When I started in the hobby, back in around 1988, I had no idea how the miniatures came to exist, I just thought they were very cool and I wanted to have loads of them. That someone had sculpted them by hand had not remotely occurred to me and, had I known this, it would have absolutely blown my young mind. It still does in fact.
One of the
sculptors I have most regard for is Tom Meier, who , for those who have not
heard of him, was a co-founder of Ral Partha Miniatures and a sculptor for numerous
other miniature companies.
Back in the
80s and 90s I have to say I had never heard of Mr Meier, despite owning a
number of his sculpts. Since returning to the hobby, I have become very much
aware of his work and am absolutely amazed at both his skill and the sheer
range of miniatures he is responsible for. It’s worth checking out Ral Partha
Legacy to see some of his back catalogue and have the chance to acquire
some of them.
My earliest encounter with Tom Meier’s work, although I did
not know it then, was the Citadel Green Dragon. This was one of the first
miniatures I bought in Games Workshop. I bought it for no other reason than
I wanted a dragon and, for the princely sum of £4.95, this was the biggest one
I could afford. Apparently, Tom Meier
sculpted dragons in the mid-80s that were released in America by Ral Partha and
in Britain by Citadel. The Green Dragon was one of those dragons.
Mine is currently on its fourth paint job. It started out as
a gold dragon, painted head to tail in Citadel Shining Gold. You see, I had a
copy of the Fighting Fantasy - Out of the Pit book which informed me that gold
dragons were the most powerful, so mine had to be gold.
It looked dreadful and after a year or so was stripped (with
the point of a set of school compasses!). It then became a green dragon with a
coat of Woodland Green and some sort of yellowy colour. It looked pretty bad
and I wasn’t happy with it.
Some years later it was stripped again and repainted with Goblin Green with brown detailing. It didn’t look too bad as far as I recall but the paint soon became worn away. Very many more years later I gave it what I hope will be its final paint job and it became the little fellow you see here.
I used Vallejo paints (mostly Cayman and Camouflage Green)
which are my mainstay since becoming disillusioned with GW in around 1995 due to the
changes in the hobby after the ‘Ansell Era’, but that’s another story.
As I thought it’s face of looked rather like that of Gorbash
from the 1982 film The Flight of Dragons, which l loved as a kid (if you
haven’t seen it, go watch it), I based the paint scheme roughly on him.
Gorbash from The
Flight of Dragons (1982)
Now I think about it, I seem to have been
influenced by this film in my colour scheme for the Emperor Dragon as well.
Bryagh from The Flight of Dragons (1982)
Next time, more Tom Meier dragons.
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