Painting dinosaurs?
Panda Phil
Hi. This is probably one of those tired old questions that's posted a
thousand times a year. If so I appologize.
I just picked up one of Tamiya's excellent dinosaur kits and would
like to give him a nice colorful paint scheme (I figure it's dino mating
season!). But as an aircraft modeller I've never done a figure before.
Is there a good book, or even better, online article with tips on how to
paint realistic skin tones and textures?
Thanks! ---PHIL
Lawrence Nyveen
Panda Phil <da...@halcyon.com> wrote:
I can't help with painting technique, but I can help with a scientific
approach to dinosaur coloration (I was a PhD candidate in dinos in my
sordid past). Which genus?
Laurie Nyveen nyv...@videotron.canada
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Panda Phil
Was thinking perhaps brownish tans with subtle green/yellow verticle stripes.
Perhaps something particularly colorful around the crest, perhaps as a mating
lure. I'm really still hashing this whole thing out. I'm just very fond of the
idea of colorful dino's rather than the usual boring old browns and greys.
Definately open to suggestions though.
---PHIL
Lawrence Nyveen
Panda Phil <da...@halcyon.com> wrote:
> This would be a male Parasaurolophus.
>
> Was thinking perhaps brownish tans with subtle green/yellow verticle
> stripes.
> Perhaps something particularly colorful around the crest, perhaps as a mating
> lure. I'm really still hashing this whole thing out. I'm just very fond of
> the
> idea of colorful dino's rather than the usual boring old browns and greys.
> Definately open to suggestions though.
Here's my take...
Hadrosaurs (which were going to be my specialty, by the way) were in
general dry-land animals that browsed on medium height growth - shrubs,
trees, grasses, etc. (Grasses and flowering plants were just coming into
dominance at the end of the Cretaceous). An absolute favourite food was
conifer branches, so they obviously spent some time in pine forests.
They were also almost certainly herd animals. The best analogy for
hadrosaurs in the modern day are the herd mammals of the African
savannah.
Now, just like modern African ungulates, all these species roaming
western North America had to distinguish themselves. Modern ungulates
use bold, if sometimes small, patterns and distinctive horn shapes. I'm
fairly convinced that hadrosaur species used crest shape and unique
sounds to distinguish themselves. They may have also used patterns,
maybe not.
It is known that sexual dimorphism in crest shape existed, which means
that the crest was probably a sexually selected trait. As such, it
might be boldly coloured - either during mating season or all year long.
As far as the actual colours go, you can pretty much use anything.
Here's what I'd do, however:
1) Find a modern savannah animal and use the pattern of the hide as a
guide to the pattern on the Parasaurolophus. You can use your
tan/yellow idea here, but frankly, I think a gray/green scheme might be
more accurate. No real proof either way. Don't think this is
necessarily boring - you can add speckles for the larger scales, or even
do a crazy okapi-like pattern.
2) Let's assume the crest is highlighted, just 'cause it looks cooler.
If you choose a dark colour for your P's skin, then the crest will
probably be pigmented separately and boldly. Maybe a bright orange or
turquoise - I'm thinking of iguana colours here. If you choose a
lighter subdued overall colour, then blood can show through the skin and
it may be the main crest pigment - think red like a cockscomb.
3) Try not to go crazy with patterns on the face. Many dino artists do
and it's distracting. The crest is the focus of species ID in
hadrosaurs, although many probably also had expandable air sacs on the
nose. But aside from the crest and the nasal bone area from head to
nostrils, the head was probably plain.
Kurt Laughlin
"Panda Phil" <da...@halcyon.com> wrote in message
> I just picked up one of Tamiya's excellent dinosaur kits and would
> like to give him a nice colorful paint scheme (I figure it's dino mating
> season!). But as an aircraft modeller I've never done a figure before.
> Is there a good book, or even better, online article with tips on how to
> paint realistic skin tones and textures?
If you search this group in Google your should find some discussion around
December-January, if I recall.
Also, there is an occasional poster here, Dana Geraths pale...@home.com who
paints critters professionally. I'm sure he would help you if asked.
KL
Stefan P. Banaszak
prefer them for figures as one can meld the colour borders together
quite well with a brush as long as you keep both colours wet.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
Wulf Corbett
<nyv...@videotron.ca> wrote:
>I can't help with painting technique, but I can help with a scientific
>approach to dinosaur coloration (I was a PhD candidate in dinos in my
>sordid past). Which genus?
Do you know the Tamiya range? My local shop got in quite a range, but
I was a bit suspicious that most of them looked very old-fashioned
(tail-draggers, stand-up T-Rex, etc.). I got the Velociraptors though,
they look good. Which of the others do you think look most accurate
(please, not the diplodocus, it's monstrous...).
Wulf
Hobby-Importen (Jens Lindell)
----------
I meddelande <3B0665B7...@halcyon.com>, Panda Phil <da...@halcyon.com>
skrev:
Buy Ray Rimells book;
"Building and painting model Dinosaurs"
Kalmbach Books
ISBN 0-89024-270-4
There is inspiration enough for the whole Tamiya Dino´ serie
Sincerely,
Jens Lindell
REwing
>I was a bit suspicious that most of them looked very old-fashioned
>(tail-draggers, stand-up T-Rex, etc.). I got the Velociraptors though,
>they look good. Which of the others do you think look most accurate
>(please, not the diplodocus, it's monstrous...).
>
>Wulf
I picked up the entire series of Tamiya's diorama dinosaurs and I was quite
impressed with all the kits. The bases inter-connect to form one large scene.
I don't know if time scales are off on any of these, something I will check
into as I build them. Individually, they are great!!!
-Rick-
Wulf Corbett
> I picked up the entire series of Tamiya's diorama dinosaurs and I was quite
>impressed with all the kits. The bases inter-connect to form one large scene.
>I don't know if time scales are off on any of these, something I will check
>into as I build them. Individually, they are great!!!
having had a look at the range on-line myself, there are clearly two
ranges from Tamiya, older, tail-draggers and newer more 'updated'
sculpts. Unfortunately, my local shop seems to have mostly older stuff
:(
Wulf
Craig
dino but completely different features. Guess they had a change of heart.
Craig
Wulf Corbett
>How old is the original Tamiya T-rex compared to the new diorama version? Same
>dino but completely different features. Guess they had a change of heart.
Yes, unfortunately the ones I saw (except the 'raptors and the
diplodocus) were old-style, so they are still producing the old ones!
The diplodocus, by the way, was about 3 foot tall...
Wulf
Panda Phil
dinosaur models. As far as I can tell the only older kits you need to avoid
are the standing T-rex, a Triceratops, and a stegasaurus (I got bit on this
one. Yeesh...).
Check out http://www.aboyd.com/companies/tamiya.html for a list of prices
and photos of the newer models. Nicely detail on the critters and the
bases, and very affordable. A shame Tamiya hasn't done more releases
considering how hot dinos are right now.
---PHIL
Panda Phil
on my old stegasaurus. So tail-dragging was probably scientifically accurate at the
time.
---PHIL
Stefan P. Banaszak
someone decide that they carried their tails in the air, too?
Maybe I'm assigning mammalian behaviour to a dinosaur but that would
remind me of a cow out in the field spreading fertiliser. :)
Bill Banaszak, MFE
Wulf Corbett
<tec...@redrose.net> wrote:
>So what's wrong with the Triceratops? It looks alright to me. Did
>someone decide that they carried their tails in the air, too?
Not up in the air, but straight out the back. They drooped a bit, but
they're not long enough to reach the ground without significant
curvature of the spine over the hips, which is not supported by the
shape of the bones. I'm not sure about Triceratops, but one reason for
Brontosaurs (I still call them that, never liked Apatosaur) having
horizontal tails was they helped hold up the head & neck, with spinal
tendons like the cables on a suspension bridge! With that massive
head, it could use all the help it could get holding it up (even
though most 'frilled' dinosaurs had holes in the frills covered only
by skin, Triceratops' was solid).
Wulf
Panda Phil
'painting dinosaurs. It's currently on its way from amazon. :)
---PHIL