Retooling the Elenco 36" T-Rex

[Tyderium]

Hi all, new member here.

I have the Elenco 36" T-Rex skeleton kit.
It is the commonly available version off Amazon etc.



It has a nice presence because of its large size and anatomically it isn't too bad apart from the very simplified skull, but I decided to embark on a project to make it much more accurate and also dramatically alter its posture.
I'm basing the new pose and using image reference from the beautiful Holotype display at the Carnegie Museum of NH.

I am posting a progress thread here for anyone that has this kit or is interested in the potential it has in transforming into a museum quality centrepiece.
I haven't really attempted anything of this scale before so I'll be learning as I go 

I decided to start from the ground up by beginning with the feet.
First off I removed the ankle connector tabs and sharpened the claws by carefully whittling down the plastic with a scalpel. Then I cleaned up and further defined the joins in the toe bones with a file. The feet thin out and become ambiguous in detail towards the top of the ankles so I created volume and more accurate shapes with Milliput plaster. Never used the stuff before but it is pretty easy to work with and, once dry, leaves some irregularities perfect for realistic looking fossilised bone.




Next I tackled the tibia and fibula bones. In the kit these are moulded as one, blocky piece so I separated the two bones with a small saw then smoothed and rounded off each with a heavy file. The plaster was then used for filling out and sanding down to form more accurate shapes for these bones of the lower leg.





So that's where I am up to so far.
Once all the bones are finished I'll repaint and also work out a frame to restructure the skeleton into its new pose.
More updates soon.

Thanks for looking.

[reinier zwanink]

Your up on a good start
Looks very good to me but where do you get the measurements or is this a bit guesswork?
Miliput is a good source to use for this to
Did you know there are 3 grades of it

[Arul]

Very good fossil replica Elenco is the brand name ?

[Tyderium]

Your up on a good start
Looks very good to me but where do you get the measurements or is this a bit guesswork?
Miliput is a good source to use for this to
Did you know there are 3 grades of it

Thanks for the kind words.
I'm not really using measurements as such since I am basically using the kit parts as the base rather than building from scratch - not going to that level of detail. But I am reshaping and adding to the parts where needed to make them as accurate as possible based off careful study of a lot of photographic reference of the holotype. I am replacing the skull entirely because it is probably the most inaccurate part of the kit and I feel it is also a little undersized - I think the kit is supposed to be 1:12 scale but a 1:10 scale skull makes for a much better size match. I also truncated the ankles a little since these seemed too long comparatively based on the reference. So I am making modifications based on eye but I'm paying close attention to overall proportions and retooling the parts to match my photos as closely as possible.

Yeah the Milliput is working out nicely, I'm using the Superfine.

[Tyderium]

Very good fossil replica Elenco is the brand name ?

Yep, it's called Elenco on Amazon at least.
The box I have is from EDU Science (bought from Toys R Us), but it's the same thing.
I think Amazon is the best bet to pick one up.
It's a simple snap together thing.