Zoe's Prehistoric Christmas

[shep]

Dec 16, 2016 16:46:05 GMT -9 Vermin King said:

I do have to admit the tree looks good. The same effect could be done easier, though. And they ought to be taller. You can't even park the Explorer under it ...

Perhaps it's supposed to be... shrubbery??!?

[Vermin King]

Bring us a shrubbery!

That's how I intend to use them. I'll have room on this base for a small tree and a large one. I plan on doing another set with a large tree and two small ones.

One of my cats decided to check out the new plant, so I need to do leaf repair... it might be better to use CA glue. When I do my next version of the big tree, the new leaf pieces are going to have bark-colored tabs that wrap around the trunk a bit. Should make them more secure.

The image I was using for the Brachiosaur isn't good enough to have it the same scale as the other dinos. I'll just have to call it the Adolescent Brachiosaur. It still doesn't have the same pop as the velociraptor.

[chiefasaur]

I have been enjoying watching this project develop, but I also love dinosaurs, sooooo, I may be a little biased.

[Vermin King]

I might have better luck with the stegosaur. I have a better image to work from. The vertical plate would only be a mirrored piece that fits between the body parts.

I like dinos, too. In my office, before I got into paper models, on one set of shelves near the ceiling, I had those plastic dino skeletons. On another, I had the old wax dinos from when I was little.

My son thinks that Zoe is going to love these

[Vermin King]

The trees do look better in groups

[Vermin King]

Adolescent Brachiosaur is on its way

[Vermin King]

Brachiosaur is done as well as another small tree






EDIT -- Not my artwork, but here's the brachiosaur files

[shep]

I think it looks great with the other dinos, even though it should be much larger... I think, Zoe won't mind the scale differences, will she?

[Vermin King]

I think I'm going to do the stegosaur. The Brachiosaur is substantially bigger than the others, so it will do.

Today, I'm going to finish building the last larger tree and another velociraptor. When I build it, I'll be able to scan the base to make a base template. At that point I think I'll post my mod of the Momir Farooq larger tree, the last version of the Jeep, the velociraptor. The brachiosaur posted above is fine, but I plan on making a post that has all my templates.

[shep]

Stupid idea, but if you want to make it a "real" Jurassic (Theme)Park, you should add a "Jurassic Pork" food stand...

[Vermin King]

Probably not. I'm leaning away from the JP theme, even though I had gotten things worked out for a football shaped Visitors Center backdrop. Doing the water cascades next to the steps stalled that project out. And since Michael says Zoe is more interested in the dinos than the park, I changed gears

[shep]

I made a joke, anyways...

[Vermin King]

Yes, but I wouldn't have looked up images, if I didn't think it had merit

[lightning]

lovely idea. someone will be very happy, I am sure!

[cowboyleland]

I can't find ANY seems in the brachiosaur picture even when I make it big and know where to look. Well done!

[Vermin King]

I planned the cuts so that they wouldn't be overly obvious. Before I do any more of the Kamikami dinos, I will have to remember to go back to the files and set them up so that the seams aren't so noticeable.

Hadn't seen the girlfriend for a while, between her holiday travels and my travel plans getting messed up, but we had a long call today. She was wondering how my projects were going. She thinks the Dino Christmas sounds like so much fun. When she was young, her parents got her a nice set of dinosaurs. The 'brontosaurus' was eight inches long and she remembered them being quality plastic, not the cheap stuff. She had hours of playing with her dinosaurs. I told her I still wasn't sure if I was going to try my hand at a stegosaur. She then said that if I don't do a stegosaur, she certainly hoped I had a pterodactyl.

She had a point. So I found an illustration (I kept the copyright info on my working file) and played around with it.





Now that I know where the folds need to be, and where the parts need to be trimmed, I should be able to get it ready to post in next to no time tomorrow

The test build used mirror printing, but I'd planned on making the files available to not have to do mirror printing

[jeffgeorge]

Fun fact: Modern paleontologists don't count the pterosaurs as dinosaurs, but do count birds as dinosaurs.

I know most of you knew that, but I just love dinosaur science, so I couldn't help but share it! 

[shep]

Yeah… nothing to wake the inner child but dinos.

[Vermin King]

Some day I hope to become a designer. I mean someone who can take an idea and design on computer, so that I can print it up to verify that it works, but have it designed before I print. Mostly, but not always, I come up with a concept, collect a bunch of elements to do what I want to do, pick the elements that I think are most likely to get me to my goal, make adjustments to the elements, print them up, trim here, fold there, until it will get the job done, then go back and fix the files to be able to do what I did.

I've mentioned my sledgehammer approach before, but this little guy demonstrates it well

[Vermin King]

Well, while I was sitting on hold with one of the companies I work with, I finished getting the Pterodon file aligned with fold lines and back piece. Since everything lines up with the prototype, it should be good, but I'll find out tonight.

[Vermin King]

checked it out while dinner was cooking. I like the look of the arm as a separate layer, but that's the only fiddly bit







Pretty effective for a simple figure

[chiefasaur]

Wow, those 'dactyls are fantastic. It is taking me every ounce of self control not to straight-up steal that build layout and design my own.

[Vermin King]

Go right ahead. I basically took the illustration and altered it to provide the various 'elements'. With mirror printing, this could be a two-piece model, but it would have a seam down the back. Without the layered body and arms, it could be three parts, without mirror printing.

It was a concept that I wanted to try. I'd be honored if you or anyone else want to use it. I don't remember seeing anything quite like it, but that doesn't mean it hasn't already been done.

I think I might try doing this for a Victorian guy flying a batwing glider. A flying Superman would be cool, too.

I try to spark ideas. Feel free to expand on those ideas

[chiefasaur]

Oh yeah, the engineering behind the breakdown is really clever and elegant. I'm kicking myself for not coming up with something like that. I definitely want to "borrow" this layout sometime down the road. Maybe make some kind of fantasy dactyl rider, or a wyvern.
This darn forum is just a petri dish of inspiration!

[Vermin King]

Handle the petri dish carefully or the contents may grow on you

EDIT-- Kathy says I need to have a pond or lake to go with this. Any ideas?

I never got the stegosaur image fully prepped to turn into a model, so it won't be ready for this Christmas.

Not sure when I will be back from the Holiday Weekend, but the final templates for my kitbashes should be posted by Tuesday. On the other hand, several of the images posted are final templates, but I'd feel better if things were gathered together and organized

[shep]

Dec 21, 2016 19:21:48 GMT -9 Vermin King said:

EDIT-- Kathy says I need to have a pond or lake to go with this. Any ideas?

For a game of Mortheim, I once built a duck pond by printing a lake surface, glueing it to cardboard, and then adding small stones, flock, and grass for model train scenery. A little drybrushing and a few duck minis... It looked pretty amazing for a one hour job.

[Vermin King]

Merry Jurassic Christmas, Everyone!

Okay, I didn't think I'd have a chance to get to this until Monday or Tuesday, but here goes. Keep in mind, these are all modifications of images found on the net.

First up is the total rework of the Paulo O Marcio JP Jeep, with modifications of the Papercruise bumpers.



Then the Brazilian Phone Card Velociraptor



Then the modified Momir Farooq Alien Tree



And then, of course, the Pterasaur modded from the painting at the bottom of the template, with the copyright info.



Should you need a Brachiosaur, here you go






And this is all Fan Art, so I hope I don't offend anyone

[Vermin King]

Very well received even though she was sick. But 'luckily' she got me sick, too, now.

If I did anything different, I'd want to make stickers with the dino names to put on the bottoms of the bases and rework the graphics on the kamikami dinosaurs so that they don't have such obvious seams.

The Triceratops and Ankylosaurus would be better as inverted U-shaped bodies. V-shaped bodies don't really do them justice.

[cowboyleland]

I am glad it was well received. Get well soon.

[Vermin King]

Got over the bug, but my stamina is still down. I just wear out quickly