My first homemade model!

I love your birds and your so little but detailed opossum yako I did'nt know before.. thank to you, I discover new rare and strange species!

I'm glad that my figures contribute to the knowledge of biodiversity! :)

Pardofelis wrote:

P.S. Tomorrow I will go to the post office with a fox

This new batch took long time, but finally I've baked yesterday and painted all today :)

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1. The zebra duiker, Cephalophus zebra. What? This is not a species that I already did? And is my collection not synoptic? Yes and yes. But this is a commision, by the same person that asked me for the hornbill :)
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Here with my older zebra duiker. They could do a nice paper in a Noah's Ark diorama or a zoo diorama :)
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2. The red-breasted goose, Branta ruficollis. For sure the most beautiful goose in the world!
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With my other waterfowl:
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3. The mythical Bowfin!!!!!!!!! (Amia calva). Another fish that for sure @sbell will like :) Sole surviving member of an ancient fish lineage that rised with the dinosaurs.
A thing I learned today while looking pictures for painting my model, is that male bowfins turn their lower fins and belly emerald green during spawning. I wanted to try and painted the fins bright green. But after some time I decided that my model is too striking and painted again in the classic colour. However, I didn't tried to delete every trace of green. I left a small green subhue that I sort of like:
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I don't have many freshwater critters. Here the most likely friend for my new bowfin, another primitive fish tough this one is Chinese instead American.
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4. And finally, what I think is maybe my best mammal sculpt. The drill, Mandrillus leucophaeus. I just love how I've got the shape of the face, a thing that I tought I would not be able to do properly.
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With Schleich mandrill pal! :)
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wonderful models! the drill is a master piece!

It is very brave from you to venture in primates world . Those are always hard to get and you did it. Very beautiful batch again and once more a really nice fish.

WOW ! How lucky can one be ?

On the first morning of the new decade, and after a longish break from the internet ,  Roger's fox-collection led me on to this truely enchanting page !

The beauty and sheer magic that you make, ought to be exhibited for everyone to see, so they realize that we truely MUST look after our poor, mal-treated earth !!!  

I see Prevost's squirrel, the egyptiann wolf, grey fox, fishes, birds, insects... they are almost pouring from your gifted hands

Suddenly now it is almost daylight, - the dark morning passed without me noticing, and by now my poor chickens, horses, and canaries must be waiting impatiently for their breakfast
But I will surely be back, smiling happily at the sight of so much talent and beauty

Thankyou so much for sharing, with - of course as it is you - beautyful photos and comparisons

Thank you for such a poetic way to begin the new year, Susanne! :)

Phantastic work again

There passed a lot of time since last updating, but finally here I am with the last batch. I already baked two weeks ago, painted all but one one week ago, and painted the last one today. Find enough free time for all hobbies is not always easy
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First, I did by commision a couple of figures for a forum member that went enthusiasted about my previous models and wanted new ones as similar as possible to the older. Being hand-made models it's impossible to make exact copies, but in my opinion the newer ones are better than the older. Chinese paddlefish with longer and straighter rostrum, and a bowfin, where the shape of pelvic fins is slightly better done.
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On top, the newer models and on bottom the older ones:
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Second, a ringtail (Bassariscus astutus) as suggested by @Advicot. I like a lot this species that I was fortunate to see in Burger's zoo.
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Comparison with more small carnivores (homemade marbled polecat and Nayab genet)
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And now with a bit scary neighbour native of the same zone:
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Third, I wanted to diversify my selection of less represented phyla. I already had a sea snail but I wanted to do a cone. And then I choosed one of the most beautiful ones: the marbled cone (Conus marmoreus):
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Shell lenght is only 1 centimeter!! About scale 1:10
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These are my two gastropods for now. The baler volute welcomes another snail pal :)
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And now all my marine invertebrates together. Soon they will increase
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Fourth: one of my favourite fishes, the splendid toadfish, Sanopus splendidus. Like the Australian handfish, this is a fish that first I knew for its spectacular appareance, and only much latter (in this case when I searched for images for do the model) is when I knew that its a very endangered species. I also didn't knew that is endemic to Cozumel island!

Figure measures only 2 centimeters! You could imagine what a delicate work is to make and bake the barbels witouth breakage
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And here with my homemade butterflyfishes and some Ikimon deepsea fishes:
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Fifth, the flame bowerbird, Sericulus ardens, requested by Advicot too. Probably my favourite member of the bowerbird family!
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With my other passerines:
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And now on a ride on a spiny neighbour hehe
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Sixth and final: the flagtail characin, Semaprochilodus insignis. Well I did it a bit too big, but I will keep it anyway because I love it
I had all painted except the body. Today my mother lend me a silver pen, and I can finish this fish :)
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Not much more freshwater fishes in my collection. Here with my bowfin, tough each one lives in a different America:
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And a jaguar was walking at a river edge and found this beached. He's smelling it and judging if it's enough fresh to eat.
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very cute ringtail so detailed in spite of its small size! and congrat for the others too, the bowerbird, the charassin.. I don't know the others species but suppose they are very accurate too!..

your fishes are better and better!

Unbelievable beautiful

Now guys and gals, I present you the last update of this thread. Some days ago I finished all the models spent with the remain of my modelling paste. I don't plan to buy more for a long while, so I don't think that I will do homemade models again in at least various months.

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The goldfinch don't appear here, I forgot to include it in the group shot.

1. This is, again, a requested commision. A collector asked me to do a leafy seadragon. As this is a too complicated model to do for me, I rejected that, but he asked me a Dall's porpoise instead. If you remember well, Dall's porpoise was my first homemade. And casually also my last. This makes me seeing that I really improved a bit my scultping squills. The new porpoise is far better than the older: it have a not so chunky body, the bumps and shrinks are avoided, the fingerprints are much more scarce, the spiracle is centered, and the caudal peduncle is infinitely better.
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But it also have a couple of bad issues due to modification of original position during baking. The tinfoil support was apparently not enough for prevent this. The tail fluke is greatly inclined to a side. I suppose that these animals can adopt occasionally this position however.
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he second issue is that one flipper was completely broken before being bended a lot during baking (as the model fell over the flipper). I had to glue it in the inverse position. I left the glue to fill the empty space of the crack under the flipper, and I had to use a file for smooth the imperfections. The seam is still very visible but it would be enough well repaired if for my own collection.
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Here the newest model (foreground) and the older one (background). The differences in quality are not so easy to appreciate in photo, but in real figures are noticeable. I was tempted to substitute the older one by the newest one, but I can't do, because the newest is not my 100th figure! The older have a symbolic value for me :)
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2. The Russell's viper, Daboia russelli. This is a case of a taxonomic change that I accepted (ex Vipera), tough I could change my mind again Well, is not a great model. Overall, the head is too big, the neck is too thick. Scales are too weakly marked. The paintjob is beautiful and delicate, that took me a lot of patience, but the lateral spots adapting to the curves (one betwen each two dorsal spots) means that they're extremely separated in the outside of curves and extremely joined in the inside of curves. Anyway it's still recognizable and I will keep it in my collection.
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Here with my other snakes (that I think are better): Fea's viper and mandarin ratsnake. At the moment all my snakes are Asian! :)
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3. The standard-winged nightjar, Macrodipteryx longipennis. This is a model that I make just because I acquired a thinner wire, so I can do the "standards". You will notice that the original model had the standards in a different position. I sculpted it completely from memory so I only realized that the standards should depart from the upperside of the wing, and not from the back border, when I looked for photos for painting it after being baked. Also the shape of the standards was wrong. So I had to pull them out, glue them and also use a file for downsize one side of the feathers.
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4. The Eurasian goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis. Until now I did birds with the minimum size of a starling, but I tought that I could made smaller birds if they're in flight, avoiding the problem of too delicate/gross legs. The wings and tail are made of hard paper.
This bird measures 2 cm wingspan, so it's scale 1:10 to 1:15. A tiny jewel. And I love tiny jewels
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5. The slender sunfish, Ranzania laevis. As many of you know, this is my favourite fish species. When I realized that my mother have a silver pen, I decided to do this model.
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It's in scale with its giant cousin, the ocean sunfish (Mola mola) of Colorata, Salt water fish set
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6. The Asian green mussel, Perna viridis. With 8 mm lenght, this is the smallest model of my collection.
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Here compared with the spotted jellyfish (Mastigias papua) of Colorata Salt Water Fish set (compliment of the ocean sunfish above).
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7. The clown knifefish, Chitala chitala. It don't stand upright, so I improved a small hardpaper stand for it. I really like a lot how this figure resulted.
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8. And by last, I want to present you, what i think is the best of all my homemade models. Finally, tried to honour my nickname by doing a marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata). I wanted to do something a bit different, so I chosed to do the cat yawning.
I absolutely loved it once sculpted, and I love even more once painted. The only possible issue is that is a bit too fat, but who knows, maybe he likes to eat a lot of squirrels and birds
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Underside with the pink paws:
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I even did the molars
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Size comparison: with Papo ocelot...
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Kaiyodo Iriomote cat...
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Schleich leopard...
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and with its closest cousin: the Bornean bay cat!
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Not fair, you did it again

Phantastic figures :)

I love this cat!

Thanks!
I forgot to photograph the red-headed partridge (Haematortyx sanguiniceps)! It's not a breathtaking model, if somebody needs to see a photo of it just tell me.

Wonderful Pardofelis  Marmorata Pardo!!  with this so natural and feline pose, you did'nt choose the easyer work! ..and which fits so well with your fantastic Pardofelis badia!..


I love too your so little goldfinch (one of the birds I prefer), your sun fish and your clown knifefish. Now your fishes are perfect!  

Very good job my friend!

MAGNIFICENT WORK Congratulations a treat to follow you

Excellent models again Pardofelis. I agree that the marbled cat is a real master piece. I like the goldfinch too, as it is a species that I sometimes (but rarely) see in real life. Your photos are also very good, but in a way, they don't do justice to your models, because they are zoomed in so much that you see every tiny imperfection that you can't see with the naked eye. Just for fun, I zoomed out on your goldfinch so that it was 2 cm on my computer screen. And then I realised there are no imperfections at all, just incredible detail! In particular, the wing feathers are amazing.

Pardofelis wrote:

Thanks!
I forgot to photograph the red-headed partridge (Haematortyx sanguiniceps)! It's not a breathtaking model, if somebody needs to see a photo of it just tell me.

Go on, don't be shy, we want to see it!

You did a wonderful job on all your models.
Sculpting is really hard, (I tried), but you make it look very easy. You cleary have a knack for it.
You will only get better and better in making these lovely figures.

Exhibit A: that jawning cat....pure gold!
Great paint job too.
Kudos!

Thanks a lot for all your nice and kind comments :) :)

rogerpgvg, I understand what you mean! If these tiny models were at the size that usually brands choose for do these kind of species, they would be full of imperfections that are just impossible to avoid when working at these small scales

Doing tiny figures also allowed me to have many more species with the same quantity of clay

I will take photos of the partridge for you some day

You never mentioned you had done a partridge Isidro! I would also love to see it.

Hi mi dear friend,
I've mentioned it here!

Pardofelis wrote:

Thanks!
I forgot to photograph the red-headed partridge (Haematortyx sanguiniceps)! It's not a breathtaking model, if somebody needs to see a photo of it just tell me.

You can see it in the unpainted model group photo. But as I said is not a great model. Very simple. Maybe not to the point to be disappointing, but nothing to see with f. e. the marbled cat

An excellent cat! A brilliant pose and you pulled it off perfectly. The more I look the better it seems to get, bravo!