Tim Reynaga

Greetings all! Here's something a little different for a quick build - a Reaper Miniatures Pygmy Mammoth. I built it for my wife who teaches 4th grade to go along with a fossil mammoth molar and fur sample she shows the kids as part of their science unit. Painted up and set on a base, the Pygmy Mammoth prepares to wow the 4th Graders of Dry Creek Elementary School as he stomps his way through Spring wildflowers!

Greetings all! Here's something a little different for a quick build - a Reaper Miniatures Pygmy Mammoth. I built it for my wife who teaches 4th grade to go along with a fossil mammoth molar and fur sample she shows the kids as part of their science unit. Painted up and set on a base, the Pygmy Mammoth prepares to wow the 4th Graders of Dry Creek Elementary School as he stomps his way through Spring wildflowers!

An overall coat of Tamiya Flat Clear TS-80 rattle-can spray knocked down the shine, and dabs of Future acrylic gloss were added to make the mouth look wet and give the eyes sparkle. Mounted to the base, Reaper Miniatures’ Pygmy Mammoth prepares to wow the 4th Graders of Dry Creek Elementary School as he stomps his way through Spring wildflowers!

The mammoth was given a base coat of Tamiya XF-79 Linoleum Deck Brown lightened with Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan with some XF-3 Flat Yellow and XF-7 Flat Red added to give the fur a nice orange hue (surviving mammoth fur samples are typically orange-ish in color). The tusks were painted with Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan heavily lightened with Flat White. The mouth, eyes, and areas of skin such as the ears and underside of the trunk were painted with the base color with a little more red added. After painting the grey toes and black eyeballs, the mammoth was given a thin wash with Grumbacher Raw Umber and Windsor and Newton Burnt Sienna artist’s oils to deepen recesses and give the beast a slightly red-brown filter. Once this dried, a light drybrushing with the base color with a little more Deck Tan added was applied to integrate things and to provide some highlights.

Before proceeding with the snow I came across Gamers Grass Yellow Flowers in the local hobby shop and thought a “Spring” effect might be fun instead. The flowers were attached to the base over a coat of Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth acrylic.

I applied a coating of Golden Gel Mediums Coarse Pumice Gel to give the smooth plastic base some earth texture. Unfortunately, the groundwork ended up looking more like coarse beach sand than earth, so after it dried I added a slurry of spackling paste thinned with water over the top of it to de-emphasize the overlarge sand grains in the pumice gel. After it fully dries I’ll paint it and add some baking soda to create a snowy scene. I’ve had good luck with baking soda “snow” before, so a winter mammoth is a natural!

The little mammoth looks cool with his dynamic head-high and three feet on the ground pose, but also makes the free-standing piece a little unstable. Attaching it to a base will help this. A prefinished oak wall plug plate from the local hardware store should serve nicely. I’ve used these before – they look good and make for quick, easy wood bases! To keep the mammoth from stepping through the plug holes, a simple “Earth” platform was trimmed from a piece of .060 inch plastic sheet. I penciled in the positions of the mammoth’s feet and rounded down the edges.

Greetings all! I recently picked up something a little different for a quick build - a Reaper Miniatures Pygmy Mammoth. I think it may be part of some fantasy wargaming series... but I’m building it for my wife who teaches 4th grade to go along with a fossil mammoth molar and fur sample she shows the kids as part of their science unit. This is a departure from my usual plastic ships, airplanes, and tanks, and the material is a little different, too – some sort of slightly flexible polymer plastic. It comes partly assembled and is beautifully sculpted and well cast. Mold seams were fairly light and scraped away easily, and I attached the tusks and ears with cyanoacrylate. After blending the part joins with Milliput Standard Yellow-Grey two part epoxy putty, I have an assembled mammoth!

I can't open the pics...

No laughing here, Neil - I liked your build so much I just went out and bought one of these big classic Revell Mossies for myself! "Horrible" or not, it is also 1/6 the price of the Tamiya beauty and promises to be a ton of fun, so why not?

Ick... I hadn't heard that. That fact might make for some unusual weathering possibilities on a model Sopwith seat... but again, ick!

LOL! It's funny how we see this in a modern context - that flat structure in front of the pilot is reminiscent of a laptop to me as well! Actually, it was a decidedly non-aerodynamic piece of scrap metal bolted to the steering column/wheel as a field modification to shield the pilot from oil spewed from that primitive engine up front. As for the Great tit, he didn’t have to deal with such problems.

This is the Lindberg reissue of the 1966 Inpact kit.

And done!

With assembly finished, I thought it would be fun to add a final accent to the plane. The Dutch company Reality in Scale makes a set of resin birds for dioramas which would be perfect. Since the Martin-Handasyde was a British aircraft and flew only in Britain, I wanted the bird to represent a species common there. I also wanted one with attractive coloring; *Parus Major*, better known as the Great tit, fit the bill. Now sporting my best rendition of Great tit markings, the little bird was attached to one of the Martin-Handasyde’s kingposts. Perched on this strange mechanical oddity, the professional aviator checks out the amateur.