Conquest: Weaver Courts Coill Draic Model Review

Special thanks to Para Bellum for providing the model in this review. If you want to get 10% off and support Goonhammer you can make your Conquest purchase by clicking here. You’ll also need to enter code “goonhammer” at checkout.

Weaver Courts Coill Draic. Credit: Rachel

This dragon is bloody massive. Like, “How am I going to fit this in my home?” massive. It’s impractical, it’s hard to build, it’s not as well-engineered as it ought to be… but I love it. It’s gorgeous, and, despite its shortcomings (which I’ll be excoriating in detail, as well as showing how to work around them), might be the best “miniature” forest dragon money can buy.

Weaver Courts Coill Draic. Credit: Rachel

From a purely visual perspective I love the Draic. Leaning forward full-tilt like a greyhound on the run, its enormous wings poised ready to pound the air, the model has a fantastic sense of momentum. Its body is so clearly made of wood, and its wings of leaves, yet it looks perfectly believable as a creature, with proportions, musculature and physiology that makes just enough sense to seem real. It looks elegant and dangerous.

Weaver Courts Coill Draic. Credit: Rachel

You could go in a number of different directions when painting this model, drawing on the natural world as you please. There are many different kinds of leaf and you could paint them all differently. You could go for various shades of green, or go autumnal, or make it look like it’s from a technicolour jungle.

Weaver Courts Coill Draic. Credit: Rachel

I can’t help but feel that Para Bellum bit off more than they could chew with this one, though. I’m glad that this model is hard plastic. I don’t think I could have taken it for review if it were resin. I'd die.

Unfortunately hard plastic does not always equal a good time.

Sprue diagrams, helpfully included on the first page of the instructions. Para Bellum's packaging leaves a bit to be desired: a few components had already popped themselves out of the frame when I first opened the box.

For the most part the kit goes together fine. Para Bellum has provided good instructions, a sheet of supplementary building tips, and an ">hour-long tutorial video on YouTube to help you through the build process.

The assembled base. As advised on the instruction sheet, I glued some coins under the rocks. I followed this up later with some DAS clay surrounding the rocks, for even more ballast. Side note: It's very funny to me that the base shown in the instructional renders is about double the size of the actual one, which is far too small.

Mostly the instructions are okay. There are some bits where they could have been clearer, for example attaching the rear wings to the body. I did figure it out eventually, but even the extra images included on the additional instruction sheet did not make it easy.

The worst part of the assembly process: gluing the Draic to its base. There are two contact points on either side of the rock, but only one of them is substantial. The legs will naturally want to flex away from the positions they need to be in for the glue to bind them to the rock, so you have to hold them in place. I developed a sort of cramp-inducing one-handed claw grip that allowed me to stroll around the flat and do things with my free hand while waiting.

The gripes above are mere side problems compared to the kit's two main problems.

Problem 1: The claim that you can magnetize the wings (for easier storage and transportation) seems spurious to me. Look at these magnet holes on the wing parts:

Magnet holes on one half of one of the wings. These line up with magnet holes on another part of the same wing.

They're shallow and tiny. For some reason I didn't write down my measurements, but I guess (from memory) about 4mm in diameter and 1mm deep. The upper part of the wing, which these magnetization points are supposed to be able to suspend, weighs over 50 grams, because it's solid plastic. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know of a magnet strong enough that four of it could hold that weight, especially at such an angle.

I did try it, for science, and it was almost as if the magnets weren't there at all.

So, heeding the suggestion of and accepting the help of my partner Kara, I investigated the possibility of making the wings removable using pins. First, we sawed the upper two-thirds of the wing off:

Can plants feel pain? I hope not.

Then we identified where the brass rods would go in:

Making sure the holes lined up was very important.

Next, drilling ensued:

BRRR

With holes in both parts of the wing, lengths of brass rod could be inserted and glued into one half. Following that the wings were detachable without being loose while attached. There is of course an unfortunate visible seam, but it will not be very noticeable on the gaming table.

Problem 2: Yes, to the maker's credit, it may just about stand up for itself using those tiny contact points on a weighted-down base -- but the moment you inevitably knock it over it will snap at exactly the point you expect it to, just above the ankle. At which point you will have to do a repair, and the repair will never be good enough to allow the dragon to stand unassisted, so before you break your dragon you may as well just add some extra support in the form of a third contact point with the base, closer to the center of mass, anyway.

Like so. In fact there is a little groove in the middle of the Draic's chest that means you will not even have to drill a hole for the rod to embed into.

If you look closely at my Draic's right leg you can see the point above the ankle where I had to do a difficult repair.

So, in conclusion, a gorgeous but flawed model. I look forward to having it on my shelf and maybe pushing it around a table some day. I suppose I must begrudgingly thank Para Bellum for giving me an opportunity to practice pinning and other uses of brass rod...

See you in the next Weaver Courts model review!

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don't forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Tags: Conquest | Conquest Last Argument of Kings | Weaver Courts | TLAOK