My first attempts at figure modifications

[Mononykus]

I'm not an experienced modeller or skilled painter, but I have nonetheless attempted to modify a few figures to improve accuracy, or change species, and I thought I would share them here.

First up, a Wittonized Hatzegopteryx
I started with the long-necked Collecta Hatzegopteryx and decided to modify it to better match Mark Witton's more recent reconstruction, based on reanalysis of the neck vertebra and discoveries of other short-necked azharchids.
Basically, I cut a chunk out of its neck, attached the head back onto the stump, and filled in bits with an air-drying clay. I also filled in the hollowed out preorbital fenestrae and redid the crest (again based on speculation derived from other Ahzdarchids). The clay shrunk a bit, leaving some cracks, so it was not ideal. The paint scheme is loosely based on Witton's art (see link above). The result is not great, but probably more accurate than the Collecta original.


Membrane-less Nyctosaurus
The PNSO mini Nyctosaurus went with the full membrane hypothesis for its head crest, but it is more likely (based on the shape of the bony elements) that the crest did not support a membrane. This just involved some quick surgery with a hobby knife, nothing fancy, and it shows (but good enough for government work, as this is used for my class).


Alcovasaurus longispinus
Alcovasaurus is a fairly recently erected genus of a poorly known stegosaur from the Morrison Formation. It was originally known from a pelvis, femur, a bunch of vertebrae, some ribs, and the tail spikes, the latter being exceptionally long. Only the femur and casts of the spikes survive, although there are photographs of the other parts. Originally assigned to Stegosaurus, some have suggested it may be closer to Kentrosaurus, but a fairly recent reanalysis (Galton & Carpenter 2016) suggests it was closer to Stegosaurus and thus reconstructed as a short-tailed, long-spiked variant (tail length is based on the shorter caudal vertebrae but also makes mechanical sense as it would better support heavy spikes)--as in this image from from their paper:

The shape of this reconstruction looks a lot like the 2008 Safari Stegosaurus, so this seemed a great starting point since all it would need is longer tail spikes. I am not terribly happy with how this came out. I had trouble sculpting tail spikes that were thin enough and wouldn't break off (even with wire inside), so they are too thick and lumpy. And of course the real animal may not have looked much like Stegosaurus at all (its plates are completely unknown, for example).





Lastly, a Pteranodon Sex Change
Pteranodon is one of the relatively few extinct reptiles where we can be reasonably confident about sex differences, so it is a shame no toy makers bother making a male-female pair (while there is at least one figure of a pair of males of two species that were probably not even contemporaneous). To rectify this and provide a mate for the new Safari Pteranodon, I modified the old Schleich model, since as a female it would be roughly in scale with the much larger male. All I did was cut off the crest, file it down a bit, and then repainted it to more or less match the Safari color scheme (and drilled a hole in the belly to support a clear plastic rod). This one came out okay, I think.




Given my skills, you can see why I would leave any significant work (such as resin buildups) to the real professionals.

[ZoPteryx]

I'm really liking these!  Big improvement on the Hatzegopteryx and the Pteranodon especially! 

[Killekor]

Sincerely I think that you've improved a lot the CollectA Hatzegopteryx. It looks really great, especially with the new paint scheme! Congratulations!

Killekor

[Einherjar]

You should get some green stuff to make tail spikes and similar things with. It's a two part plastic clay that dries pretty hard, but slightly bendy, depending on how thick it is, so breaking it is next to impossible. Will save you a lot of trouble with breaking clay. If it doesn't need to be bendy, just use milliput or magic sculp. Dries very hard, and doesn't shrink.

[Halichoeres]

I'm particularly fond of the Pteranodon mod, but all of these turned out better than anything I might attempt.

[Mononykus]

Thank you all for your comments. Glad you like them.


Einherjar: Thanks for the advice (and sorry for being slow to respond; it has been a busy week for me). It also occurred to me after I was done that I perhaps should have made the spikes separately and then attached them afterwards. Someday when I have time I might try it again.[/size]

[australovenator]

These are really good, light years beyond anything I could do. I really love the Pteranodon, keep up the good work

[Shonisaurus]

The Safari stegosaurus and the pteranodon have been great. Keep up the good work!