[Dr. Brad]

Hi all:

I need everyone's advice! At least, I need everyone's advice who knows anything about painting dinos and figures. I'm finally getting going on the the critter in the pictures below. It's a 1/10 scale Horizon T-Rex sculpted by Chris Darga. I taped her together just to get a sense of how big the kit is (she's a female - my daughters have decided that she's "Sue," the famous Rex now living in Chicago). As you can see, the kit's a whole lot bigger than many pet dogs!

I have no idea how to do justice to the kit! It's one thing to do a 1/35 scale Tamiya dinosaur - and even then I do only a half decent job. I've attached a couple of pics of my Tamiya Triceratops to give you an idea of where my skills are at (I find it easier to paint starships than dinos).

Any advice you can give me on how to do this kit well will be greatly appreciated. I've only done one other vinyl kit (a Horizon Elasmosaurus), but it's not the assembly that worries me. It's how to paint a kit of this scale in a realistic manner! I've already taken out the vinyl eyes. I'll be going to a taxidermist's this weekend to see what they've got! I hope that was good idea!

So please, any and all ideas are welcome! After all, you're going to have to look at the pictures of the completed model!

Thanks,

Brad.

P.S. Sorry about the lousy quality of the pics of the T-Rex. I didn't realize how bad they are until after Sue was back in her box.

 

[PhilipMarlowe]

If you're interesting in painting one like Jurassic Park's, check out Stan Winston's The Winston Effect, it has several great photo's showing the full-sized animatronic T-rex being painted with airbrushs and sponges, they'll give a idea how the patterns on that particular T-rex look.

 

[Steven Coffey]

This is what I was going to paint my T-Rex like if I had not gotten lazy. http://img.clubphoto.com/jerboa/11605234/480/null/image.jpg . It is a Nile monitor. I had one it was the most evil creature I have ever known! I think the pattern could done by brush. I really like that kit you have did you find it on e-bay?

 

[Dr. Brad]

Hey, thanks for the idea. If I don't use it for this kit, I think I will for a smaller Rex - or maybe a raptor.

As for the kit, someone on HobbyTalk sold it to me a few years ago at a very good price. I really appreciated his doing that and I want to do the kit justice!

Brad.

 

[the Dabbler]

Jeeze Dr. Brad that is a monster. I have the Tamiya Brachiosurus that is huge and I'm afraid to even start the thing. But I don't see what's wrong your Chasmo, that's a good job you did on it. As suggested above, check the forum and do some research in other sites to get ideas. But don't forget, nobody really knows what they looked like so go with your imagination and instinct.
I like your idea of better eyes, that should pop it out !! ( no pun intended)
Good luck !
Dabbler

 

[PhilipMarlowe]

You can also take a real animal and base your paint scheme on how it looks, that's what the folks that did BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs did with their Utah-raptor that was based on another fast light predator:the cheetah. I thought it looked so cool on that segment I did my Lindberg raptor in the same scheme:

A Flexi-file set and some half round files will help deal with seams that run thru skin folds or wrinkles.

 

[Dr. Brad]

Yes, I recognize that paint scheme! That's a good idea. But what I'm not quite sure about is how to get the subtle variations in colour that you see on the Walking with Dinosaurs physical "puppets" for lack of a better term. The grays are never just one gray, for example. I'm assuming dry-brushing will take care of some of that, as will washed. Who knows, maybe it will actually be easier to get that effect on a larger scale model (but more time-consuming, I'm sure)?

Thanks for the help...

Brad.

 

[the Dabbler]

About seams and texture:
One thing I started doing on the few dinos I've done is put a line/strip of caulk ( I've been using vinyl acrylic 30 year caulk ) around the outer edge of the "female" or indented part of the seam. Then when I put the joint together it oozes out and fills the seam. I then smooth and mold it with a wet finger into the surrounding surface. While still damp it can be smoothed out into the surrounding surface with a stiffer brush, like a flux brush,cheap glue brush, etc. It stays soft enough to dig out folds with a toothpick or X-acto easily. It also takes primer and acrylic paints (which I use), well. I use this on other model joints also and it's worked good for me. That's my idea ??? I have NOT used this yet on resin kits.

 

[razorwyre1]

my suggestion is to read what you can about the theories of how t-rex's lived and behaved, then find a modern animal with a similar behavior and habitat. the coloration would likely be quite similar. throw in a bit of modern reptiles and there you go.