Dragon
Sometimes, the dragon wins.
After spending over two years working on this project, I never thought I would finish it. The quote meant to me that I would never finish the dragon. It originally started out being around 3 feet tall and dark red. Needless to say, I didn't make it structurally sound. So I went back to a traditional green.
He originally started out on two feet, but truthfully, the dark red version looked more like a t-rex than a dragon. The original green version was standing on all fours--I opted for more of a gargoyle pose and I'm quite happy with it.
The head was the most fun and easiest part to design. It's based on the original head done in dark red. The jaw is hinged so it opens and closes. He also has a soul patch, because he's a modern kind of dragon :-)
The neck needed to be rounded, and I thought this would be the biggest hurdle. However, with hinges, it's amazing the type of effects you can get. The hinging pieces also helped significantly with rounding the spikes.
The body was pretty straightfoward, but he definitely needed some definition in the underbelly, so tan was good for under the neck to the bottom of the body. The lower legs were built in to the structure, and the arms are attached with technic pins and bricks so they do not affect the stability of the sculpture.
Because dragons in my mind need to look threatening, I made the front claws in an attack position. Additionally, the claws can hold minifig skeletons quite well.
The tail and the wings took quite some time to get right. The tail went through several iterations before it ended up in its final version. Originally, it was going to be bent off to the side, but I couldn't get it to look right. It also needed to have a spike at the end (this is the nice thing about dragons--they're fictional, and they can look how you want them to).
The wings went through several rebuilds before they were done correctly. Red seemed like a good choice for the color, but green with sand green membranes would make the wings look more realistic.
Designing the wings, both realistically and proportionally, was quite the challenge. The wings are joined to the body with plate hinges, allowing customizable placement while not affecting overall structural support.
As long as the wings had points of contact with the surface area, the wings would be well-balanced. Having the wings balance on the bony structures and having the membrane folded in and peaked at the top, not only made them well-structured, but proportionally correct and realistic.
Special thanks to my husband Russ (particularly with the wings), and Troy for overall dragon help :-) Some stats: 2,000 or so green bricks, a few hundred tan, and 1,000 or so sand green for the wings.
Both versions of the dragon and build pictures are available on Brickshelf.