Ral Partha Imperial Dragon - Tom Meier 1982

My only ever visit to the US of A was back in 1982. I was almost 21 at the time and the lure of the lead was already deep. I shared rooms with my mum and dad ( both long gone now, God bless them) so would often leave them to enjoy their own company. We stayed overnight on arrival in Flagstaff at the Best Western where I met a young waitress named Shirley Wangle... we wrote for a few years but then it fizzled off. Often wonder what happened to her. Anyway, I digress. I had been asked by Lyndsey Le Doux Patton (now of course married to Rick Priestley) to pick up a copy of the Ral Partha limied edition Imperial dragon. I don't think I was working for the Manchester shop at the time but I certainly spent a lot of time in there. I managed to pick up two from a hobby shop and ordered a bunch of other stuff for forwarding over that never arrived of course... grrrr etc. I half painted mine (see below) and did buy another UK one... again, see below. 

In 2015 I did a small interview with the wonderful Tony Ackland. He mentioned different versions of the Imperial Dragon being released... 

 There is however the 'how many versions of Citadel castings of Tom Meier's Imperial Dragon were there episode'.

DW     There were different versions of the Imperial Dragon?

TA       Tom invited the Perrys and myself to add items to the treasure mound on the master castings. As items were added at different times during tje making of the production moulds there were has I remember three versions. I remember one of the things I added was a MP40 machine pistol. Tom had included an umbrella and a toaster.

DW     I would guess they would only be on the English castings? I'll have a look as I have a couple of the US ones.....both were in sealed boxed from new....when I opened them a couple of years ago one was missing the tail...... I always loved the sense of humour in the early Citadel miniatures; something I believe has gone now with the 'corporate' image.

TA       Those were the English castings although the anachronisms that Tom put in are in the American castings. They do need a close look to find.

Full interview here; http://www.deartonyblair.co.uk/2015/05/the-lure-of-lead-interview-with-tony.html

This is one of the UK castings... so much rot when I opened it a few years back and also missing its tail.

I picked up a cheap one off eBay about 8 years ago for a tail and the (hidden) tail end was like this.

My half painted one... held together by epoxy resin of course.

Below you can see the (cracking with lead rot) UK bowler hat and umbrella...

Comparison with the US version;

You can almost make out the Uzi although rot has taken its toll.

A second version of the leaflet with an illustration by Tony I believe... a friend sent me this pic, not sure where its from so all qdos to the owner and I'll remove if it's a problem of course.

Rick (Priestley) often says that they never used any poor quality / cheap alloys but I reckon some crept in somehow. I've so many pieces that I've now binned as they are not saveable. A great hobby friend (Mike Broadbent) collected many of the miniatures from the late Joe Dever's collection and loads were cracking. A damned shame. I did pick up a 15mm Manticore (about £35 if I remember rightly) that sits somewhere nicely.

The Little Soldier Company (that's me of course) has a wonderful tribute to the dragon by Tom Pickford. It's a resin peice with not may castings left as the mold guy did a runner wih everything (hopefully he'll get his just reward at some point). I got some moulds back but the master now has a new head sculpted by John. Don't know if it'll ever be released though as sales were poor and I've never recouped my costs. Don't go into the miniature business folks!

https://thelittlesoldiercompany.co.uk/product/the-treasure-dragon/

The second version... John removed the head andresculpted to an open mouthed one.

The only pics I have from the 1982 holiday. My mum and I sitting by the hotel pool and one with my dad from around the Grand Canyon. A lot of great memories and I do so miss them both.

Whilst uploading the dragon pics into my RP folder I saw these that I painted for Jacob at Ral Partha Legacy. He wanted to base them himself so they were left black. Wonderful old Empire of the Petal Throne miniatures by Tom Meier from the later 70's along with a couple of his much later slugs from Thunderbolt Mountain (Jacob produces them all under license).

https://ralparthalegacy.com/collections/insect-men

That's all for now folks. I'm looking out at the rain pouring down as I type this... we don't get good wether for long in the UK. More soon.

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk