Painted fishes--3D models!

I have recently gotten hold of some printed fish that were done for me by the university where I work. And for the first time, I've actually prepped, primed and painted the figures! Outrageous!

(I hope this is the correct forum area to use)

I'm not great at it, but it was fun. Maybe there was less anxiety involved because the models were gifted instead of costing me anything (although the knives, files, primer, brushes & paints made up for it).  And I still have a few more models to paint.

Payara Hydrolycus armatus

I'd originally intended to do the more familiar H. scomberoides but when image searching found one with more blue highlights and reds. Turns out it was a different species (H. armatus). That's what I get for searching with a common name I guess.

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One challenge is that the printer was not a super-high resolution, so there is a lot of texture to the printing. So that swirling pattern is part of the plastic.

The fish also photographs more blue than it looks IRL. But it is still painted to be silvery/shiny.

Obviously, some features of the model are affected by the medium--the teeth are much thicker than they should be--and the pelvic fin is printed as one thick fin. I could have tried to fix it had I noticed before I started painting, but I didn't.

The model can't stand on it's own, so it requires a base. My son created this one using Sculpey, and the figure is mounted using a Colorata peg. The figures have an internal mesh instead of being solid or hollow, so once I drilled through, the hole was...less straight. But it's not like this is a toy anyway.

So that's my first one! More fish a-coming! Probably with less explanations, since much of this kind of carries over among all of them.

My second printed fish:

Clown Knifefish Chitala ornatus

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Like the Payara, this one is a little more silvery IRL. Something about the silvery paint turns blue-er in the camera lights.

But they're still kind of bluish.

Also like the Payara, this knifefish cannot stand on its own--this time, my daughter made the Sculpey stand. To my eye, she almost managed to copy a Colorata base.

Fish number 3!

Green sturgeon Acipenser medirostris

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This is the first one I painted. I decided to make it a green sturgeon because I don't have one. It turned out a little more green than I'd intended. But I've noticed that, given the nature of the material, I can probably get away with some colour exaggeration since these figures aren't detailed to the point of skin. So I go all out because why not!?

Nice work! I've heard 3D models are a pain in the butt to prep.

Wow, they are beautieful!!!!

And a fourth fish:

Tropical Gar Atractosteus tropicus

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My original intention was to make one of the not-Alligator gar Atractosteus. It wound up in the Tropical gar direction, although the bands are not as distinct as I'd have liked; fortunately, they're kind of variable overall.

Or, I can blame it on this being a hybrid with a northern pike...I didn't notice, until I was painting, that the tail is clearly not a gar's heterocercal tail, but instead a pike tail. I'm guessing that the person who originally made the file kind of copied-and-pasted from an original file. I'm not going to complain. More gar is better than less gar.

And, it's missing an anal fin. Something I wish I had realized when I was prepping the model, since 3 paired fins (both pectorals and a pelvic) broke off. But I didn't. So now it's a bit of a freak.

And the last finished fish model I have.

Like the gar and sturgeon, this one stands just fine on its own, so I haven't mounted them on any pegs. I might eventually, but given the uncertain internal structure, I prefer to leave well enough alone for now!

Double-Nose Elephant Fish Campylomormyrus rhynchophorus

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The species is mostly a guess, as there are lots of similar mormryids. That said, the genus is pretty likely. The only other thing I was certain of is that it isn't the most familiar species, Gnathonemus petersii, based on the position of the mouth, and the doubled trunk (more obvious up close).

LeeAnn wrote:

Nice work! I've heard 3D models are a pain in the butt to prep.

These ones were especially difficult because I received them rough--all of the flash and extra plastic, and the plastic itself is thin.

Which is why the models have somewhat strange patterns. Shapeways and other companies tend to sell models in finished cleaned up form--but these were free, so I was more willing to take risks! Shapeways is very not free

The big thing with painting is lots of primer--it's good for fish like these, where they will tend to be smooth anyway.

Great work and models too!!!

I'll also throw these here--they are tiny metal fish sold as 'eels' although they are clearly gymnotids. I decided that I needed them to not be electric eels, since I have a couple of figures of those already.

In original form:
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As a Black ghost knife, Apterontous albifrons

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As a Banded Knife Fish, Gymnotus carapo

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widukind wrote:

Great work and models too!!!

Thanks--it was a different experience for me, figuring out how to paint them to look more or less right!

I also like your repainted Yujin-fish!

widukind wrote:

I also like your repainted Yujin-fish!

They're just metal figures--I just used a Yujin base for it because I have spares!

They are awesome !!!

Of course there is that swirly pattern, but who cares ?
Most of thise fish I have never heard of before, - let alone seen a model of them, - this is wonderful

SUSANNE wrote:

They are awesome !!!

Of course there is that swirly pattern, but who cares  ?
Most of thise fish I have never heard of before, - let alone seen a model of them, - this is wonderful

I have a lot of fish figures--it was nice to see some of these unusual fish for once! Now I'm hoping that even more appear for printing someday (I have a couple I still need to paint up, but then I'm out).

They look good.
I don't find the texture of printing disturbing at all.
Nice job painting them and I like the bases too.

Bloodrayne wrote:

They look good.
I don't find the texture of printing disturbing at all.
Nice job painting them and I like the bases too.

I was pretty impressed with the bases--I just gave my kids the Sculpey and the plastic rods that needed to fit, and let them go to it. They did a pretty good job given the limited Sculpey amounts we had!

Fantastic fish. All of them are amazing, but my personal favorite would have to be the sturgeon.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Fantastic fish. All of them are amazing, but my personal favorite would have to be the sturgeon.

Thanks! It went a little greener than I'd intended, but I like the effect!

Okay, the last two are finished!

First up, American Paddlefish, Polyodon spathula

The biggest challenge with this one was figuring out the colour--the photos, paintings and drawings ranged from cream to bluish to greyish to brownish. I went with a more brown, although there are blues and greys.

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The base is a Sculpey, again putting the kids to work. In this instance (and in ones I'll put up soon) I decided that the drilling was causing unexpected problems, so instead I made a 'saddle' out of sculpting wax to sit atop the peg. I will try and find something a little less obvious eventually.

I was pretty happy that this showed up--I only have a couple of paddlefish, and one is a very good wooden model, and the other is a squeezing bath toy. Still hoping to see a real one someday.

And my final paint job--an electric ell Electrophorus electricus

Again, on a sculpy base. This time, given their environment and habits, I decided to build it a groove to rest in, allowing it to crawl across the river bottom as it were.

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Not as nice as the Kaiyodo one of course. One interesting thing about it is how 'shortened' it seems; even a lot of pictures show them as far shorter than they should be. It also proved to be the toughest to photograph well.

So that's the 7. I will put up one more post with all of the fish on their new bases, and a group shot. That will take a couple more minutes!

Okay, the 7 fish on 7 bases (well, the first 5, on new bases. The knife fish didn't actually change although the peg did).

As with the paddlefish, I did not drill any of the later fish, instead using wax to hold them. It's less damaging, but stands out a bit too much (except the elephant nose).

Tropical gar:
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Green sturgeon:
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Double-beak elephant nose fish (the payara was originally on this base, but my son intended it for the elephant nose fish):
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Payara (on the new base):
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Clown knife fish with new peg:
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And finally, all of them together. Meaning that it is now very obvious that they are very not to scale (because a Payara or Elephant nose that big would be terrifying):

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Thanks for looking! I hope to someday have others to prep and paint, because this was fun!

Beautiful series Sbell

Amazing fishes

I love it that your kids help you make the bases . very talented kids