Amid shrieks and wailing and the shouts of men Smaug came over Laketown. A hail of dark arrows leaped up and snapped and rattled on his scales, and their shafts fell back kindled by his breath.
Fire leaped from the dragon’s jaws. Down he swooped straight through the arrow-storm, reckless in his rage, seeking only to set their town ablaze.
Fire leaped from thatched roofs and wooden beam-ends as he hurtled down past and round again. Flames unquenchable sprang high into the night.
Still a company of archers held their ground among the burning houses. Their captain was Bard, grim-voiced and grim-faced. He shot with a great yew bow, till all his arrows but one were spent.
Then Bard drew his bow-string to his ear. The dragon was circling back, flying low.
“Arrow!” said the bowman. “Black arrow! If ever you came from the forges of the true king under the Mountain, go now and speed well!”
–Adapted from The Hobbit by Tolkien
Last year, I built a couple of Lord of the Rings inspired “hero shots“–and while I was brainstorming for those, I spotted this artist’s interpretation of Laketown from The Hobbit. It caught my eye, but I put it on the back burner because I’d just done several fire-heavy builds. But it’s a new year (well into a new year, actually), and time to revisit last year’s ideas!
The build started with the dragon’s mouth… with his teeth to be precise. I find it’s easier to make a dragon body to match a head than the other way around! The eyes were a bit of a struggle, but once I found a way to narrow the boat studs with horns, I felt they looked suitably menacing.
In order to make it look like Smaug is flying, I actually hung him from two sturdy pillars of brick. The braces across the top are a critical part of the structure, but they also served as a handy connection point for the two sides of the tail.
Mixel joints can take some weight, by the way! With the massive head this dragon’s got on him, he’s no lightweight beast!
Lighting the fire was another critical part of this build. While it can be touched up in post, there’s nothing like getting the actual reflections of deep orange lights in the original photo. If you haven’t tried lighting your MOCs yet, I highly recommend grabbing a few small LEDs and trying it out. Quick warning though: you’ll never look back!
My version of Bard is meant only to be seen from behind… a handy way to get around buying expensive LotR figures!
The houses on either side are only facades. In fact, the second story is barely even attached to the first story on the house on the left!
Since this was built only for the camera, the back of the dragon is as unpolished as can be. You can see the wiring for the eyes and other fires from the back as well.
Unlike my previous hero shots, I built this all in one piece, so it didn’t take as long to set up the perfect angle. After snapping a few photos with different focuses, I just stacked those, replaced the background with fiery smoke, and we were good to go!
If you enjoyed this creation, you might also have fun checking out:
Geneva D 
What do you think?