Geospiza fortis' Animal Models

Congrats! The reindeer looks very promising! Wanna see it done   

Nice antlers.

jonesee wrote:

Wanna see it done

Wish Granted:
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I just got the camera part I needed through the mail, and just in time, too, as today I had just put the finishing touches on my caribou. I feel as if I am catching on quickly to dry brushing, this is the third time I used it, and the first time on my own model where it was visible in the final product. I also began to make a pair of bison based off a pair I used to visit at the zoo.
Ryan:
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and
Esther:
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Here's a picture of them from a few years ago:
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Please note that this is not my photo. It was taken by one of the keepers and posted to their blog. I am using as reference for the bison pictures that I had taken in August or September of 2011. That was the last time I saw them before they died in a flood in September of 2011.
I am probably going to fix the female's head. Also, does anyone know if the male's head is turned the way a bison should, I'm not sure about their neck flexibility?

The reindeer is great! I like the coloring. The bison are promising, you are very busy!

Thanks. Aside from these here, I am still Painting Penguins, sculpting a rhinoceros, and planning an Andean bear. I like to work on a few pieces at once, though, so any given model does not become boring to me.

Nice work on your caribou, it is great to see all the different artists share their creations on this forum.

Nice paint - the antlers and muzzle stood out to me   

Can't wait to see the bison finished, the caribou is wonderful!

elephas_maximus wrote:

it is great to see all the different artists share their creations on this forum.

Agreed.

Thanks for all the positive feedback. Esther, the female bison, should be done in less than a month.

Congratulation for your reindeer; it has short legs but also a lot of personnality and charm.   

Good luck for your bison pair and tahnk you for showing making off pics!

It's really neat to be able to see everybody's creations here.. I, too, really like the caribou's antlers, and the bison looks very promising indeed. For future reference: you can lengthen or shorten armatured legs even after the sculpting's been done. Here's a very basic method:

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(Sorry about the poor quality - Photobucket made the photos even worse than they already were.)

Your sculpting material needs to have hardened (i.e. be baked for oven-baked clays, finished reacting for epoxies, dried for air-drying clays etc.) so it's nice and sturdy. Cut off the leg you'd like to change the length of - this can be done by making an incision all around the leg by using hacksaw, X-Acto blade, carpet knife or similar, and then cutting the wire with thin wire cutters. It's important that the sculpting material doesn't crumble away from the wire as you cut it. Making the cut surfaces of the leg rough would be good, too, so the glue (see below) will have more to adhere to.

Next up, prepare lengths of armature wire and roughen their surface up -a piece for each leg you intend to change. The thinner the wire the better, as long as it's suitably rigid to still act as armature and support the weight of your sculpture. Carve a conjoining groove into the side of your your sculpture and its severed leg. The groove should be suitably broad and deep to hold the new wire.

Set the wire in. Check the leg is straight. Drip in the groove and on the new wire a small amount of super glue and before it dries, sprinkle it with baking soda. The mixture sets instantly. Brush off excess baking soda. Apply a new layer of glue and baking soda. Repeat until you've filled in the groove and lodged in the wire, as well as filled the gap between the severed leg and the rest of your sculpture. Clean up excess super glue - baking soda mixture. Have new leg. Epoxy or a similar putty may also be used instead of the super glue mixture, but the joint will be a lot less stable then.

Geospiza fortis wrote:

jonesee wrote:

Wanna see it done

Wish Granted:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I just got the camera part I needed through the mail, and just in time, too, as today I had just put the finishing touches on my caribou. I feel as if I am catching on quickly to dry brushing, this is the third time I used it, and the first time on my own model where it was visible in the final product. I also began to make a pair of bison based off a pair I used to visit at the zoo.
Ryan:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
and
Esther:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Here's a picture of them from a few years ago:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Please note that this is not my photo. It was taken by one of the keepers and posted to their blog. I am using as reference for the bison pictures that I had taken in August or September of 2011. That was the last time I saw them before they died in a flood in September of 2011.
I am probably going to fix the female's head. Also, does anyone know if the male's head is turned the way a bison should, I'm not sure about their neck flexibility?

WOW!  Thanks, that's something amazing! Great job! I look forward to that I get to see the finished bison- Very exiting!

Thank you for the comments. Koniminiaures, thank you as well for the advice. Is there anything wrong with adding clay instead of the super glue or epoxy to the open spot?

Nice to see the progress :) The caribou looks so great!

Thanks, SyLoBe!

I also have had a rhino in progress since November:
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I am trying to make him as accurate as I can. Any thoughts?

They are RADIATING charm   

Fantastic, both of them !!!    

Geospiza fortis wrote:

Koniminiaures, thank you as well for the advice. Is there anything wrong with adding clay instead of the super glue or epoxy to the open spot?

No problem. As for substituting the glue - baking soda mix with clay, I wouldn't recommend it, especially if it's simple earth clay you mean. It doesn't adhere to surfaces particularly tightly, so the fixed part will be liable to fracture - particularly so if it's a weight-carrying leg that's being fixed. I personally don't even trust epoxy to do the job, but always use the glue + baking soda method instead.

Wow - these are wonderful! The reindeer turned out brilliantly! Can't wait to see how the bison and the rhino look!

^Thanks. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but all of my models so far have been in 1:20 scale.

Excellent again! You are really talented! Are you going to sculptor to Breyer or Schleich a short time later?  

Thanks.

jonesee wrote:

Are you going to sculptor to Breyer or Schleich a short time later?  

I wish.   

       

Here's another picture of the bison:
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I was wondering about the proportions. Could I have advice, please?  Does anyone think the head is too large and front (or back) legs too short? I've been holding mine up to a picture for a while and its difficult to judge. Here is the individual I was referencing on the farthest right:
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[Not my image]
The anatomy of my two bison is very important because I am making models of specific individuals. The other one I'm making is in the middle of the picture. I'm not sure where the one on the left came from, though. I don't remember seeing that one ever at the zoo, and certainly wasn't one of the two that drowned in the 2011 flood.

Only thing I see a little wrong (since you want to represent it off of a specific individual not just the species in general) is the hindquarters look a little short, I would put a little more muscling onto the back. Then the stomach doesn't lineup with the neck beard, the hair on the beard surpasses the depth of the "barrel" (stomach area) on a bison. Otherwise, its a splendid figure and I can't wait to see it done.

Thank you. I would not have noticed those otherwise.