#spade tip

[armoreddragon]

New dragon tail commission! This one has a complex custom pattern--red mottled striped and brown speckles on a purple background, with an underbelly of yellow with brown stripes. It’s got clusters of spikes down the spine, and a custom 3D shaped spade tip.

As per usual, it’s made of anodized aluminum scales linked with stainless steel rings. The spade tip is leather, and attaches via 3 lobster clasps. The tail measures 34 inches long, 38 inches with the spade tip, and weighs 3 pounds 14 ounces.

[armoreddragon]

Small scale maille dragon tail! Been a while since I made a short one like this, it’s nice and cute.

It measures just over 24 inches long, and the spade tip adds about 2.5 inches onto that. The scales are black anodized aluminum, and the spade tip is black acrylic. It weighs in at 2 pounds 5 ounces.

One of the funny things that struck me was how it feels subtly different to wear. The most common length of tail I make is about 3 feet long, and those swing like pendulums at about the speed that your hips naturally sway when you walk. This one swings much faster, so it tends towards quicker, bouncier movements.

Which is to say, big ones sway, little ones wiggle.

[armoreddragon]

Scale mail dragon tail commission I just finished. One of the prettiest patterns of colors I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

It’s got a custom pattern of anodized titanium scales in purple, violet, dark blue and teal, and it’s got a stainless steel underbelly. The anodized titanium has to be special-ordered from the manufacturer, and it’s pretty pricey, but it’s worth it. The spade tip’s shape was based on a reference from the commissioner, and it’s 1/8″ birch plywood that I laser-cut and painted with acrylic paint.

It measures in at 34 inches long without the spade tip, and the spade tip adds 4 inches, bringing it to 38 inches total. It weighs 3 pounds 13 ounces.

I’m currently open for more tail commissions like this! Info here: https://armoreddragon.tumblr.com/tails

[armoreddragon]

And here’s the anodized titanium dragon tail I was working on! I was super happy to get a chance to work with this metal again. Getting these takes putting in a special order to the manufacturer, and there’s always variability between batches, but it’s totally worth it. (There was a bit of a snafu getting started with this one because paying taxes had drained my bank account, and I didn’t have the cash to be able to put in the order for the scales until I had finished another commission... Anyway, it eventually worked out.)

This one also has a funky tip, which took rather a while to work out the specific dimensions on. The upper part goes clear through the tail, and the tail is slitted to provide the space for it. Like my normal spade tips, it attaches in to the tail with lobster clasps, so it’s removable. I’m pretty adamant about doing it like that, because I know that the materials I use for the tips will wear down more easily than the metal of the tail, so I want to make sure they can be easily replaced by the owner without needing to ship the whole thing back to me to take apart the chainmail. 

Oh right, this tail also used a different style of spikes than I normally use. These are shaped like eagle claws. I rather like the side view of them, but for some reason they’ve got a strong twist to the side, which I was not a big fan of. The client liked it, though, so that’s fine.

The scales are all anodized titanium, primarily a mix of light blue and dark blue, with a pattern of violet diamonds down the spine and a scattering of teal and green on the top side. Spade tip is Baltic birch plywood with black acrylic paint. It measures in at 35 inches long with the spade tip, 33 inches without. It weighs 3 pounds 11 ounces.

[armoreddragon]

I’ve got a dragon tail to sell! It’s red with black on the spine, with an underbelly of pink bright aluminum scales. Very shiny!

This tail had been made for a commissioner, who then was unable to pay. It’s been sitting in my room for a while, and it’s time to cash it in!

The commissioner had wanted a leather spade tip with a custom shape, which I made, but I didn’t really like it, so instead I’m offering it with both the arrow and heart shapes, but in acrylic plastic rather than the leather that most people get. 

It’s for sale over on my Etsy page! Jump on it quick, before that other guy gets it!

I do hope to open up for commissions in not too long, but I need to finish dealing with a few projects currently owed to people.

[armoreddragon]

This dragon tail has a golden flame pattern to it. Made of anodized aluminum scales, mostly yellow/gold with some orange and red. And it has a spade tip made of fluorescent orange acrylic plastic.

It measures in at 32 inches long without the spade tip, 35 with it, and weighs 2 lbs 15 oz.

I’d fallen a bit behind, but nearly finished up March’s commissions in time. I’ve got 2 more tails incoming.

[armoreddragon]

This dragon tail is made of anodized titanium, and it’s got a couple new details!

First is the spade tip. The client wanted this more complicated shape, so I worked out how to get the upper piece to attach through a slit in the pattern of the tail. Like my normal spade tips, it also attaches in with lobster clasps, so it’s removable and swappable for different colors/materials. In this instance the client went for black painted plywood, and I threw in a plain un-painted birch plywood one as a spare. 

The second new thing the client requested was the type of spikes used down the spine. The manufacturer refers to these as an eagle claw shape. I do like their profile, but instead of being symmetrical like the rest of the spikes I use, they curve to the side pretty dramatically. I could see it working really well on a big leather collar or super-spiked-out jacket, but for this application I was not super fond of them. But the client liked them, so that’s what matters.

The tail itself is made with a bunch of different colors of anodized titanium: violet diamonds beneath each spike down the spine, a mix of dark and light blue for the background, and a scattering of teal and green. I clustered the teal and green scales towards the top surface, and faded the blues darker on the underside. I got photos of it in a bunch of lighting conditions because the colors can really vary depending on the type of light they’re in.

[armoreddragon]

I had two dragon tail commissions in a row that involved non-standard spade tips. Normally I do them horizontal/flat, in whale-fluke orientation. For this tail though the client wanted a vertical shark-fin orientation. I turned out to rather like it! 

The other sort of funky thing about this tail is thankfully impossible to see. The purple scales scattered throughout are anodized titanium, which is a harder metal than the aluminum. I usually try to avoid mixing metals of different hardnesses, because the softer one will tend to get scratched up relatively faster. So to mitigate this problem, I cut a little scale out of suede to weave in beneath each titanium scale, as padding to prevent it from touching the aluminum scales below it. Maaaybe overkill, maaaybe more time consumptive than it was worth, but hey, it won’t scratch itself now.

Primarily made of anodized aluminum, red on top with an orange underbelly. Speckled through the red are some purple anodized titanium scales. It measures 29 inches from tip to belt line without the spade tip, 34 inches with it on. It weighs in at 2 pounds 14 ounces.

Pics of the other tail I’m finishing will be up tomorrow.