Glaurung the Golden

Hurin_it · **Joined:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:02 pm **Posts:** 180

I made a long research both in Tolkien sources and in available models before choosing the best suitable model and colors to represent Glaurung the Golden.

About Tolkien, the most important existing descriptions may be summed up in three:

- an autograph drawing (the only existing one), "Glaurung ('Glomund') sets forth to seek Turin" - here below;
- the description in the "Narn-i-Hin-Hurin";
- and its nickname, "The Golden".

About its aspect, I must say that Tokien's imaginary about an urulòki was clearly much close to that of a Chinese dragon; this is very clear from his writings, and it is confirmed by a couple more of his drawings.

The colour, though, is a different matter. For this beast has born fully golden (see the drawing and the nickname), to become later "ash gray" (see the Narn).
This change was of course necessary in the Narn, for the general tones of darkness and sadness that characterize that splendid narrative wouldn't fit with so shining a creature.
Artists are divided upon the matter: it is most often depitded gold in the Nirnaeth, and gray in the Narn. Only the great painter Donato Giancola has found an artistic compromise soluction: gray scales, with a golden skin shining from below.

I was longly undecided, but I finally opted for gold; this overall because of that precious Tolkien's drawing, but also because Giancola's soultion was not applicable to the metal model I had chosen.

Finally, about the model.
A true Urulòki model was only made by Mithril Miniatures. It's a splendid piece, though far from Tolkien's description: bulky, hardly fit to crawl, and characterized by huge horns from its back, never quoted or depicted by the author.
So I looked for oriental dragon models, and I found two excellent ones: the "Oriental Dragon" from Grenadier, and the "Fire Dragon" from Clan War. I find both to be perfectly suitable, with but little customization.

My Glaurung here is that of Grenadier, with modified head and tail overall.
Its base is still under construction.

Fëanor, the mighty elf · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:36 am

Very nice! I really like how close it is to Tolkien's own drawing of a dragon:

Very clever choice! :yay:

The painting is also very well done. The only small improvement I might see, is that the gold looks a little bit shallow, and could do with a bit more shading. Maybe applying some brown wash would really help with that.
Either way, great piece!

Sacrilege83 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 08, 2016 2:37 am

Funny I always thought Glaurung was black, never ever remembered him being gold. I bought the Warploque Fire Dragon Ancient for the purpose of making it Glaurung. Now you're telling me he's gold! Pfff...

Hurin_it · **Joined:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:02 pm **Posts:** 180

Oh my... black no, please! Either gold (early Tolkien - Silmarillion), or gray (late Tolkien - Narn).

For your model, I suggest you the painting solution chosen by Donato Giancola, here below.

Hope to see here soon your finished Glaurung!

Sacrilege83 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 08, 2016 10:53 am

Oh my dragon is not on my schedule anytime soon. I've posted the size comparison of the Warploque dragon to the GW dragon on News & Rumours. He's pretty big and wingless, but I must wait before I paint him. My plan was to paint him in the colour scheme found all over google images, which is a dark greyish green with yellow tinting on the underbelly. Not many pictures depict him as golden strangely enough.

Hurin_it · **Joined:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:02 pm **Posts:** 180

Here is Glaurung finished. It is now more shaded, as it was suggested by Fëanor; also, its belly is now ash-gray, just like in the Narn description.
Looks it better now?

Hurin_it · **Joined:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:02 pm **Posts:** 180

I also completed the base. To the ground there are, on one side, haste-dropped weapons and armour, Angband's overall, and burned on the other side, a couple of Nargothrond elves and a goblin (I'm afraid, they're not perfectly visible in the pictures).

Fëanor, the mighty elf · **Posted:** Tue Dec 13, 2016 10:33 pm

Really stunning! The shading looks perfect, this is what I meant indeed. Really helps the details stand out.

The base is also brilliant! These flames and burnt parts also look very realistic.

Awesome work all in all, can't wait to see a new project! :yay:

Darkones · **Joined:** Fri May 29, 2009 9:32 pm **Posts:** 13

I am a bigger fan of western style dragons than the eastern look, but you have nailed the description for this one. That is one dragon i would like to see on the table. Brilliant work!

Crucium Giger · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:57 am

Fantastic work and a very fitting miniature for Glaurung, the fire on the base is very effective as well and like any good base finishes of the model perfectly

Sephalo · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2016 11:01 am

Very inspiring work! Especially the fact that you went out looking for a model to go with the dragon from the story.
I didn't know anything about Glaurung nor the stories of Middle Earth from before the Hobbit/LOTR.

It really inspired me to also check out if I could find a model for it. Maybe a model I could use as a Moria Dragon at the same time during games.

I came across the 'Arcane Dragon' from 'Warploque Miniatures', which can be found here: http://www.warploqueminiatures.com/the- ... -arcworlde.

The only sad thing is that that model is flying (without wings

) and Glaurung wasn't.

Hurin_it · **Joined:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:02 pm **Posts:** 180

Thank you everybody. I worked hard upon it, for it's going to be Christmas present for my son - so I'm going to meet it on the table against my poor Elves very soon!

Sephalo, I too had seen that Waroloque one. The problem is, it's a bit too expensive for so risky a customization as to make it a ground monster.

I suggest you three Mithril Miniatures dragon models:

- Smaug;
- Scatha;
- Uruloki.

The first two ones are winged and came directly from the famous Tolkien's drawing of Smaug.
The uruloki is also very beautiful, better than Waroloque's one in my opinion.
They are all still in production and also sometimes available on ebay.

MacCollac · **Posted:** Thu Dec 15, 2016 8:08 pm

How do the mithril dragons compare to 28mm models?

Hurin_it · **Joined:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:02 pm **Posts:** 180

I have got Smaug.
Perfectly.

Look at the uruloki:

Glaurung the Golden

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