Check Out GF9's Gargantuan Red Dragon

Gale Force 9 is gearing up for release of its Red Dragon miniature (although "miniature" feels like it's underselling the thing). With a gargantuan 6" base, 20" wingspan (yeah, you read that right), and 7" in height, it's far from miniature. The model is made of 13 resin pieces, and is part of the D&D Collectors Series. Here's a few photos of the thing! I'm not sure when this model will be released, or how much it'll cost, though I guess you can keep an eye on their online store for it to appear.

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[turkeygiant]

Ah, unpainted -- probably closer to 50 than 100, but no interest from me because I cant paint minis worth a damn, and have no interest in trying to do so.

generally unpainted miniatures cost more than painted miniatures as hobby miniatures are usually much higher quality sculpts and materials compared to the sort of things you get from a company like Wizkids.

 

[Alarian]

Glad it's unpainted. I don't like that paint job at all. Way too much bright white. Make it almost look somewhat circus'y. The sculpt is amazing though.

 

[Jester David]

At a price close to the $100 mark it's far too pricey for my tastes. Especially since, with wings that large, making the model stable will be hard. You can't drill and pin resin like metal; a heavy breeze and the wings will snap off.

 

[Morrus]

This is a mildly interesting piece on painting this model:

http://dndwizards.tumblr.com/post/114137763011/peter-paints-the-red-dragon

 

[Jester David]

As a comparison, here's Reaper's Cinder dragon and the gargantuan black (the tallest of the prepainted plastic D&D minis):

If the red is 7 inches high, that would put its height a little less than the black, but comparable in size since it's crouching down. And much larger than the comparably priced Cinder ($80 for a metal mini, although there is a Bones version in the works, so that might be significantly cheaper, albeit a good 2+ inches smaller). The black also has a 13 inch wingspan, which would be half that of the red.

So it's a BIG mini. Larger than anything WizKids has claimed is "gargantuan". Pushing the limits of gargantuan, really (especially with a base 2 inches wider than most gargantuan creatures). This makes the price fairly good: the colossal red was the same range roughly 5 years ago.


Still, that wingspan is going to be a table hog, and make it *really* awkward to position minis nearby. I can totally see this thing getting smacked by an arm or two. Which will not end well for a resin mini. So it might be better as shelf decoration than play piece.

 

[Jester David]

This is a mildly interesting piece on painting this model:

http://dndwizards.tumblr.com/post/114137763011/peter-paints-the-red-dragon

Interesting.
That's a lot of green stuff and metal pegging done. While the pictures make it hard to be sure, it doesn't look like there's a lot holding the wings in otherwise. It's worrisome that connections are so minor for wings that spread that far out. Gravity is unforgiving.

I do like the addition of the extra feet (which isn't mentioned in the original post as far as I could see). So you can put that dragon on the feet included with the (large and detailed) base, or use the plain feet and put it on a plainer and/or smaller base.

 

[megamania]

Beautiful figure but this a point of dollar value vs use. As hinted at before, I have the colossal and I use it more as a conversational piece than figure.

 

[pogre]

At a price close to the $100 mark it's far too pricey for my tastes. Especially since, with wings that large, making the model stable will be hard. You can't drill and pin resin like metal; a heavy breeze and the wings will snap off.

I've pinned lots of resin models with no difficulty.

Seems like a reasonable price to me. I already have enough huge red dragon models though.

 

[Jester David]

I've pinned lots of resin models with no difficulty.

Seems like a reasonable price to me. I already have enough huge red dragon models though.

I've heard horror stories of drilling in resin.

But, still, if you're releasing a mini that needs to be pinned, it should come with holes and pins. I don't see this mini holding up without pins; the wings are too large and spread out.

 

[AJCarrington]

Quality of the resin can be a factor, but can't say that I've heard or experienced those kinds of difficulties with resin. It isn't the easiest material to work with...wouldn't recommend it to s novice modeler.