Dragon’s Nest: Build Log

This was my last model built before Brickworld 2018, and it remains one of my favorite Isles of Aura builds.

It began with the actual dragon’s nest, which used pretty much the same design as my Risky Endeavor model from the 2017 CCC. It needed to be fairly large to accommodate the dragon, yet I didn’t want it ending up giant and thus requiring a very large island.

Everything grew out from the nest area. Which made for a pretty flimsy model before I could get several brick layers of rockwork built underneath the dark tan and lime green plates.

At this point I wasn’t really sure how the island would develop, besides wanting tall pillars of rock surrounding the nest to arch back together. Then I realized this could resemble the basic shape of an egg.

I liked that idea, but was unsure how to go about building it. So I just built rockwork about like normal, trying to keep that general outline in mind. We had gotten quite a few lime green teeth plates and I had fun using them as overhanging grass on various sections of the rock. The rockwork style was rather rough with lots of SNOT portions mixed into studs up building.

I knew this model needed to survive the long car ride to Brickworld Chicago, so I tried to make sure the rockwork was very solid. Which meant no portions were hollow.

I think all of the progress you’ve seen up to this point was made in a single day. And by now I was convinced the egg idea would work out.

A couple large arches let me have an early look at how the two sides could meet up at the top. I think one of the main reasons the big arch ended up working out so well is how each side isn’t lined up square to the other – instead they are rather staggered off of each other.

And yes, by this point I was rather tired of building rockwork! But the end was in sight, so I kept pressing on.

The very top of the island was one of the hardest portions to design. I toyed around with having trees or bushes on the scene, but they just didn’t look right. Eventually I settled on more lime green grass with a few bright light orange Friends flowers to give a pop of color.

A few small dragons finished the scene off nicely. At Brickworld I also had my larger dragon from the Risky Endeavor model flying by this island.

And Graham Gidman was kind enough to edit in a sky background for the final picture.

I think I got more comments on this build than anything else I took to Brickworld – with a lot of different nicknames about the various types of food items its shape resembles.

I hope you enjoyed reading more about this build, and as always, you’re welcome to post a comment if you have questions or comments about the design.