In-Progress : Corythosaurus
12-07-07 : First attempt at anything that's not a mech...
I stumbled across a few pictures of dinosaur models a few months ago (mainly on the Clubhouse forums) and felt an urge to revisit my childhood obsession with the Giant Lizards of the past. I looked at a few models for sale on eBay and checked out some others sites like Cretaceous Creations and the like before I remembered that I had a few kits in the shed somewhere. During the height of the Jurassic Park craze of the early 90's, I got my hands on a 'Raptor, Stegosaurus and a Corythosaurus. I searched my boxes in the shed and managed to find all three of them! They are all in bad condition though, the Stegosaurus has missing plates on its back and the 'Raptor is in pieces. The Corythosaurus is pretty much in perfect condition and ideal for my first attempt at something that isn't a mech.
The usual test fit pictures :
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I actually started work on this beast around a month or so ago, so I've actually done quite a bit of work to rid it of seams and flaws that I missed the first time I built the kit (I was, like, 13 years old at the time!).
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Once the glue dired, I puttied all the seams. Seams on this kit are way different to handle than with a standard Bandai mecha kit. There was seams down the center of pretty much every part - and by that I mean the body, both arms, both legs, the head and then where each seperate part joined the main body.
Once the putty had cured, I then had the pleasure of a 'sand-prime-re putty' of all the seams and joins. I had to do this three to four times depending on the area until the seams where gone. Problem was that all I had left was some very smooth areas that weren't right. To fix this, I attacked the kit with my Dremel and gouged a few lines and markings into the spine and leg/arm joins to try and return the look of realism to the kit. But even with that, the areas were still smooth and out of place. To fix the smoothness problem, I thought I'd attempt to use the 'Cast Iron Effect' that I learnt from one of Gamerabaenre's video tutorials.
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Basically, I took a sponge, dabbed it in Tamyia primer, and applied it to the smooth areas to put back the texture to the skin. Also note that the sponge in the picture was useless and I ended up using part of a kitchen sponge that is usually used to do the dished with. I cut it into smaller pieces and used that with much better results.
The first picture below is before the sponging and the bottom one is after so you can see the difference it has made :
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So, I'm finally up to beginning to paint after all that. At the moment, I'm researching patterns and such to use for the skin and I'm hesitant to start in a rush due to the difficulty level this paint job will be for me, but then again, that was the whole point of doing this - to expand the skills and try something less Gundam-y!
21-07-07 : Painting the Corythosaurus...
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I was planning some elaborate snake like patterns for the skin but ended up doing a simple stereotypical Dinosaur color scheme. I used Olive Green for the majority of the skin with Flat Earth for the underbelly. I then did the spine region with Brown and highlighted a little around the underbelly to help bring it out a little more. I ended up doing a light misting of areas with Flat Black to help blend in the colors a little and also to shade and highlight areas like the shoulder and hip joints. I thought that this would be hard to paint, but so far it's coming along quite easy. I'll let the paint dry now and then move onto the detailing of the head etc and highlighting of the scales with either a wash or by dry brushing. |
26-07-07 : Some work on the base ...
I've been working on the base for the model for the last few days and this is what I've come up with so far :
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I plan on filling the front section with water effects to make a stream. I tried to make it with the stuff I have for making water but it doesn't work all too well. I've ordered some different water effect stuff and it should be here soonish (I hope). The trees were from a Woodland Scenics kit except one, which I made myself with a skewer, wire, hot glue and some paint. I covered it in the clump foliage from the tree kit and you can't even tell which one it is. Bushes are colored lichen I bought today from my local hobby store.
01-08-07 : Waiting for the water effects to arrive ...
Here is a couple of teaser pics of the nearly finished model. I just have to wait for the water effects to arrive in the mail and do some final detailing to the feet and legs. If you look closely, you can see where I've dry brushed the scales with Tamiya 'Sky' (a light green). It has certainly made the scales stand out better. I'm going to try an ink wash as well to see what effect that has. I have also added an extra tree behind the two smaller ones at the front to help fill in an otherwise empty area.
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09-08-08 : Pouring the water...
Gave up waiting for the water effects to arrive in the mail and decided to check the local hobby shop to see if they had any. Turns out they had two types. The straight pour on type or the heat-and-pour type that I ended up buying because it was cheaper.
First up, I made a quick frame to hold the water in place while it dries :
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Then, following the instructions, I heated up the water beads, melted them and then quickly poured it onto the river bed. It was working fine until I put the very hot liquid too close to the frame instead of pouring and letting it run towards the edge like I had been doing. The plastic and tape instantly melted and the liquid came pouring out. I learnt another thing too, don't try and stop it with your finger. It stays hot for a little bit. Here's what happened :
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And here's the end result :
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Just have to tidy up the spills and do a bit more detailing and I can call this one done.