Dinosaurs

[chriswil42]

Excellent.

[Bigkev]

I think we can safely say that you are the go to man for dinosaur modelling in the club.
Can you do anything with some of the members?

[cph64]

Fantastic work, well done.

[Wizzel]

Making a little progress on the next one now. The Hypsilophodon is reaching up for some foliage n the tree. It's had a rough coat of yellow to act as a primer undercoat as a little filler was needed around the legs. I used Vallejo plastic putty and when set, a cotton bud dipped in surgical spirit (which softens in) to rub away the excess, then a cocktail stick to mould it into the gaps and get a smooth finish.

The base had held me back so far as I could get the finish I wanted. I'd sprinkled some 7mm static straw on the slope to try and represent trampled long grass but was struggling with airbrushing, even after following some tutorials, as the colour was far too even, so I went back to the brush and flooded the area with various washes and the picked out the stalks in bright green. The previous brown washes toned this down nicely and when doing this I noticed part of the ground looked like it could be a bit of a log part buried in the soft earth so I'm working on trying to bring that to life.

The short grass at the top (neatly mown by Captain Caveman) needs a little work to make the surface more unkempt but I'm happy with the colour now.

The tree is wire twists covered in blue roll soaked in PVA and may not be the design of the finished article. I may have to rethink this but I'll see how it takes shape.

[chriswil42]

Looking good Dave.

[Wizzel]

As suspected, the tree was re-thunked - or should that be re-trunked??

I fell back on some offcuts of my trusty thyme bush with a dod of superglue in strategic places then dipped in a tub of coarse green foliage.

I hope to finish painting the dinosaur tomorrow then decide if the base needs any more detail or if not fix the dinosaur in place and call it finished.

[cph64]

Nice work on the base.

[Bigkev]

Hi Wizz, looking 'treemendous'.
Nice work and something I must try in my efforts.

[Wizzel]

Another one done - juvenile Tyranosaurus stomping through some sort of forest.

The trees are lengths of wood skewer with wet blue roll wrapped around not too neatly then soaked in PVA and pushed about a bit with an old brush to create wrinkles. Leaves are lengths of brass beading wire taped to baking parchment (to allow the leaves to peel off easily when done) with 6 or 8 coats of rubber latex ovals painted over them then painted and glued into holes drilled into the trees. The wire allows them to be bent against the dinisaur's body as it pushed through them. Orange flowers are just splats of rubber latex with wire pushed through the middle, painted and pinched together with a dot of superglue to hold them in a closed position.
Water splashes are lined of thick superglue teased into shape as it sets which I'm considering tinting to dirty it up a bit - though I'm wary of losing the transparent effect so I'll make some test splashes to practice on first.

[chriswil42]

Excellent Dave.

[zak]

Scary stuff!

[Bigkev]

Love the attention to detail.
Nice work.

[cph64]

Looks fantastic, well done.

[Wizzel]

Got another one finished. It's been nearly finished for a month, just needed to place the dinosaur but everytime I tried, it looked wrong, anyway I got up this morning still half asleep after my gig, plonked it down randomly, realised it worked and quickly stuck some glue down. One more to do now ... I may bring it to the play day tomorrow

[Wizzel]

Decision made - this last one will be real simple - stalking across the volcanic rock plain towards a vine struggling up from a little crevasse.

The vine will be a string of rubber latex pulled from the rim of the jar. This stuff has become one of my favourite products for modelling organic stuff such as leaves, roots and vines as well as making moulds for casting rocks. It can be a touch unforgiving until you get to know how to handle it but one you have that sussed it can be very flexible (bad pun intended  )