What’s wrong with the Ratwyrm?

So, like I said the other day, I’m pretty unhappy with it.  There’s just a lot of missteps.

In a way, I’m okay with that.  I did 95% of the conversion work on it two years ago.  I’ve gotten a lot better since then (though I’d definitely got a long way to go).

I’m also relatively pleased with the painting.  Painting large things is definitely a weakness for me; painting large fleshy things even more so.  The wings came out pretty well, all things considered.

Anyway, let the parade of failures begin!

Using the old bell was a terrible idea.  It weighs nearly as much as the rest of the model; It requires a freaking paperclip to support it.  I give myself a pass on this, as I did the conversion quite some time before the new kit had come out… but I still should have considered removing the metal bell and replacing it with the more impressive and easily workable plastic bell.

More importantly: what the hell was I thinking when I rotated the bell that way?  I absolutely should have had the symbol facing forward.  Having it face the sides was a boneheaded move.

The tail is a more recent addition: I slapped it on there a few weeks ago, just before painting.  It’s rough.  I clearly need to work on my greenstuff skills a lot more.  I started at the base of the tail and worked my way towards the end in batches… as I went, it got progressively better, which is heartening, but the overall result is one I’m dissatisfied with.

I ended up using Rat Ogre hands ’cause I’d misplaced the Dragon’s claws.  I like the result a lot, but getting it to work was pretty difficult and, in the process, resulted in a pretty severely mutilated right front paw.  I covered for it by painting the incredibly bad greenstuff as boils.  I think it worked out okay, but it’s going to keep bothering me.

I dug the notion of having rats hanging on the wings… but I don’t think the result worked out very well.  I dunno.

I mean, I can always find stuff wrong with minis I’ve done, but there are just so many goofs with this thing.