My first homemade model!

Wow. You really do have a gift for sculpting. Bravo on all of them! (though I do really love the paddlefish)

Thanks everybody for your comments! It seems the paddlefish is a success
Now I wish Safari do a good Mississippi paddlefish with wide open mouth!

Phantastic again

Thanks Widukind!

I have a question for more experienced people in this world. How much would you think that would be a fair price for one of these homemade models, medium sized (such as the duiker)?

I think it depends of time you spent to do it! :)

Oh! Merci :) It's difficult to calculate time spent in figures as I do from while to while at same time than other activities (for example while writing this I'm sculpting the fur of a next model haha). More or less I think that the duiker, for example, costed me about 2-3 hours of modelling and 1-1'5 hour of painting (and 15 minutes baking, but this don't count hehe). What do you think that would be an expected range of prices? :)

..for the work, 40 euros, but since it' s an unique figure and not a copy,.. more! :)

Thanks a lot for the advice! I ask because a person asked me if I could do a request for him, either another zebra duiker or a great hornbill, but I had no idea of what price should I ask
If 40€ + shipping is fair, then I will tell that to him :)

..but get advices from other persons too! :)

Pardofelis wrote:

Thanks Widukind!

I have a question for more experienced people in this world. How much would you think that would be a fair price for one of these homemade models, medium sized (such as the duiker)?

That is a wrong question for me. I think 40+ shipping is a very very good price.

But for me you (and all the other talented members here) create artworks, unique artworks. And i really understand also the prices. But for me as a specie collector i decided to stop to collect artwork-figures. There are too many wonderful pieces. and i can not find a decision this and this not.
As Berlinzoo sold his unbelievable collection i found my decision.

Wonderful figures, Pardofelis. They are getting better and better. I especially like the zebra duiker in this batch, and the langur in the previous batch. I am amazed that you can bake the langur's thin hair without breaking off.

Thanks everybody!
And now... here they come....

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1. First I will present you the bigger model of this new batch, and the hardest to represent accurately. Honestly, I did not a perfect work in shaping the head and other parts. Any wild canid of Safari, CollectA, Papo, etc, it's better done, despite I've tried my best. But well, I just needed to have this species in my collection and since none brand did one, I did. At least I captured the slim, long, thin essence of this wolf, that is rather an elongated overgrown jackal than a wolf. The Anubis-like head, long muzzle, long legs... maybe too long and stiltish, in fact... and well... it may have a couple of additional cervical vertebrae, hehe. So, well, here it is, the Ethiopian wolf, Canis simensis ssp. giraffinus

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And here joining the pack will all my other dogs:
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He also made presentations with some other fellows from the same zone:
(CollectA mountain nyala, also Ethiopian endemic)
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(CollectA hirola, endemic to the Horn of Africa, I don't know if it's sympatric with the wolf, I don't think so)
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2. Hmmm, maybe I should stop making more and more butterflyfishes But I can't avoid! They're easy to made and so tremendously attractive! Here comes the Arabian butterflyfish, Chaetodon melapterus. Well, I don't have transparent material for the caudal fin. I left the tip unpainted, is the most similar thing that I can do to transparency.
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Here all my homemade butters!
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Butterflyfishes are the quintaessencial of any tropical coral reef! Colorata white-spotted jellyfish and Safari LTD white-tipped reef shark for size comparison.
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3. Another small, very easy to paint, but superb species: the Grandala (Grandala coelicolor). It may wear the most magnific tune of cobalt blue seen in any bird of the world. It's my favourite species in the thrush family, and so magnific that is one of the very few small birds that I tought in model as figurine.
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With all my other passerines (also homemade):
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And well, Grandala is an Himalayan animal so...
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4. A superstar of the bird world, the absolutely amazing Bulwer's pheasant (Lophura bulweri). Together with Spix's macaw, this was my reason to visit Benelux a year ago: Europe gained this species again in zoo world, after the last Walsrode individual died: a couple of magnific males joined the atonishing collection of Pairi Daiza last year. One of the most magnific of the pheasants, if not the most, but yet very obscure and unknown even for aviculturists.
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With my only other landfowl: the also homemade Vulturine guineafowl.
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This pheasant is endemic to Borneo where he occasionally meet local animals:
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And even is able to tell tales about the loss of a whole very emblematic species completely whiped out of Borneo very recently
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5. And by last, what I think that is the best done of the whole batch: the mighty Numbat, Myrmecobius fasciatus.
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It joins to my other members of the quoll family, the wide-gaping CollectA's:
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And he's also able to talk about evolutive convergence:
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Very detailed animals, I like much, the birds.

Another wonderful bath! Obviously I love the numbat! :) I think the work with the Ethiopian wolf is very decent. It is not easy to get perfectly animals like that. Just a little aestetical suggestion. I think some of your figures could look even better if you put the back legs not so forward. It is evident in your wolf figure. The back could get higher, giving a more natural balance to the animal and I think it could win in terms of stability.

Beautiful again

wonderful grandala, pheasant and numbat!.. Canis simiensis is great too but looks a little too big..

Thanks everybody!
Roger, many thanks for your suggestion! Actually, I think that is the wire structure inside the legs, that while modelling went more and more forwards gradually attaching a point that it could not be moved backwards without cracking or reshaping the body or tights. Maybe with the hind legs more backwards the wolf would have a more natural appareance, but it's more the muzzle, eyes and face what I find more unconvincent. Maybe I have a tendence of making mammals with back legs too badly positioned. I will try to watch this detail for future figures :)

Caracal, I never saw an ethiopian wolf, not even a taxidermy one, but I think that the size is pretty matching my other canids. Tough also taking in account that "my other canids" follow different scales, from the very overgrown fennec to the smallest scaled one, the maned wolf. But I think that the ethiopian wolf is a nice promedium, as I think that they're about the size of a maned wolf in life...

oh no, they are bigger! I saw manned wolves in some zoo, they are lightly built but tall! :)

Again I charge with a new batch, hehe!

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1. This is different from my usual figures. A caricaturesque hedgehog, smiling and giving a hug. It's just a Christmas gift for my mother. She loves hedgehogs and have a small collection of them.
Making individual prickles attaching each one to the body has been a hard work!
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2. Also a different figure, but in another sense: this will be not for my collection, but i'ts a request custom that I will sell to another collector. Great Indian Hornbill (Buceros bicornis). With a bad issue: gravity center is too forwards. The bird can't stand upright unless there is something over the tip of the tail.
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Comparison with my homemade Helmeted hornbill:
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And now with some neighbours of SE Asian rainforests for size comparison:
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3. Maleo (Macrocephalon maleo), or "hammer-hen" as used to be called in Spanish. A fully unique bird. I was enough fortunately to see them in Bronx zoo very recently. I think that this is one of my best bird figures.
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All my Galliformes for now. Tough looks like that the guineafowl is trying to put peace between two angry and fighting fowl.
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And with some other Sulawesi pals:
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4. Yapok (Chironectes minimus). This very curious opossum is the only aquatic marsupial in the world and it's piscivore.
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Marsupial meeting for size comparison:
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But marsupials are not only aussies. Yapok lives in South America where he meets these neighbours, some homemade, some branded.
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And by last these small birds:

5. Superb starling (Lamprotornis superbus). I made it because I was thinking in my metallic blue pen, and I tough, oh, it's exactly the colour of a superb starling! So I did one for give use of the pen :)
But this was a nightmare. Modelling and baking went perfect, but when I started painting, one of the feet disattached from the wire leg. I used glue to fix it and then, the leg sticked to the table. Trying to disattach breaked all the toes. Finally I was able to glue all toes again and continue painting. But oh, then, the figure failed into my clothes and trying to catch it two of the toes of the other leg broken!!!! I find one of them and glued again, but the other toe was missing. I had to do a crude paste one and paint it being crude
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And now the habitat neighbours...
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And finally, 6. The wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria), my favourite European bird! Not a great perfect custom, but enough for display.
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If bidrwings are the most birdiest of the butterflies, wallcreeper is the most butterfliest of the birds Here the underside:
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Being a mountain critter, ideal companions would be golden eagles, ibex, marmots and chamois. But I don't have none of these in figure. Well, wallcreepers are not only European and extends into the Asian mountains much like the bearded vulture, so... here an Himalayan pal.
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Omg, I love your homemade animals, especially the birds! Wish I would have such talent, too!

Btw: I went 2017 to Pairi Daiza and after their engagement with the spix-ara, I wanted to return next year. But the spix-aras, are they open to public?

Mass production line producing top quality figures!

I love fantastic

rogerpgvg wrote:

Mass production line producing top quality figures!

I think it is noticiable you are improving! You are getting proportions better and figures show a more correct balance.
If I could find these in a shop and my money could afford a single one, it would be the hornbill. Not because it is your best of the batch but my favorite species of this group. Such a beautiful animal and you captured it perfectly.
I am also impressed with your opossum, especially with the detail you could put in its paws despite the very small size. the way you posed the tail is also efficient and pleasant.
I had a good laugh also with your superb starling. Looking at his face, I could guess what happened.
Your caricatural hedgehog is also a very good work. I know this kind of work is almost free of constraints but it is always important to have some good taste to avoid something bizarre or unappealing. The hedgehog is quite charming, it could be a good candidat for a movie character and I enjoy your option for a long snout. The work with the kills have also a very good aesthetic sense.

Thanks a lot everybody!

Duck-Anch-Amun wrote:

Btw: I went 2017 to Pairi Daiza and after their engagement with the spix-ara, I wanted to return next year. But the spix-aras, are they open to public?

Yes they are! In fact they are the first wild animals that one can see in the zoo (just next to the domestic ones in the farm zone, that are the first animals near entry). Spix's macaws are just next to the farm and together with the enclosure of Lear's macaws. But see them can be quite difficult. They are shy and the enclusure is not very viewing friendly. It's a highly reflective glass front that only let you see inside if you look close, the enclosure is full of a very big yucca tree and the macaws tend to pass their time hidden behind the yucca branches. Better to visit near opening time as macaws tend to be more in the ground at this time and more viewable.

Now that Pairi Daiza have also Saint Lucia amazons, a return to the place is even more worth!




Roger, thanks a lot for your kind words. It's nice to see that others perceive my skills as improving ones. Yes, the yapok feet was a very delicate work with those thin toes. I did the hands and feet separately after modelling the body, and fusion of feet with the legs also was a delicate work. I'm happy I got a decent result, tough probably Kaiyodo or Colorata would have done better hands and feet :)
Oh yes, eyes of a superb starling can look funny, but it's as they are in the real animal :) Big, round, white, with small pupils. Perfect representation of the sensation of frightening disgust that the bird must have feeled when the toes broken

Hehe, my hedgehog have not enough quality for appear in Toy History, but I agree in that is charming and I hope my mother perceive it as charming too. Many thanks!

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