Here you will find the steps taken to create the green dragon Vildegraas.  I will admit I won't go through every single step, but not because I don't want any copy cat builders, but I didn't take the time to take pictures for every step.

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Step 1.

Gather parts.  I cannot stress enough the importance of planning ahead.

All the lovely click hinges I planned to use for Vildegraas, grouped by use.

Vildegraas' fingers and toes, prebuilt and gathered.

Step 2.

Build the head.  I built his head long before anything else.  The head of the beast is a template for the rest of the body.

I spent four days revising Vildegraas' head over and over again.  He had to be perfect.

Step 3.

Build the theme limbs.  I next experimented with two huge scythes that would be Vildegraas main weaponry.

I gathered some pieces I thought would be important for building the scythes.  The first problem was to figure out how to attach them to the body.  Using the pieces above, I discovered that they worked perfectly inside normal lego bricks.  There would be no need for plate filler or layers to make them fit.

I then laid out the click hinges in the approximate areas that I thought would work.  I then removed the center hinges and just used more hinges to make a smoother curve.

Here are the two scythes, just finished.  Before final assembly, I changed the ends of the scythes to make them look more tapered in the front.

Step 4.

Build the neck and tail.  I built the neck next, just because it was logical after building the head.  Since the tail is built in the exact same style, I went ahead and built that too.

Before final assembly, I changed the end of the tail to look much more scorpion like.  In this shot, you can see the joint where the tail will attach to the body, with the pin inside the technic pin that keeps the tail from slipping off.

Step 5.

Arms and Legs.  With only the arms, legs, and body left, I figured the arms and legs were more important piece wise, since more people would focus on them than the body.

In this picture, the hands, forearms, and lower upper arms are finished.  All that remains is to build the shoulder joint, which consists of two parts.  The hands of Vildegraas were designed with the same building style as Tel'Karak's hands, except Vildegraas gets two thumbs.

Here, the right leg stands nearly complete.  I took this picture to show how I desperately attempted to strengthen the dragons without adding excess weight.  Looking back I realize all of the dragons have rather skimpy thighs.  However, when compared to Tel'Karak's thigh which is entirely made of basic bricks, this leg is built much better.

Step 6.

The Body.  What else is left?

Pretty ugly, huh?  That's ok though, I covered up all the multi colored bricks with green and black, but I didn't have enough of those two colors to make it all the way through.  In fact, down the spine of the beast, shown in this picture, is a line of about 17 black turntables to act as filler.  I attached the base of the tail, neck, and four limbs to help work with placement.  The large green platform between the front and back legs will house the right scythe.

Step 7.

Assemble.

Here is Vildegraas, all but finished.  This is the first time Vildegraas stood on his own.  I later added spines and other bricks on his back, but for that time, I let him enjoy his first milestone.

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Well, I hope that gave you some sort of insight into the dragons.  Some day I'll improve on the design, but right now, I'm taking a long, deserved break.

All images contained within this page and website, including images linked to from this page are copyrighted 2001 by and property of Anthony J. Sava III.  Likewise, the dragon is copyrighted by Anthony J. Sava III.  All characters herein are purely fictional, any resemblance to persons, either living or otherwise, is purely coincidental.  Any reproduction or copying of any of the material on this page is strictly prohibited except with expressed written authorization.