40 Years of Warhammer: Miniature Retrospective – Imperial Dragon
Games Workshop is celebrating 40 years of Warhammer and the Imperial Dragon is showcasing how far we’ve come.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Warhammer and Games Workshop is taking some time to look back at miniatures that had a big impact on their work. Today we’re taking a look at arguably one of the largest miniatures available at the time. This all metal dragon was in a league of their own. All hail the Imperial Dragon!
“Perhaps the largest miniature available in the late 1980s, the Imperial Dragon was so big that it didn’t even have sculpted wings! Instead, you created your own wing membranes out of paper or tin foil to cover the dactyly (the fingers of the wing). Incredibly, this beastie was also all metal, which required a lot of superglue and much pinning to prevent him from falling apart!”
Talk about a hobby challenge. A giant metal (probably lead) miniature that you had to create the wing membranes for yourself? Times have certainly changed.
It’s kind of crazy to think that this dragon is basically the precursor to all the dragons in Warhammer. This model eventually gave way to the next iteration of the more serpentine/elven dragons of Warhammer Fantasy.
However, looking at the current range in Age of Sigmar you can see how this Imperial Dragon design has made a bit of a comeback. The Stormcast Dragons in particular are much larger and chunkier than the serpentine style dragons.
Who knows — Games Workshop might have more nods to the Imperial Dragon in the future.
Anyone know what the weight of the Imperial Dragon model was at the time and if it was lead or pewter?
