Making Magmax

Thought it's be kinda neat to show you guys how Magmax was built! I meant to take more progression photos but kinda forgot to along the way. I was pretty absorbed in this guy. But you can see the building process a bit at least. He took a LOT of planning. I had to make sure he didn't start out too bulky, or his plating would turn him fat by the end! His armature is probably the strongest I've ever made. Making standing dragons without a base definitely is a lot more work. Gotta get them all balanced, and keep them standing solidly after baking. No one wants a wobbly dragon!

The entire body started out yellow actually, and then I made long thin skinner blends from red to yellow and blended the yellow edge into the existing color. Skinner blends are kind of a pain in the butt, and take a lot of practice to get right, but I think I'm getting the hang of them. I actually messed up several times trying to get these just right, but once I finally did it, it was worth the frustration.

The plating took hoooours. I think I was plating dragons in my dreams for a solid week while I was making him. The lava rock texture was achieved using an old toothbrush, and then going back and making tiny divets in varying sizes and depths with a couple small ball tools. Very painstaking, but the effect is awesome! I actually experimented with salt at first, as I'd read it could be used to make lava rock beads. It worked pretty well, but was super messy, difficult to place on such small plates, and hard to dissolve afterwards, so I decided making my own divets by hand was better.

It got a bit hard to keep track after while, but I estimate he took around 40+ hours to complete. O_o

Magmax is currently up for auction on Ebay for anyone interested. The auction ends Sunday evening (Oct. 6th)
www.ebay.com/itm/121186842979?…