3D home printed dinosaur skulls and skeletons (1:20 stegosaurus skeleton UPDATE)

[Duna]

Hi there,

I have finally finished painting some 3D dino skulls and skeleton which I downloaded free from Thingiverse and printed.





This is the 1:1 velociraptor skull. It was the most difficult because it was in 4 pieces and ALL the teeth were to print -AND GLUED- individually. Here I used putty to fill in the seams, then I used a sandpaper.




The first one was the T-Rex skeleton, and I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't when painting.
Using priming coat didn't work at all, I didn't like the look it gave after painting. After some trials, what worked quite well was as simple as good: just applying brown paint on it, only that.

My advice to get a dark brown fossil aspect (or at least not to have a white figure):

- Apply a thin layer of brown acrilic paint with a brush in the darker areas: bones inside the skull, nostrils, eyes ... then leave it dry.

- Apply on the rest of the skull that is unpainted but try to do it at once all in the same area. You will have time because the paint will be wet for some minutes. Then use a simple paper towel to tap tap softly (not rubbing or sweeping, not try to clean it), just tap to make the wet paint adquiere a soft aspect with no brush lines. If you have too much paint, use another part of the paper towel, repeat calmly, just looking at what you get, you can repeat it as you need.
As you can see, not only you disguise the brush lines but the printed lines as well. It looks quite nice:



When dry, use the brush to apply more paint (use brush with little paint and tapping) in the darker areas you painted first (the inside of the skull, nostrils ... ). Also, apply paint in hollow areas and deep lines that the bone has naturally. If you paint a line, make sure to clean with the paper towel (tap tap) to leave just the line darker.
Apply it on beak and horns. Yes I know they are made of the same bone, but I thought it could gave a better look ...
Here you can see an example: it makes it look less artificial.




When dry, paint the teeth twice or three times, as desired. It will make them look darker, it looks better.

And that's it. Very easy.




I have made: 1:20 T-rex skeleton and a bigger skull (I probably will redo the skull at a bigger scale), 1:1 velociraptor skull and a 1:20 Triceratops prorsus skull which will have a complete skeleton -I'm printing it-




Hope you like it

[PumperKrickel]

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[Duna]

Only the second picture shows up for me.

Sorry, I think I've fixed it.

[PumperKrickel]

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[Duna]

P @PumperKrickel thank you!

[Duna]

Finally I finished the 1:20 Triceratops prorsus skeleton. It has cost me a lot of work because it was very difficult to print. And also the printer broke down.  Most bones had to be restored, ribs had to be individually soften ...

But it is a magnific beast, very huge.





In comparison with the real size velociraptor skull:




In comparison with the Papo triceratops:




Next project: saber-toothed cat skull. Skulls are really easy in comparison to full skeletons ...

[DinoToyCollector]

Your paint jobs are excellent. The prints are looking very natural. I'm learning some good things here from this post 

[Duna]

Saber-toothed cat (Smilodon) skull done - from Makerbot. Very easy in comparison to the triceratops. I tried a different painting scheme:







Next proyect: 1:20 Stegosaurus skeleton. This would be easier because Makerbot designs the skeleton to be printed, and the triceratops was from other user and was just a 3D scan. Very difficult to position correctly the pieces and print.



I'm so excited with the Stegosaurus, it's HUGE!  Look at the size of the plates! ... After the base and the pieces in the picture, I have a full 24 hours more left to print.

[Duna]

1:20 Stegosarus finished! It has cost me a lot of work ... I thought it would be easier than the triceratops, but not ... I mixed all the ribs by accident, dropped them to the floor (so I had to look one by one, almost went nuts!). In the Tyrannosaurus, the ribs have a small number printed, but this Stego has nothing ...

I decided to paint it lighter as the Utah museum's skeleton on display. I just mixed "ancient white" paint with the "dark brown" I used before. Then I used the same tecnique: paint and tap it with a paper towel to leave lighter areas with less paint. I works really well.

Plates were not numbered either, but I've learned a lot while mounting this skeleton. Cervical plates are more vertical than those on the tail.




I will paint the base dark brown to go along the wooden shelf it will be displayed on.






In comparison to the Triceratops prorsus skeleton. It's fantastic to have them so close to compare: you can see the huge difference in the pelvis of an animal that uses and helds its massive and heavy tail and one that has it more for balance of the body.
The ridiculously small head is very well represented, but the tail I would have liked to be held more horizontally.





It has been very entertaining to put all the pieces to place. I really recommend this skeleton replicas if you have a 3D printer.