Wyverns are the belligerent, uncouth cousins of true dragons. They're smaller, can't breathe fire or any other dangerous substances, but they have a mean streak and are always hungry. The perfect mounts for orcs. Naturally, as Orcs & Goblins were my first army and always hold a special place for me, I have collected a few wyverns over the years. These ones all have orc riders, but I have one more awaiting assembly that I am going to leave rider-less, to use as a monster in D&D.
These three wyverns really show a snapshot of my painting from many years ago. They are all old models, and one of them was the first big model I ever painted, well over 20 years ago.
I've posted about my dragons here, and compared these three wyverns to the imposing Carmine Dragon below - they're not nearly as big, but you still wouldn't want to see one dropping out of the sky towards you!
Azhag the Slaughterer on Skullmuncha
Classic Orc Warboss and his Wyvern
This was the first big miniature I ever got and painted - I remember being given it for Christmas one year, and my parents had even made sure they bought all the pots of paint that were recommended on the side of the box! It was brilliant. This was one of the first times I really tried doing recess shading and highlighting, putting thick lines of dark green in the folds of the wings... looks fairly crude now, but this was over 20 years ago!!
I absolutely love this model, and the backstory of the special character it represents. Games Workshop did produce a newer Azhag, but it never tempted me enough to actually get it - it didn't quite fit the aesthetic for me of this orc warlord who was more cerebral than others, thanks to the magical crown he had found. And just wasn't as cool as this model.
The back banner that he was supplied with was truly a product of GW's 1990's 'red period', and I followed suit with plenty of red in there! I'm not quite sure what happened with the white bits, I think it was filler that I was using on the base to get the large metal pads smoothed out a bit and make sure he was stuck to the base properly (this was before I discovered pinning...). I must have had it on my hands when I was holding the model in place, which is a bit of a shame really as it mucked up some of the careful painting! I did my best to write his name on the base as well, using a cocktail stick if I remember correctly...
Part of me is tempted to go back and touch this model up (the base could do with serious improvement!), or possibly get another from eBay and paint him up for a side-by-side comparison. It is nice looking back at this model and seeing how my painting has progressed in the last couple of decades or so. I still like the model, and I'd be happy enough plonking him on the table for a game again one day!
Basha Bigtoof
Orc Big Boss on Wyvern
I named this Orc Big Boss Basha Bigtoof - and given the weight of the model, Basha was a very apt name! The wyvern itself is metal (apart from the classic plastic wings), but more than that I built up the base with lead. The official base for this model at the time was the 50mm square one that I mounted him on, and even with a few little stones on the back, he was seriously front-heavy and kept falling forward. Nowadays, I would have stuck him on a longer base (which GW eventually did), but at the time I thought I better stick to the right base size and instead I cut a couple of lead squares out that I stuck under the base (my dad had some lead in the garage for some reason). He's very stable now, and quite a deadly weapon!
My aim was to do a wyvern that wasn't the 'normal' green colour that I was used to seeing, and keep the colours fairly muted. I'm really pleased with what I achieved on this guy, the shading and highlights are pretty subtle and effective, a step up from painting Azhag. I really like the wyvern model itself; they managed to keep the serpentine nature of the wyverns, while adding some muscle mass and a decent belly to show its ravenous hunger. The face is so distinct from a proper dragon too, with the jutting jaw and angry look. The only thing I would potentially change on this model is the base, making it longer and/or painting it more like the general basing style I use at the moment.
It's a crying shame that these guys aren't 'proper' for Age of Sigmar!
Kraglug da Wysegit
Orc Shaman on Wyvern
I can't remember exactly how I got hold of this classic old shaman model. Maybe one of the Skullz promotions GW ran back in the day? I do remember that he was supposed to ride a boar (one of the old, old, old metal ones I think), and I also remember that he had a boring staff so I used an extra piece from a boarboy standard bearer to put a proper knob on the end of it, like all good wizards should have!
He was sitting in my bits box for some time until I got hold of this wyvern model, which was from Cadwallon Miniatures - nice model and really good price, I snapped it up. I was tempted to run it as a wild wyvern, but at the time there was no option to do that in any of the games I was playing. Kind of wish I had now, it would have been good for D&D! But I like this shaman sitting on it, he does fit in pretty well.
I was painting this at the same sort of time as the Carmine Dragon, so I think I was using this as a bit of a test case for the red scheme - I just decided to change it up and add more orange to the wyvern's belly, to keep it looking different. It was a pretty simple bit of drybrushing, but quite effective overall. The basing here is the best of the three wyverns - it was an early use of tufts and grey stone for me, before I got on to the current way I do bases. Though I still stuck with the green edge - the only thing I would consider changing now is painting the base edge black. Overall, very pleased with this model, again I would like to get him on the tabletop at some point. That will either be using the Warhammer Oldworld rules once they come out (I think there might be some interest for that at the club), or maybe Kings of War or Oathmark as they both seem like pretty solid fantasy rulesets. Just depends on getting opponents to play them really.
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