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Lindberg Dilophosaurus


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Hi folks,

 

I had the pleasure of visiting a proper model shop at the weekend (Mr. Models in Palmerston North). Slightly bittersweet, as we used to have a great shop in Wellington before it changed hands and went under, but at least I was able to get some more Alclad!

I also grabbed this Lindberg dino on special. It's the Jurassic Park Dilophosaurus, which looks pretty good if you leave the frill off and can forgive it being a bit straight. I did consider notching one side and trying to get a bend in at least the tail, but the plastic is very thick and I opted not to in the end. I did very slightly change the pose of the claws, but the rest is as Lindberg intended.

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It looks like you need a lot of filler, but I got nearly every joint closed up with just solvent. The filler is more to re-shape some areas that end up indented, and to allow me to add some texture in spots.

That's probably most important on the back, where the legs have quite deep grooves where they join the body. I filled in that area and added texture with a brass tube, spots of medium CA, and a bit of Dremel-work.

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For the seams, I scraped them down then cut through with a small sharp file to get a decent silhouette. That looked OK, but rather symmetrical still so I ended up engraving some of the circular spots/scales into the ridges and blobs across the back in particular. The belly and other areas with striations were a lot easier to sculpt!

He's had his bath now, and is in red oxide primer but I don't have a pic of the last bit. Now to pick some colours :)

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Not bad for a couple of evenings' work, I don't think these kits have a fab reputation but apart from the straightness I think it's pretty good.

Cheers,

 

Will

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11 hours ago, Andy Moore said:

The skin textures look very nice. Is it styrene or vinyl?


It's styrene, very nicely done but that's why it's all a bit straight, and why the detail reduces a bit on the horizons. I have some vinyl dinos from Pegasus which look amazing but I thought I should paint something a bit more basic first!

I was quite impressed that the top of the head including the fins was one part, done with a three part mould I guess?

 

1 hour ago, Carts said:

Look forward to seeing what you do with this old kit,I had the Rex and the Raptor back in the day.


I have the T-Rex as well and it's also pretty good - a lot bulkier but needs the jazz hands re-posed :) I think I taped it together and then wasn't sure how to proceed, but now I know I can do something about the seams it's less scary.

On which note:

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It doesn't look bad in the photo but the right arm has rather a sharp crease where it meets the body at the top and looks a bit more stuck-on than the left side, so I guess I should fill that in a little with some more putty.

The back is mostly good, there is some clunky tooling (I didn't have a small enough burr and resorted to using a drill bit very very carefully...) but mostly it recedes into the texture I think?

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You can see how thin it is - I thought maybe a result of moulding constraints, but the Wikipedia page says they were lightly built and the body silhouette looks quite close to the one on there. So who knows?

Will



 

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You did an excellent job fairing in the joints and reproducing the skin texture. May I suggest that you remove the aftermost teeth and give him gums for added life-likeliness? See below for an example of what I mean... Very well done.

 

drago-di-komodo-con-la-bocca-aperta-cp3h

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1 hour ago, Bonehammer said:

You did an excellent job fairing in the joints and reproducing the skin texture.

 

Thanks! I've just blended the right arm and touched up the primer but haven't photographed yet. I found a really easy way to add "hero" scales which will save time in future: A thickish mix of CA and talc has a strong tendency to form spheres, so if you apply little dots of that they'll be very round and coherent.
 

1 hour ago, Bonehammer said:

May I suggest that you remove the aftermost teeth and give him gums for added life-likeliness? See below for an example of what I mean...

 

That's a good idea - by gums I guess you mean those webs of skin that span the corner of the jaw? I wonder if I have enough access to make the changes now that he's fitted together?

Cheers,

Will

 

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I reckon a man of your talents could easily whip out the 3 or 4 back teeth and put some jaw ligaments in place,Oh,and watch out for the Lindberg Rex,he has a hell of an overbite😃

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16 hours ago, Will Vale said:

by gums I guess you mean those webs of skin that span the corner of the jaw? I wonder if I have enough access to make the changes now that he's fitted together?

Cheers,

Will

 

Exactly. Straight from the box, the fella is lacking the muscles that operate the jaw, and the area looks hinge-like.

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Well I had a go - removed 2 teeth each side at the top and 3 at the bottom to make room, then inserted some fillets of Tamiya smooth epoxy putty and shaped/blended them in. The putty doesn't taper very well but it's nice and stiff so easier to shape unsupported than e.g. Miliput. I worked the surplus into the back of the throat and then dug a hole in it with a ball stylus. It's not amazingly neat or consistent back there but it should be close to invisible in practice.

 

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I also added some blobs of CA+talc to the nose to cover up a flat area with a small groove in it while I was at it.

 

And this was the result of the arm/back upgrades. I think I'll go back and stipple the skin a bit more over the smooth-ish bit.

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Cheers and thanks for the suggestion/confidence that it might be doable. It was weird doing dino dentistry with actual dental tools!

 

Will

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Have thrown caution to the wind and added colour!

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This is decanted TS lacquer with a bit of LP-50 for the crest as it was there on the desk. My fine airbrushing isn't great so the pattern will need refining with brush work, but you get the idea.

 

(It's inspired by the Tigrex from Monster Hunter!)

Cheers,

Will

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Nice work on the mouth surgery Will, he looks far more realistic for it - well worth the effort.

 

Liking the colours too. Are the feet and hands staying in the darker shade?

 

Andy:cat:

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21 hours ago, Andy Moore said:

Liking the colours too. Are the feet and hands staying in the darker shade?

 

Thanks Andy, I think so, but with pale claws so they'll stand out. I sprayed them brown (Flat Earth maybe?) whereas the lighter bits are a sand colour, so it's not just the primer showing.

 

Although I did leave a bit of primer colour visible at the knees and ankles where the skin might be thinner. It's not super clear so I might have to make it stronger when I do the brush painting.

No dino time yesterday as I was finishing off my review of Luna & Selena, hopefully that'll be up soon and I can share some pics :)

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

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Wow, you really moved along with this one! It's coming out well and the airbrushed pattern is convincing. A wash to bring out the skin details and it'll look like it's breathing.

Regarding the t-rex, years ago there was an article on Fine Scale Modeller improving the Lindberg Velociraptor, which have short snouts. They cut the skull and jaws, added a sprue extension, then re-modelled the jaw around it. The extra teeth were probably carved plastic rod.

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A busy weekend but I found time for a couple of painting sessions, mostly noodling around with teal and yellow acrylics and some washes.

 

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I need to add an overall wash and/or filter for the midtones and that will help bring it together without masking too much detail. There are also a lot of actual detail painting jobs to do, like highlighting the muscles and folds and linear features rather than the scales. Having a lot of fun with this as you can probably tell, it's such a cheerful model :)

 

19 hours ago, phat trev said:

That’s a super build and sculpt.  How about adding some feathers 


Hmm, not sure. I'm not mega-worried about being paleontologically accurate, but I can see that a small mane of feathers would be pretty cool. The trick would be making them, I think it'd be possible to make strands of fur fabric fur (or static grass) into locks by gluing the ends, and then you could layer them up along the neck.

Cheers,

 

Will

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Think I'm happy with the skin now:

 

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I haven't done the face apart from roughing in colours, or really touched up any mistakes, but overall I think it looks nice. I washed all the recesses with a soft russet colour then softened that with yellow where it was a bit too sharp. Then glazed the belly with a pale cream, and gave the whole thing a couple of coats of a sepia filter to bring it together.

 

I've also shaded and highlighted the limbs a bit more, but not the claws yet.

 

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Although... I wonder if it would benefit from whatever the figure equivalent of a dot filter is, to break up the colour uniformity over the model?

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8 hours ago, Will Vale said:

Thanks! I've been working on the face today but don't have a pic yet apart from this crappy phone shot.

W

😆 Still better than mine with a DSLR and a lens that cost more than my first motorcycle!

 

It's looking good, Will.

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On 5/4/2021 at 8:38 AM, Will Vale said:



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Enjoying watching this unusual build, but I do particularly love this photo. Great composition with the toothbrush and he looks to be really enjoying his wash.

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Hehe, he's generally a happy chap I think, the tilt down of the head seems to say "aaaaaah" in that one.

Here's last night's progress in the lightbox:

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I haven't yet resolved the sensory pit things (thermoreceptors?) between the eye and nostril. They're quite deeply/sharply moulded and so far I've picked that out, but I think they need to be softer and translucent-looking. I'll see about reducing the contrast and maybe introduce a fleshy glaze with heavier medium to soften the relief a bit?

Cheers,

Will

 

 

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I finished off the painting, mounted the dino and made a small scenic base.

 

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I could probably keep fiddling for ages but I'm really happy with it as it stands and I've posted some pictures in RFI.

 

Thanks for following along, much appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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