Protoceratops
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After completing the Tyrannosaurus Hunting scene, I wanted something quick and easy to build. Mid-2009 I had ordered the Protoceratops kit from UK sculptor Marcus Noonan after seeing the kit in the then current issue of Prehistoric Times. 6 months later, I finally got to work on the kit.
The kit itself comes as 3 pieces - the main body, the lower jaw and the base (including the nest of eggs the neast is guarding). Assembly was filled with problems as there was a miscasting error on one of the rear legs that needed some surgery and putty to return back to the size it should have been. Also, there were a number of air bubbles that needed attention but these were easy to rectify and the building process took only a few hours (spaced over a few days due to putty drying etc).
After assembly was completed, I primed the kit and then painted a base coat of Tamiya Sky Grey after applying some pre-shading of NATO black. This colour was to act as the under carriage colour of the beast. I then added a coat of Mr Color Russet on the top half and then topped that with Tamiya Brown on the top quarter. Brown was also used on the small facial horns and the beak.
Using a cotton swab and Tamiya NATO Black, I added dots all over the back and sides and then took a brush with some Tamiya Sky Grey and added smaller dots within the larger ones.
The inner mouth was hand brushed with a custom pink mix and the teeth painted with Tamiya Buff to give a dirty colour. The eyes were hand painted with white, blue, black and topped with a thick drop of Clear to give a glassy look.
For the base, it was first painted brown and then coated with a PVA Glue / Green Flock mixture that I use to simulate mosses. For the nest of eggs, the eggs were air brushed with Tamyia Sky Grey and speckled using a brown technical pen. I then filled the nest with a mixture of PVA Glue / Brown Flock / Tamiya Desert Yellow.
Overall, this kit is a quick one to build and is well detailed for such a small scale beast. It was refreshing to acutally knock this one over in a week of starting it instead of spending months and months on it.
Update 14th June 2010 :
This kit was entered into the 2010 Australian Plastic and Scale Model Championships and I am proud to annouce that it won 3rd place in the Miscellaneous Category!
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