Hewa the Air Dragon

[Henjin_Quilones]

Hewa the Air Dragon

A freebuild for Avalonia

 

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Hewa and his rider, the Elvish King Mfalme, are the Air Guardians of Mwamba, soaring about the lofty peaks and through the clouds safeguarding the land from hostile threats. King Mfalme rules the land from the City of Bandari, where he is assisted by other elves, centaurs, gnomes, and humans. He graciously allowed Galaria to bond with a dragon of her own, which she and Henjin Quilones rode back from Mwamba to Avalonia, to start their settlement of Druidham in the Mystic Isles, a haven for druids and dragonriders alike. Other companions of the two exiles also were given dragons to raise as lifelong soul-joined dragonriders, the start of a new weyr of dragons in the West. 

 

 

More pictures:

Spoiler

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I tried something different with Hewa, as I have always loved the idea of feathered dragons. The wings were a bit of a struggle, but I am fairly happy with how they turned out. C&C welcome. 

Edited September 20, 2018 by Henjin_Quilones

[zoth33]

Very nice dragon.  I like the color choices they work nicely with the gold wing pieces.  The blue accents are a good breakup of color.  Also I like the fig.  

[TitusV]

She's looking mighty for sure!

Again, I'm not completely sold on the base (some very straight borders between olive green and tan, a bit more texturing wouldn't hurt IMHO), but as the focus lays on the dragon that's no real problem. I like the pearl golden accents, and the feathers are a sweet variation as well  

[mccoyed]

Love the bulkiness of this dragon, actually. It also suggests the "air" element really well. Also, I really dig the bases for these personally. :P

[Henjin_Quilones]

14 hours ago, zoth33 said:

Very nice dragon.  I like the color choices they work nicely with the gold wing pieces.  The blue accents are a good breakup of color.  Also I like the fig.  

Thanks, zoth! I should have a build soon showing all of the elemental dragons and riders together in the Elemental Council of Mwamba. 

4 hours ago, TitusV said:

She's looking mighty for sure!

Again, I'm not completely sold on the base (some very straight borders between olive green and tan, a bit more texturing wouldn't hurt IMHO), but as the focus lays on the dragon that's no real problem. I like the pearl golden accents, and the feathers are a sweet variation as well  

Thanks, Titus, though this dragon is actually a "he"...

The base on this one was more of a last-minute thrown together sort of thing, so it does not bother me that much that it has some rough patches. In person the borders don't look so straight, at least to the point that I did not notice them, aside from the one right in the front. 

39 minutes ago, mccoyed said:

Love the bulkiness of this dragon, actually. It also suggests the "air" element really well. Also, I really dig the bases for these personally. :P

Thanks, mccoyed! Glad you like the bases, and glad you get the air vibe from it. The trans-purple, along with white and gold, seems very airy to me, and form the basis of what I consider the color palette of the element to be. For me, reds, oranges, and yellows are Fire, greens and browns are Earth, blues (and some greens) are Water, and white and purple (with gold) are Air; and of course, the different greys and black are all present in all of the dragons for the simple reason that some essential parts only come in those colors, but I do associate them more with Earth than the other elements. 

[TitusV]

3 hours ago, Henjin_Quilones said:

...

Thanks, Titus, though this dragon is actually a "he"...

The base on this one was more of a last-minute thrown together sort of thing, so it does not bother me that much that it has some rough patches. In person the borders don't look so straight, at least to the point that I did not notice them, aside from the one right in the front. 

...

Oops... Now I'm embarrassed...  Please tell the dragon of my apologies, I don't wanna be eaten/burnt alive

I fear the one right in the front tends to be the one people notice the most easily  

[The Last of Nergoue]

Nice, the dragon looks really good! I also enjoy the simplicity of the base. 

[narbilu]

another stunning dragon on a beautiful clean base! And that fig is awesome!

Edited September 6, 2018 by narbilu

[Zilmrud]

Your dragons is spectacular! You are setting a high GoH standard for dragons =) I have a plan to build at least one dragon. Haven't done it before. But I will probably use yours as inspiration

[soccerkid6]

That gold banana use is nice Looks like a powerful beast, and you did well capturing the feathered wing look.

I think the base works pretty well, besides one portion of what looks to be tan bricks (?) in the bottom most layer of SNOT black bricks. That particular section seems out of place compared to the studs up landscape.

[Gabe]

Another beautiful dragon! Despite belonging to the element of air, this is one solid looking beast! The colour scheme is magnificent too - the purple, white and gold of the dragon look perfect against the lime green and tan base.

Feathers are very tricky to render in lego - although i think the wings still look good, the feathering still seems a little spindly to me. Did you consider using the chima wing peices at all? I have previously found them very useful to depict feathers. The hinge plate 1x8 with angled side extensions can also be useful, although maybe more so for larger models. I also recall that Cara made a brilliant dragon back in book I, with feathery wings made up of gold scimitars!

 

 

 

[Henjin_Quilones]

On 9/5/2018 at 4:48 PM, TitusV said:

Oops... Now I'm embarrassed...  Please tell the dragon of my apologies, I don't wanna be eaten/burnt alive

I fear the one right in the front tends to be the one people notice the most easily  

It is true, but oh well...

I am sure he won't be eating anyone, unless he runs out of sharks and large herdbeasts...

On 9/5/2018 at 4:51 PM, The Last of Nergoue said:

Nice, the dragon looks really good! I also enjoy the simplicity of the base. 

Thanks! The base was almost an afterthought cooked up to make it fit in the series. 

On 9/6/2018 at 2:45 AM, narbilu said:

another stunning dragon on a beautiful clean base! And that fig is awesome!

Thanks, Narb! I really like the fig, too. 

On 9/6/2018 at 4:32 AM, Zilmrud said:

Your dragons is spectacular! You are setting a high GoH standard for dragons =) I have a plan to build at least one dragon. Haven't done it before. But I will probably use yours as inspiration

I can hopefully raise the bar on creature building here, as I think it remains a relatively unexplored area of building here in the guilds, despite a few mini contests and such. 

I would be honored to have you use one of my dragons as inspiration! Feel free to steal or borrow whatever you want, since that is the way the LEGO community works. Keep tinkering with the details until you are satisfied, and I am sure your finished product will put mine to shame...

16 hours ago, soccerkid6 said:

That gold banana use is nice Looks like a powerful beast, and you did well capturing the feathered wing look.

I think the base works pretty well, besides one portion of what looks to be tan bricks (?) in the bottom most layer of SNOT black bricks. That particular section seems out of place compared to the studs up landscape.

Thanks, SK! I used the banana right at the very end and thought it worked quite well as a down-turned horn. Hewa is indeed powerful, as one should expect from the mount of the king of the Sun Elves (or Fire Elves) of Mwamba. 

And I was really hoping no one would notice that part, but of course you would... The base is not all black, since I did not have the pieces on hand to make it, so filled it with some tan 6x5 panels, and then made the base for this dragon just a bit too small to cover the whole thing. So it is definitely out of place, I agree. 

6 hours ago, Gabe said:

Another beautiful dragon! Despite belonging to the element of air, this is one solid looking beast! The colour scheme is magnificent too - the purple, white and gold of the dragon look perfect against the lime green and tan base.

Feathers are very tricky to render in lego - although i think the wings still look good, the feathering still seems a little spindly to me. Did you consider using the chima wing peices at all? I have previously found them very useful to depict feathers. The hinge plate 1x8 with angled side extensions can also be useful, although maybe more so for larger models. I also recall that Cara made a brilliant dragon back in book I, with feathery wings made up of gold scimitars!

Thanks, Gabe! I rather like the color scheme, too. 

I considered several different options based on what I have in my collection. I do have some of those Chima wings, but only in a few blues and black, and I wanted to go gold. I might use them in the future, though, if I have enough. I'm not sure how many I have. I actually went so far as to make a set of wings with those hinge plates, but they were too large and clunky, looking appropriate for a Ninjago robot dragon, perhaps, but not for something alive (at the scale I wanted, at least). I recently saw a build in the Joust by Nuju Metru that I really liked with golden wings, but I don't have the largest Ninjago blade pieces that he used in that one, and only a few of the midrange ones I have used on Hewa. Lots and lots of katanas, though. So this is what I came up with. A bit spindly, to be sure, but the best I could do without making a Bricklink order, which I try to avoid. Perhaps in the future I will try again and see if I can make it look a bit thicker without sacrificing somewhere else. 

[Gideon]

I second the praise above
The rider looks suitably menacing too

[TheLordOfBricks]

Whoops, forgot to comment here. Lovely dragon, and I agree with the fact that the simple base is really nice. Keep up the good work Henjin. :)

[de Gothia]

Once more you have done it! The organic feel, the great black baseplate and that great looking fig (reminds me of LoTR ringwraith!)

[Henjin_Quilones]

On 9/17/2018 at 3:16 PM, Gideon said:

I second the praise above
The rider looks suitably menacing too

Thanks, he is the king, so I guess he has to protect his people. I have the idea that there are various kings of the high elves, all with ornate golden helms of different styles, and Mfalme is one, and Fingole is another. The Atalantean guards from the Justice League Aquaman set have a nice fishy helm that I have been considering for some sea elves, too. 

19 hours ago, TheLordOfBricks said:

Whoops, forgot to comment here. Lovely dragon, and I agree with the fact that the simple base is really nice. Keep up the good work Henjin. :)

Thanks, T'LOB! 

13 minutes ago, de Gothia said:

Once more you have done it! The organic feel, the great black baseplate and that great looking fig (reminds me of LoTR ringwraith!)

Thanks, dG! I can see where you are coming from on the Ringwraith vibe, but King Mfalme is a good guy for sure. I'll hopefully get another build with him in it to show him off a bit more clearly, as I really like the fig.