[MOC] Dark Dragon

[TheOneVeyronian]

Hello there!

I've had this MOC for quite a while now, but I recently rediscovered it so I thought I'd photograph it again and share it here. I believe this should be the right forum for it, but without further ado, I'd like to introduce my Dark Dragon:

LEGO Dark Dragon - Facial close-up by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

I think this started out as an attempt at a minifigure scale Smaug from the Hobbit movies, but then I saw the Smaug from the movie "The Desolation of Smaug" and it looked nothing like the model I had made, so I renamed the MOC, maybe rather unimaginatively, "Dark Dragon".

LEGO Dark Dragon - Whole body shot, wings collapsed by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

LEGO Dark Dragon - Whole body shot, wings open by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

LEGO Dark Dragon - Whole body shot, posed by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

Here's some quick stats about the model: It's about 1,600 pieces, measures about 70 studs long stretched out with a wingspan of around 60 or so studs. It also weighs about 1.5 kilograms, hence the need for the clear support stands as the legs alone can't support it's weight. You could say I sacrificed stability for poseability in that case.

Some more (albeit not as good) photos which I took back in November last year can be found here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjMPNBDV

Well, I hope you enjoyed this MOC. Comments and constructive feedback appreciated

[Brother Steven]

Cool dragon!

[Scaevola]

Very cool (and it looks very functional). Any chance I could see a pic of the dragon with its mouth agape?

[TheOneVeyronian]

Thanks for the comments

Very cool (and it looks very functional). Any chance I could see a pic of the dragon with its mouth agape?

Sure, though the mouth uses the click joints so it can only be put into three positions: closed, half-open and fully open (though I should really swap them out, but that would involve dismantling the entire head). So here's the dragon with the mouth half-open:

LEGO Dark Dragon - Facial close-up, profile view by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

And, with a bit of patience, you can get the mouth to sit agape, even with the click joints:

LEGO Dark Dragon - Facial close-up, mouth agape by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

(sorry about the slightly cluttered pics, I didn't have time to set up my makeshift studio but they should be clear enough)

[Lady K]

I really like your dragon! Now you need to have a castle in ruins or cave of treasure for it.

[Calanon]

It definitely looks quite impressive, I think the wings could do with a bit more work though as they seem quite small in bulkiness compared to the rest.

[TheOneVeyronian]

I really like your dragon! Now you need to have a castle in ruins or cave of treasure for it.

Yes, I did think about a cave of treasure, but with the size of the dragon itself, I wouldn't have the bricks or space for it really. The best I could do was lots of gold and chrome bricks on a baseplate:

LEGO MOC Dragon and his Hoard by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

It definitely looks quite impressive, I think the wings could do with a bit more work though as they seem quite small in bulkiness compared to the rest.

I would agree with you actually, I'm not completely happy with the wings, but I think they need to be larger rather than bulkier. Unfortunately, anything bigger and bulkier just tended to collapse when they were splayed out, and that's also why the current wings aren't fully extended horizontally either, because they just can't stay up due to their weight. I think I might have a play around with some plates later on LDD, as I originally built the dragon model on there. I even thought about adding a cloth wing membrane, but I couldn't find anything that fitted the bill when I first built it.