So last week I decided I needed a dragon mini for my new campaign. Heard folks raving about Tiamat kits online, you know how it is. Figured I’d grab one and see what the fuss was about. Big mistake? Maybe. Sit tight.
First Impressions & The Messy Start
Ordered this thing from the usual hobby spot. Box arrives looking a bit… squished. Great start. I rip it open like a kid on Christmas. Plastic bags inside – gotta count the sprues, right? Started laying ’em out on my kitchen table. Big sprues, little sprues… felt like a dragon jigsaw puzzle already. Threw on some tunes, grabbed my clippers. Snip snip snip. Tiny dragon parts everywhere. My cat tried to steal a wing. Rookie error leaving it unattended.
Getting the body together? Wrestled with it. Literally. That torso didn’t wanna sit flush. Instructions showed this nice clean join. Mine? Looked like it got stepped on. Had to haul out the big guns:
- Super glue? Yep.
- Green stuff putty? Oh yeah.
- Sandpaper for days? For sure.
Spent maybe an hour just filing down seams and globbing on putty. My fingertips were covered. Looked like I murdered a smurf.
The Five-Head Nightmare
Alright, got the body sorta looking like a dragon. Time for the heads. Five heads. Five! Each one a separate little nightmare. Pegs were fiddly. Getting them angled right without drooping? Impossible. Glued one head, held it… counted to fifty… let go… SLOMP. Head dangling like a sad puppy. Did it again. Same thing. Cue the swearing.
Ended up propping every single head with paint pots, books, a coaster… whatever was nearby. Looked like a dragon hospital. Let that glue cure overnight. Woke up, poked one. Held! Minor victory dance happened right there in my pajamas.
The Pointy Bits & Base BS
Wings. So many wing pieces. Tiny connectors. Felt like performing surgery. Tails weren’t much better – kept snapping off when I tried bending them slightly. Ended up dunking them in hot water like the forums said. Warped one instead of bending it. Cool. More scraping and reglueing. The base? Ugh. Fit was terrible. Big gap underneath. Shoved some rocks in there and called it “texture” to hide my shame.
Painting Panic (And That Broken Wing Tip)
Prime time. Black primer everywhere – my hands, the newspaper, maybe the cat. Whoops. Actual painting started okay. Base coated the main body. Then came the detail on the heads. Eyes? My brush hand shook like I’d had ten coffees. Scales? Tedious doesn’t even cover it. Dropped the damn thing halfway through. Heard the SNAP. One delicate wing tip snapped clean off. Just gone. Couldn’t find it anywhere. Searched the floor like a detective. Nothing. Had to scratch-build a replacement from sprue goo. Looks… wonky.
Final Check & Honest Thoughts
Finally, days later, it’s sitting on my shelf. Finished? Kinda. It’s a dragon with five heads. It looks… impressive from across the room. Up close? You see the putty seams, my terrible eye paint, and that stupid bent wing tip. Would I build another one? Nope. Too much hassle for what it is.
So yeah. It looks cool eventually. But is it the “Best” kit? My back’s sore, my fingers are glued together, and I lost part of the wing. You decide.
