Video: Benedict Cumberbatch might have moved on to bigger and more problematic things, but papier mâché artist Dan Reeder has been fielding requests for the greediest of dragons since the first Hobbit movie. Now, he’s finally delivering.
The build required a combination of paper and cloth, dipped in either thinned Elmer’s glue or a water and flour mixture. As Reeder explains on his blog, the glue is harder but more brittle, while the flour portions are easier to sculpt. He’s an expert at making fantastical creatures out of papier mâché. (Who else would make a unicorn opossum?) But for him the most difficult part was having to work around the existing film model instead of using his imagination.
Did he nail the look of Cumberbatch’s dragon? You be the judge.