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Kevin Stone, a metal sculptor based in British Columbia, spent two years hand-building a Game of Thrones dragon inspired by Drogon, with 12 meters in height, 13 meters in width, 6,800 kilos of stainless steel, and a propane system that shoots real flames from the mouth of the sculpture
On a farm in Abbotsford, about an hour from Vancouver, there is a Game of Thrones dragon nearly life-sized made entirely of stainless steel. The sculpture stands 12 meters tall, 13 meters wide with its wings folded, an estimated wingspan of 30 meters if the wings were open, and weighs 6,800 kilos. Every scale, every tooth, every spike was hand-cut, hand-shaped, and hand-welded by a single artist over two years of continuous work.
The creator of the work is Kevin Stone, a Canadian metal sculptor who traded a hot rod workshop for large-scale art after his creations began to gain worldwide attention. The Game of Thrones dragon is inspired by Drogon, the largest of the dragons in the series, and was designed to breathe real fire through a propane system installed inside the mouth. It is by far the most complex, detailed, and time-consuming sculpture Stone has ever produced in over 30 years of metal shaping.
Who is Kevin Stone, the sculptor who built the Game of Thrones dragon
Kevin Stone has been working with metal for over three decades. Before dedicating himself exclusively to art, he owned a hot rod shop in British Columbia, Canada.
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When his sculptures began to attract more attention than cars, Stone sold his share in the shop and moved to a farm in Abbotsford, where he set up the studio where he works full-time to this day.
One of the opportunities that changed his career came in 2011 when Dollywood park in Tennessee hired him to build a giant metal eagle for the Wild Eagle roller coaster.
From there, orders for large-scale sculptures began to come in from clients around the world. Among his most well-known works is a stainless steel T-Rex nearly 17 meters long, entirely handmade. But none compare to the Game of Thrones dragon in terms of complexity and scale.
How a 12-meter and 6,800-kilo dragon was built piece by piece
Stone describes his process as solving one problem at a time. The first challenge is always the skeleton of the sculpture: the internal structure that will support all the weight.
In the case of the Game of Thrones dragon, the skeleton was assembled with 10-inch steel tubes, angles, and flat bars of stainless steel, forming a massive structure that supports the wings, legs, and the entire body.
Metal rings define the overall shape of the tail and trunk, serving as guides for the external shaping.
On top of this skeleton, Stone applied thousands of stainless steel panels that were cut, shaped, and welded individually. The artist estimates that between 3,000 and 4,000 square feet of stainless steel were needed just to cover the dragon.
Each panel was textured with a power hammer, a 110-year-old machine that Stone acquired from a friend from his hot rod days. Before this machine, all work was done with a hand hammer and sandbag, a process that took hours and hours per panel.
Scales, teeth, horns, and skin: the details that make the dragon impressive
The level of detail in the Game of Thrones dragon is what sets this sculpture apart from any industrial replica. Stone started with the mouth, shaping each tooth individually from round steel bar, bending and sharpening to points.
The gums were made with round bar and the inside of the mouth with metal sheet. In the corners of the mouth are the electric igniters and the gas tube that feed the fire system.
The horns and spikes were built with successive layers of weld on half-inch round bar. Stone intentionally left the splatter and roughness of the weld to create an organic texture reminiscent of real horn.
Each scale of the body was designed with paint on whole sheets of metal, hand-cut, shaped, and welded individually. The dragon has two types of scales: the armor scales on the chest, smaller and thicker, and the belly scales, larger, that wrap around the entire lower body in overlapping layers. There are between 50 and 60 scales just on the belly, from the base to the tip of the tail.
For the skin between the scales, Stone used a heat treatment technique with a torch, passing the flame back and forth until achieving the desired color.
The goal was to create a leather or skin feel without needing to sculpt individual wrinkles, using the variation in color and texture of the heated steel itself to generate the visual effect.
The system that makes the Game of Thrones dragon breathe real fire
The Game of Thrones dragon is not just a static sculpture. Stone designed the work to shoot real flames from the mouth, transforming the steel Drogon into something even closer to the original from the series.
The system works with propane: an external connection feeds an internal collector that distributes the gas to the mouth of the dragon, where two electric igniters initiate combustion.
The entire fire system was embedded inside the sculpture to not compromise the external aesthetics. The gas tubes run through the steel structure, invisible to those observing from the outside.
When activated, the dragon shoots a column of fire from its mouth with a visual effect that reinforces the impression that the creature is alive. Combined with the 12 meters in height and the 6,800 kilos of stainless steel, the effect is described by those who see it in person as something between awe and shock.
How a 12-meter sculpture leaves the workshop and reaches its destination
One of the most frequently asked questions Stone receives is whether he needs to cut walls to get his sculptures out of the workshop. The answer is no. Every sculpture is designed to pass through a door of 3.6 by 3.6 meters.
If it fits through the door, it fits on a low platform truck, goes down most highways, and passes under most bridges. It is a practical limitation that Stone incorporated into the creative process from the beginning.
In the case of the Game of Thrones dragon, the feet were designed to be removable. The sculpture is anchored in the concrete of the installation site, and the feet are placed back over, covering the anchoring points.
From the outside, it is impossible to see how the dragon is fixed to the ground. This solution allows the nearly 7-ton work to withstand winds and weather without compromising the final appearance with the anchoring structure.
The dream of building the largest metal sculpture in the world
Stone does not hide that his life goal is to be recognized for building the largest metal sculpture in the world. He himself admits that, when researching the monumental works that currently exist, some are so colossal that they make his Game of Thrones dragon look small.
Still, the ambition is clear: to create something that lasts like the pyramids, transcending generations.
For Stone, the stainless steel Game of Thrones dragon is the most significant work of his career and the most complete demonstration of everything he has learned in three decades of metal shaping.
When people who have never seen his work in person come across the sculpture, the reaction, according to him, is comparable to that of children arriving at Disneyland for the first time. It is this kind of visceral impact that motivates the sculptor to continue building ever larger works.
Kevin Stone’s Game of Thrones dragon is more than a sculpture: it is proof that human hands can still create something that machines cannot replicate. 12 meters tall, 6,800 kilos of stainless steel, thousands of hand-cut scales, and a system that breathes real fire. All made by a single artist on a farm in the interior of Canada.
Would you dare to have a sculpture like this in your backyard? What fictional creature would you like to see transformed into steel at life size? Leave it in the comments and share this article with anyone who is a fan of Game of Thrones or metal art.
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