Velociraptor Pack, 1/35

[hakkikt]

Noticing that there is no prehistoric wildlife in this GB yet and considering that Tamiya has produced about a dozen kits of dinosaurs in 1/35, I thought I might join with this happy group of lovely carnivores.

 

Color-wise, I imagine something like a pack of tigers; I am looking forward to the challenge of building a suitable base with a bit of plant life, which would be a first for me.

 

 

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Often see these for sale at shows, but rarely actually built up. Look forward to seeing these underway and how you do the paint scheme.

[Col.]

Cool!

[Mjwomack]

An excellent addition to the line up👍. I guess you can go two ways with this...

Prepare for all the banter about the correct colour choices🤔

Go full fantasy/ Wattif with a few AFV in the mix taking them on😱

[hakkikt]

Rejoice, the groupbuild has begun!😊

 

This is what can be found in the box; the instructions are printed on the reverse side.

 

 

 

You get two identical sprues with three bodies and seven legs each.  If one follows the instructions or pays attention to what one is doing, there should be no two identical raptors.

 

The problem I see is that standing on their individual bases, they are sort of boring, but if I place all six of them one base, it will be difficult to join them all in one coherent moment.  They are not supposed to stand and/or run around without a purpose, but two are stretching their necks, two are lifting their heads with their mouths open, and two are turning their heads.  So, what might connect all six of them?

 

My idea so far is that there must be an additional element on the base that their attention is being focused on.  Some are just noticing, some are looking with interest, some are already running towards the element.  But what could that element be?  From a different Tamiya kit, I have a cute Chasmosaurus baby, which would be just the ideal focal point for these predators, stumbling right into the middle of catastrophe with no care in the world.  However: my daughter has strongly vetoed this option, so this is off the table.😁

 

Whatever it is that these guys are focusing their attention on, it must be something that fits the timeframe; a Stegosaurus e.g. would be totally misplaced, since it lived much earlier.  But depending on the timeframe I place them in (the Cretaceous? Jurassic World?), there are some interesting options.  A big game hunter... a time traveller... lizard people... the jury is still out.😇

 

[Keeff]

This looks roar-some! (Sorry, couldn't help myself! )

Something unusual to the mix .... looking forward to following! 

 

Keith ☺️ 

[Col.]

I have a feeling you're going to have fun with this one

[2996 Victor]

15 hours ago, hakkikt said:

A big game hunter...

Pete Postlethwaite's Roland Tembo in The Lost World: Jurassic Park?

[Colin W]

Grrrreat to see you building one of the more unusual kits.  I don't recall seeing these built despite the diorama opportunities 

[IanC]

I'm looking forward to you sticking lots of 1/35 feathers on them for total accuracy! 😄

[hakkikt]

So, the 3-D-puzzle of torsos, legs and arms gets assembled.

 

The variation offered is not as large as it seems - there are two pairs of legs that go together each, otherwise you end up with legs of different lengths.  Might work on a diorama with rocks etc., but that is some serious planning that I am not willing to do.  But the arms can be mixed at will, no rules there.  Except:  careful where an arm hangs down and the leg on the same side goes forward, they might and will interfere.  I had to bend two arms to make room.

 

So I try to assemble everything in such a way that no two Raptors are alike, with considerations like: those with noses forward or mouths open tend to have a more aggressive gait or stance, with arms more outstretched.  Still, no two should be alike, so some variation can be achieved by mixing arms.

 

The most difficult part is to attach the legs to the torso in such a way that there will not be too much filling in my future, but at the same time both feet are level on the ground.  I failed in one instant, and the leg in question broke.  No problem to reattach it.

 

An interesting part are the feet:  the outer toe is modeled to the leg, but the central toe and the inner toe with the big claw are separate parts (nicely numbered in the instructions).  It is strangely satisfying to make a whole foot out of one toe. 😊

 

 

 

...and the whole foot now forms a nice base for standing.  And clawing.😬

 

 

 

I am not good at planning stuff, I prefer to take one step, then look what the next step might be.  It probably would make sense to assemble the Raptors with their future positions on the base in mind, but I just cannot wrap my head around stuff like that.

 

Raptors assembled, next question:  what to use for a base?  I remembered I had bought a few small wooden plates at a store sale on a whim, no idea what to do with them, but might be useful one day.  I think the plate is large enough for what I have in mind.

 

So, first attempt to arrange the guys on the plate.  The cute baby Chasmosauros volunteered as a stand-in for the future focal point of the pack... but looking at it, the whole thing actually looks so plausible that I might try to overrule the veto. 😁

 

 

Still a lot to do, but it's a start.

[Col.]

11 hours ago, hakkikt said:

Still a lot to do, but it's a start.

It's a great start

[Richard E]

16 hours ago, hakkikt said:

The cute baby Chasmosauros volunteered as a stand-in for the future focal point of the pack... but looking at it, the whole thing actually looks so plausible that I might try to overrule the veto. 😁

 

Hoping that no baby Chasmosauroses will be harmed during the completion of your diorama 

[Keeff]

This is looking brilliant .... and the start if a great diorama....

 

Keith ☺️ 

[hakkikt]

Still in the planning phase.

 

Although it would probably be easy to source some military personnel (perhaps in a HumVee?) from friends in 1/35, I concentrated on what is available in this household to find the focus for the diorama.  From some quite distant past in tabletop wargaming, I had these guys available: remnants of a Lizardmen army (who thought I was joking when I mentioned lizard people?).

Since the 'raptors are not true to their probable appearance as interpreted by science today (as quite correctly pointed out by @IanC ), one could mix beings from various universes and have fun.😊

 

:

 

 

However, not shying away from additional expense to produce a nice Tamiya-themed diorama, I found myself opening a package this morning, and lo! what I found inside:

 

 

 

I may have had to swear not to hurt any baby Chasmosauruses in the building of this diorama, but nobody mentioned baby tyrannosaurs...
Actually, I got the ok from High Above to add the baby T-rex, since (1) he can probably hold his own against the pack for a few seconds, (2) he has a sly grin and deserves whatever is coming his way, and (3) you never know if mommy might not be just around the corner.  In 1/35.  From Tamiya.🙈

 

Strange stuff - I initially picked the Velociraptor kit for this GB to remove something from the stash that does not quite fit in (I build mostly 1/72), and now I have bought another 1/35 dinosaur kit and am seriously considering adding a few more.  I like this stuff!

 

Anyway, here they are.  I guess this is more or less what the arrangement is going to be.

 

 

 

Concerning vegetation:  I must confess that I have never built a nature diorama before, so I will try to keep it all simple. 

An arid environment seems to be the best choice here, so this is what it is probably going to be.  

 

Next steps:  clean up the whole gang with filler and sandpaper, decide on an approximate paint scheme, start painting.  And start building the base (I hope not to botch that one).

[Col.]

1 hour ago, hakkikt said:

I guess this is more or less what the arrangement is going to be.

 

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Ahem, I mean, yes, this has a nice balance to the composition and makes excellent use of the poses of the creatures

 

1 hour ago, hakkikt said:

Strange stuff - I initially picked the Velociraptor kit for this GB to remove something from the stash that does not quite fit in (I build mostly 1/72), and now I have bought another 1/35 dinosaur kit and am seriously considering adding a few more.  I like this stuff!

It really is addictive  

 

1 hour ago, hakkikt said:

Concerning vegetation:  I must confess that I have never built a nature diorama before, so I will try to keep it all simple. 

An arid environment seems to be the best choice here, so this is what it is probably going to be.  

From what I understand grasses were a relatively recent addition to the flora of the world and it was more likely ferns and early trees that were the leading vegetation for a long time wherever conditions would allow them to establish.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Does anyone make a PE sheet of feathers to detail them?    

[hakkikt]

19 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

Does anyone make a PE sheet of feathers to detail them?    

If someone did, I would of course use them!😁 But since nobody does...😇🤷‍♂️

 

19 hours ago, Col. said:

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Ahem, I mean, yes, this has a nice balance to the composition and makes excellent use of the poses of the creatures

🤣They will surely just exchange threats and insults and then go their separate ways.☮️

 

19 hours ago, Col. said:

From what I understand grasses were a relatively recent addition to the flora of the world and it was more likely ferns and early trees that were the leading vegetation for a long time wherever conditions would allow them to establish.

Velociraptors appeared in the Cretaceous, and apparently, grasses became widespread during the late Cretaceous, so I guess it's ok to use them. Not so much in a Stegosaurus diorama...

 

Authenticity is certainly a problem with these guys. No fluffy feathers, and size is off by 150% or so. This is the supposedly "turkey-sized" v'raptor with the human supplied by Tamiya for size comparison (which is a great idea, btw):

 

 

...and an overview of members of the 'raptor family from Wikipedia:

 

 

But I am entirely happy to call them "juvenile Utahraptors" or whatever else may fit.

Which might make the diorama with the juvenile T-rex all the more plausible🤔... just a bunch of youngsters letting off steam.😄

 

To be honest, I think the abilities of 'raptors are grossly downplayed in the Jurassic X movies. With those claws, a group of adults could probably rip apart animals several times their size.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

2 hours ago, hakkikt said:

 

Authenticity is certainly a problem with these guys. No fluffy feathers, and size is off by 150% or so. This is the supposedly "turkey-sized" v'raptor with the human supplied by Tamiya for size comparison (which is a great idea, btw😞

 

To be honest, I think the abilities of 'raptors are grossly downplayed in the Jurassic X movies. With those claws, a group of adults could probably rip apart animals several times their size.

 

Blame Michael Crichton for that.  The animals that the general public thinks of as "velociraptor" were actually based on Deinonychus.  But Crichton thought, probably correctly, that people would always mispronounce that so he went for the easier name.  It has also had the knock on effect of all dinosaurs like this being called "raptors", which is incorrect.  Raptors are birds of prey.  The dinosaurs in question are dromeosaurs ("running lizard").  There were plenty of other dinosaurs with the term "raptor" in their name that were not related to dromeosaurs.  Oviraptor is an oviraptorid (obviously) as is Gigantoraptor, Eoraptor is a sauropodomorph and Siamraptor is a carcharodontosaur. 

 

On the model, the skull shape is accurate for Velociraptor but larger dromeosaurs had deeper skulls.   This is thought to be because of the nature of their prey.  Modern thought is that the enlarged claw on the foot was not actually used for attack.  Because it was mobile, the ligaments and tendons attached could be injured in high impact situations.  It is now thought that the claw was used to impale the prey while the predator ate the prey alive, similar to the way that modern shrikes feed.  Velociraptor preyed on smaller animals and didn't need a great bite force.  Larger dromeosaurs had larger prey and so needed a greater bite force.

[Col.]

1 hour ago, hakkikt said:

They will surely just exchange threats and insults and then go their separate ways.☮️

 

..I am entirely happy to call them "juvenile Utahraptors" or whatever else may fit.

Which might make the diorama with the juvenile T-rex all the more plausible🤔... just a bunch of youngsters letting off steam.😄

So long as they're not wearing rival team football scarves it'll all good.

 

2 hours ago, hakkikt said:

Velociraptors appeared in the Cretaceous, and apparently, grasses became widespread during the late Cretaceous, so I guess it's ok to use them. Not so much in a Stegosaurus diorama...

Cool. That gives you good options

[Colin W]

Great to see these guys progressing, feathers or not!