Fascinations Metal Earth Premium Series Silver Dragon 3D Metal Model Kit

If you're like me, you have a lot of patience for fiddly little things; if you're not like me, you won't get along with this kit. The instructions are clear, the pieces are well stamped, and they're fairly generous with spares. You will need narrow-nosed wire snips, both needle-nosed pliers AND tweezers, very good lighting, and I would HIGHLY recommend having magnification available. You have to bend a lot of circles, and you'll get better results and cause less metal fatigue by taking several gentle passes to get things into shape. For the smallest spikes, I recommend super glue, because I found it nigh impossible to maneuver my tweezers in to twist the tabs. Pay attention to where it says to twist the tabs vs folding them, as twists make a much tighter fit between pieces. My only complaint is that attaching the feet to the legs was an ENORMOUS pain. The shape the lower leg curls into is a much narrower oval than what is printed on the feet. I spent ages making micro-adjustments to get them to fit, and when I have it standing the way it's shown on the packaging, it looks like it's awkwardly on tiptoe. Fortunately, as the picture shows, it's perfectly stable standing rampant, and looks way cooler in my opinion.

You NEED to pay attention to the instructions. There were certain points where I thought "I could probably do it this way instead" then later said "oh, that's why they did it that way". Also, make sure the engraved sides are right-side up. On my first attempt, I noticed a neck joint that was upside-down and I couldn't salvage it. Bought another, built more slowly than the first, and everything fit perfectly. You MUST be patient. This is a prime example of "measure twice, cut once", especially when there are three sheets of parts. This isn't too hard a build for people who have 5-ish moderate-level builds under their belt. My problems were all user errors. The finished result looks amazing - the crown jewel of my collection.

Bought this as a gift for my sibling; and they loved it. The metal is rather thin but that just makes it easier to put together. Some of the parts needed to be glued, but they said that may have been because they messed up. Seemed to be high quality and was of a decent size. Once it’s put together it’s pretty durable, too.

Being a puzzle fiend, I bought this for myself to pass time and add another dragon to my growing collection. It took me about 8 hours to complete and was well worth it. The instructions are clear, everything goes together pretty easily, and the finished dragon looks great, with a really nice, shiny finish. I wouldn't recommend it for kids, as it requires quite a bit of dexterity and patience and there are some pretty sharp parts, but anyone 12 and over will be thrilled.

When I first got it I was a bit worried realizing it was not for a beginners. But since I'm not a new to miniature modeling in general I accepted the challenge. I didn't force it working on it while there is desire. One hint of frustration - leave it for the next time. Otherwise you make mistake that will take longer to fix. This way it became my meditation during a long 'corona-time' work meetings. I din't have a goal. I've enjoyed the process. With time I've sorted out the tools - pliers with lips I thinned using mini tool grinder, tweezers, cutter. While I don't wear glassed I found magnifying glass as a very handy here. Oh, and a good light. I must admit the quality of the product. Given the miniature sizes I didn't find 1 piece I had to adjust. When dealing with plastic airplane modeling I've got used to a necessary step 1 - cleanup and fixing minor defects before assembly. Bottomline, I'm into the game. Thank you Metal Earth!

Lots of fun to make, though the tiny parts can be a bit of a strain on the eyes. I have found that using a manicure kit with Metal Earth products make them a lot easier to work with, especially for this kit since the tweezers provided were much too big for some of the places I would have needed to use them. Instead, a pair of regular tweezers, a metal nail file for bending tabs in small places, and a pair of nail scissors to aid in getting the pieces out of the metal sheet worked wonders for me. Update: The feet are crooked (the dragon will not sit flat as pictured, rather, it stands on its hind legs or tiptoes) and won't stay on. It would seem that the part that forms the lower legs is nearly impossible to bend correctly, and the tabs that you are supposed to insert into the feet cannot be positioned correctly. I spent at least an hour and a half on each foot and have given up on getting them to stay attached. All it takes is a slight bump or picking it up for one of the feet to fall off. It was such a fun project until then.

I've been self quarantining for awhile now and decided to get this for myself to pass the time. I've been creating sculptures and building things out of wood and other materials for 3 years now so I thought this would be a nice challenge. This piece took me roughly 7 hours to build. It was a very fun project that kept me thoroughly entertained and now I have a beautiful display piece to show for it. This was my first metal model kit, or model kit of any kind, and I got a bit worried when people said it was extremely difficult. If you have a knack for building and creating things I say regardless of the difficulty as long as you have enough patience this is definitely a good purchase.

I've loved these metal models for years now, and I was extremely excited to put this one together. It did take me a few days to assemble (Actual working time, maybe about 6 or 7 hours), but it was well worth it and I am very happy with the results. It looks great and I'm very proud to showcase it on my shelf! I don't recommend this model to people who don't have experience with other metal earth models - it's very easy to break something if you aren't careful - but if you know what you're doing it's an absolute blast to build.

A challenge, but very nice model

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