Great Spined Dragon variants?

[Tex]

I made a search, as I remember reading something about this subject, but could not find anything on here.

I absolutely love the model and I confess I now own 3 of them

I got the 1st one about a decade or more ago, but it soon started to develop some lead rot in the head, tail and hind leg: I carefully treated the body and wings and to this day they are perfectly sound; during the years I kept on looking around in search of the missing pieces and only recently my search came to an end: last year I found a mislisted head for € 3,00 and I am now waiting for the customs to free the tail and leg provided by a nice chap on FB. I'll definitely paint this one, as it costed me so much hassle I'm just waiting to be good enough to do it justice.

The 2nd one was a good buy when prices where on the rise: it costed me exactly twice the price of the 1st one, but it was - and still is - in perfect condition, well built and primed.

I received the 3rd one this morning: I got it for a good price, with free shipping, sporting an old paintjob, but arguably in perfect condition underneath the heavy paint layer.

But I derailed: I noticed that the latter has the right front paw connected to the left ones, whereas dragons #1 and #2 have the front paw separated.

I suppose a change was made along the lifespan of the model for casting/mould preservation purposes, but do anyone know when this happened and which was the original arrangement?

I'm attaching a pic, taken from the 1989 Fantasy Miniatures book, of my favourite version of Spiny: I love the subtle modifications (head pose, ears and elongated tail and maybe neck) done by Brian Moore.
You get a better view of the model on the back cover of the book, but can't find a pic at the moment.

 

[ManicMan]

Ah, he is known for a mixture of lead rot and metal fatigue.

Can you take a couple of images of the two versions?

 

[Tex]

Dragon #1 and #3

 

[ManicMan]

I'm not 100% but ... mmm.. Most images I've see of an unpainted examples, the right foot is .... maybe joined to the left back foot, or atleast VERY close to it. I can imagine with it being apart is more of a cut to spread the front foot more. Problem is, that leads to a pretty thin joint between the leg and the foot, so that would be very prone to rot/fatigue as you are putting a bit of weight onto that joint when you think about it. Not an expert but I would say while fair bit of the weight is trying to put onto the back legs, the angle does put the weight of the head, neck and some of the body ( damn.. what's the name of the kinda shoulder area where the neck joints?), so a mixture of age and weight kinda put pressure there.

 

[Tex]

Biggest problem with the separate front foot is the thin ankle and it should cease to be an issue once the model is based, imho: most of the weight is in the bulk of the body and supported by the left legs.

 

[ManicMan]

yeah, but even when based, you have some rot and fatigue, though the fatigue would more be the wings that way. when it's based, it would spread the weight a bit more and give a certain amount of protection.

god, the amount of figures (specially older mid 80s metals) which have weak ankles in the citadel range. And it gets too hard to drill them to repair with it's the normal 28mm troops. That said, it really helps with getting good prices on buying them second hand if the feet are missing ^_^

 

[Eric]

the amount of figures (specially older mid 80s metals) which have weak ankles in the citadel range.

Yep just snapped a skeleton (that I was foolishly thinking I might finish for Deadcember) the other day and had to pin it. Although in this case it was the tab that snapped off rather than the foot fortunately.

I absolutely love the model and I confess I now own 3 of them

It is one of the all time classics and one of my favourites. Maybe one day! No shame in having collected several, an impressive achievement and I'm not just saying this because I seem to have mighty fortresses spilling out of every cupboard in the house and want to justify duplicates!

As to the base casting I don't know. The 1992 flyer I happen to have by my desk with the dragons on shows the Spined Dragon with a solid base connecting the feet, RRP £24.99 ... (raw inflation would put that at ~£55 today). The 1988 flyer also shows a single base, but I see the instructions (same link) illustrate it seemingly with separate feet.

 

[ManicMan]

personally, I think the instructions don't show them joined cause.. they are line art drawings. they also don't show the right back foot being flat, the Tail has a smaller length and bend and a few bits different. Kinda good enough to show people what bits are there and how they go together more then seriously being a detailed view. I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't even sorted out the basing and stuff when they were done up (the drawings, not the instructions as a whole)