs but they were overseas (though maybe you are overseas from the US's perspective, IDK).
No, I'm not overseas from a US perspective. Before I would use tokens I would just make origami dragons and dip them in varnish to make them sturdy and glue them to bases. I've done that for five or six dragons so far and they are workable, in a quaint and unorthodox sort of way. But not very satisfying... Still, they are at least three dimensional and something I crafted myself.
I did some google searches on dinosaurs and dragons today. There are several dinosaurs that I think will make quite nice dragons, particularly the velociraptors. I can make epoxy horns and crests and larger teeth to beef them up a bit. I have a couple T-Rexs that I'm going to make some dragon wings and see how they turn out, they would be colossal sized dragons though. Right now the best results I'm getting are taking the riders off some Mage Knight mounts and putting dinosaur wings on them. They come out looking very much like dragons. I only have four of those though. I have another set of four Mage Knight mounts that aren't quite as dragony looking as the ones I'm using so far, but they have some promise too.
And then there's always the option of sculpting my own dragons. I've done that twice but it was a while ago and I've learned a lot about sculpting since then. I think I can sculpt passable dragons, but my standards are pretty high and I don't think I'll be happy with them until I learn a bit more about sculpting larger miniatures.
I'm starting to think that sculpting dragons just might be my next hobby....
The McFarlane and Safari Ltd dragons are at least that much and generally more, plus shipping if I buy online.
One of the best ways to get a bargin on the Safari line of figures is if you have a Michael's Craft store anywhere in your area. At Michaels, the Dragons run about $2-3 less than retail, there is no shipping, and if you sign up for coupons on Michael's web site, they'll send you a 40% off any regular priced merchandice every couple of weeks. That's how I've gotten most of my Safari figures, including their great new Chimeria.
The McFarlane and Safari Ltd dragons are at least that much and generally more, plus shipping if I buy online.One of the best ways to get a bargin on the Safari line of figures is if you have a Michael's Craft store anywhere in your area. At Michaels, the Dragons run about $2-3 less than retail, there is no shipping, and if you sign up for coupons on Michael's web site, they'll send you a 40% off any regular priced merchandice every couple of weeks. That's how I've gotten most of my Safari figures, including their great new Chimeria.
Yes, we have a Michaels that carries some of the dragons. I've almost bought a couple of them. But the 40% discount seems always to go to my wife's quilting hobby. :)
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Yes, we have a Michaels that carries some of the dragons. I've almost bought a couple of them. But the 40% discount seems always to go to my wife's quilting hobby. :)
If you go to their website, you can print out additional copies of the coupon. It's only one per person, but if you both go, she can use hers on her quilting and you could use yours on the dragon... just saying
If you go to their website, you can print out additional copies of the coupon. It's only one per person, but if you both go, she can use hers on her quilting and you could use yours on the dragon... just saying
Yes, we have a Michaels that carries some of the dragons. I've almost bought a couple of them. But the 40% discount seems always to go to my wife's quilting hobby. :)
Huh... good point. Just went to their site and am printing out TWO coupons, and I'll use mine for a dragon. Sweet!
Still that's what, one dragon a month?
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If you go to their website, you can print out additional copies of the coupon. It's only one per person, but if you both go, she can use hers on her quilting and you could use yours on the dragon... just saying
Yes, we have a Michaels that carries some of the dragons. I've almost bought a couple of them. But the 40% discount seems always to go to my wife's quilting hobby. :)Huh... good point. Just went to their site and am printing out TWO coupons, and I'll use mine for a dragon. Sweet!
Still that's what, one dragon a month?
Print one out for each person in your gaming group....
Still that's what, one dragon a month?
How many more do you need? My players rarely deal with more than one dragon a month, and often go 2-3 months between dragon encounters. Your milage may vary.
Still that's what, one dragon a month?How many more do you need? My players rarely deal with more than one dragon a month, and often go 2-3 months between dragon encounters. Your milage may vary.
"Hey! You got your role playing in my dragon collecting!"
"No! You got your dragon collecting in my role playing!"
"Hey it's two, two, TWO GREAT Hobbies!"
Heh... OK, I admit that I have more than enough dragons to run a session. But I need more, see. I just do. That's just how it is. I just need them man!!!
Don't get me wrong, I understand the lure of collecting great looking miniaturers. I probably have 60+ painted or pre-painted dragons, not counting the box full of D&D plastic ones that I own. But I have an excuse - I've worked part-time in hobby shops since I was 15 and my Dad owned one. I have dragons that go back to the old Heritage and Martian Metals lines.
Eventually I'm going to run an old Judges Guild module called Zantac, in which the main encounter is a mountain lair with more than 30 dragons of all colors and sizes. Converted to Pathfinder, it's probably going to take a party of 6-8 30th level characters. Now Ijust have to find some suckers...er, I mean players, to run through it.