Got a lot of people asking me if they can get their dragon at Salute, etc:
Short answer: maybe, but only if you're in the first couple of dozen people and I've emailed you to tell you your dragon is ready prior to the show and you email me back about picking it up there. Not fair otherwise. BUT you might be able to get an 'Imperfect Dragon' - see long explanation/update below
Long answer:
Basically, there's been a bit of to and fro 'twixt the Heresy Dungeon and Fenris's Workshop. I have a few sets of Dragon castings - ten at the minute but the problem is those huge one-piece wings: they have been causing big problems in th ecasting process. Basically, relying on gravity and vacuum to get the resin into all the scales and things before said resin has a chance to go off and start soldifying (only a 20 second pour time) has been something of a challenge. Those wings are relatively thin, and the only way to position the whole thing in th emould leaves the scales ont he outside edge of the fingers pointing up, meaning air gets trapped all over them. Also the moulds weigh 12kgs in rubber, and the clamps have had trouble coping. Ian's bought new bigger clamps which have done the job, but this means the wing membranes are now being awkward.
After some discussion vis video conference over the weekend with Ian (who said it felt like being Peter Jackson :lol ), I have begun to re-cut the dragon so that the wings are in two halves , with the first membrane attached to the body and the other three plus fingers separated via the 'wrist' of the wing. Tricksy, and it's meant some clever cutting and fiddly repairs. I've also moved the pelvis from the legs to the torso so that the extended wings are now merged with the torso rather than poking out (see pic of resin components from a couple of weeks ago earlier in the thread). The legs are now two separate pieces with a cut made across the thighs of each. The spines along the back have been chopped up too - for the time being, in order to aid production speed, I'll be casting part of them in metal, along with the tongues and claws and stuff, until we catch up with the list. Ian just has too much to cast and not enough time to do it all in any realistic timeframe. Hopefully the work i am doing on re-cutting the Dragon will mean that things go much more quickly/easily at his end.
Saying that, Ian thinks he may have sussed the current problems with the big wings so there may be a few Perfect Dragons sooner than expected, but there's still a question of how long all the moulds will last in the current form. The cuts I am making mean that more than half of the current moulds will no longer be usable with the new parts, so once one mould goes, they all will need replacing.
Thus, it may be that we will end up with some sets of Dragons which are Not Good Enough to send out to thsoe of you who have paid good money for one. The so-called Imperfect Dragons, which need a lot of modelling work done to fill in holes, bubbles and replace miscast scales, or scraping away excess resin caused by mould slip. I know some of you will be happy to have one of those as they will have cost me less than the Perfect Dragons, technically. Equally I know most of you will prefer to wait and get a Perfect Dragon (I would)
As to Sir Roger, no news yet, been busy on other stuff but will eb sorting him before the Perfect Dragons are sent out.
Still haven't worked out shipping yet either, sorry.
