Turacoverdin's Repaints

[Turacoverdin]

I have primarily been a lurker on this forum for the duration of my membership, but recently the inspiration to get on with a small project I've had in mind for a while struck me. Unfortunately, the weather this week has not been agreeable (insert stereotypical English weather joke) - until today, when there was a bout of sunshine and I managed to get some photos. A number of other models are also in my crosshairs for a repaint; in view of this I decided to create a thread dedicated to them, for those who may be interested.

As the title indicates, the aforementioned small project is a repaint of the Safari Ltd. Feathered Velociraptor. I'm actually rather partial to the original colour scheme, but as many know Safari's paint application is not always the best and in my instance was notably poor (compared to other models I've seen online). Some photos to showcase this:



As you can see, the eyes in particular do not give the impression of a focused predator haha

Now like I said, I am a fan of Safari's intended paint-job; the goal was therefore to create a design that preserved some of its character, whilst adding my own interpretation. Nature provides the best examples. Taking the environment of the Djadochta Formation at the time into account, various desert birds (and a handful of desertic non-dinosaurs) were referenced. My observation is that desert animals often tend to exhibit a limited range of colours, but the birds tend to compensate for this with high contrast patterns. There was one bird species which sprang to mind from the start, which I primarily referenced - if anyone can identify it I'll be fairly impressed.

Anyway, no-one came for my rambling so here's the photos haha





Detailed head shots:



I then decided to return inside, in order to get some shots that better represent it's real appearance, although all they really indicate to me is that I need a light box haha. Here they are nonetheless:




A front on head shot:

I'm satisfied with this view in comparison to the original, especially because the eyes were a surprising struggle to get looking right, despite appearing black. The reason I chose to paint them this way, rather than the typical yellow sclera and small pupil, was two-fold: first, most of the desert birds I looked at had dark eyes (exemplified by my primary reference). But secondly, it was due to that 2011 study of Velociraptor (among other genera) sclerotic rings which found it aligned most closely with nocturnal animals. Turning towards the most iconic nocturnal dinosaurs, black eyes seemed even more fitting.
And to finish off the photos:



Some may have noticed the neck pattern forms a V shape: another reason I chose the bird species I mentioned haha. Slightly on the nose, I know.

Apologies for the inundation of images haha, took quite a number of pictures experimenting with a new camera, it was hard to curate the best ones. I'll try to cut down on them (and the word count) next time.

Well, hope someone found this of interest, and thank you for reading.

[Jose S.M.]

That's a very beautiful repaint! The sculpt is one of my favorites and coupled with a careful paint job it looks wonderful.

[Shonisaurus]

That repainting has been fabulous, the velociraptor has been very good. I congratulate you. Thanks for sharing...

[ceratopsian]

An interesting read. A well chosen colour scheme. (And I know exactly what you mean about taking lots of photos and finding it hard to choose the best. I find that tough too!)

[PrimevalRaptor]

Really incredible repaint, I especially like the orange hues on the head!

[Flaffy]

Welcome to the forum!
Fantastic repaint    I especially like the neck pattern design, along with the highlights on the tail feathers.

[SidB]

Clearly a success, without a doubt. I, for one, would be interested in viewing any other repaints that you might want to share with us.

[Tyto_Theropod]

Gorgeous repaint of gorgeous model!  I didn't think it was possible, but this is actually an improvement on the original colour scheme.  And beautifully executed!  You have some serious talent and I really hope you get more involved with the forum and share some of your other repaints.

[Doug Watson]

T @Turacoverdin I'll take a shot, Indian Courser

[Turacoverdin]

Wow, thanks to all of you for the warm reception and kind words. I have to say, I wasn't expecting this many replies, they are much appreciated.

@Doug Watson  Close enough I'll give you that one haha. It was in fact the cream-colored courser, but I did look at other species within the genus.

The sculpt is one of my favorites and coupled with a careful paint job it looks wonderful.

This sculpt is one of my favourites as well. There are many mass produced figures that are beautifully sculpted (multiple being Doug's work, of course), however the detail is often masked by the paint application. Simply the nature of mass production, but hey, it leaves some of us with a little side hobby.

Well, now that there's enough space between my initial post, I have another repaint that may be worth showing.

I've had this cheap chinasaur Parasaurolophus since I was a kid - never known the make, as predictably a simple "Made in China" is stamped on the underside.





This repaint was actually done way prior to the Velociraptor, primarily to test varnishes before using them on more valuable models haha. Though I'm satisfied with the end result, regardless. Some will recognise where this design was lifted from, I'm sure.





Took some more photos the same day as the Velociraptor, though they don't display as well IMO.






Perhaps not as photogenic as the Safari, but a decent little model underneath that paint after all.

Finally, a preview of what's waiting on my desk:


Cheers everyone.

[PrimevalRaptor]

Prehistoric Park?
You really made that tiny (I think AAA?) guy shine! Can't wait to see what you'll do with the Psittacosaurus

[Turacoverdin]

@PrimevalRaptor It is indeed the Prehistoric Park Parasaurolophus. Little guy reminded me of the digital model somewhat, so of course I couldn't resist paying homage to one of my favourite Palaeontology related shows.

Thanks for the ID guess BTW, AAA would certainly make sense. I shall look it up.

[Shonisaurus]

I congratulate you on that medium-quality dinosaur with that repainting greatly improves the figure and makes that hadrosaurid much more beautiful than it really is.

I hope to see your Schleich psittacosaurus repainted and I hope it exceeds the expectations I have for that figure and that it makes Schleich one of the best brands of toy ceraptosids in the world. Honestly, the ceraptosid figures is one of the brightest and most outstanding parts of Schleich's dinosaur figures. And even if it's late, Welcome to the DTF!

[ceratopsian]

The scheme for the Parasaurolophus is excellent. It will be interesting to see what you come up with for the Psittacosaurus. It's a model that would probably take the prize for attracting the highest number of repaints!

[Tyto_Theropod]

As a lifelong Parasaurolophus fan, I approve of this repaint!   You've managed to give it so much character, too.  It's amazing how a new colour scheme can really bring out the best in an off-brad model.  The head on that thing isn't half bad - the proportions of the skull don't seem all that off, although of course the bill should have a sheath extending down below the level of the mouth.  I look forward to seeing what you'll do with the Psittacosaurus.  I thought of buying it for the exact same purpose myself, but the quadrupedal pose put me off.  Anyway, keep up the good work!

[Stegotyranno420]

OH MAN THESE ARE AWESOME

[Turacoverdin]

Well, it's been quite a while hasn't it. I didn't intend on taking this long an interval between updates, but life has a habit of interrupting as much as I have one of starting more projects than I know how to finish haha
An extremely late thank you to all the kind comments made between now and my last post, by the way.

To anyone who might still be interested in seeing what became of that Psittacosaurus, sorry to disappoint but sometime in the past two years I decided to sizeably cut down my collection and sadly, it got the axe (or more accurately, will get the axe, ridding myself of the cut models is yet another thing I haven't got around to doing haha).

However, that doesn't mean I come empty-handed. I just put together a new desk with a lot more room for various forms of artwork, so I'm finally completing a few old projects that've been kicking about for a while now. Hope to finish them shortly (fingers crossed haha) and take some decent photos, but for now here's a WIP of the most recent one. It's another of the talented Mr. Doug Watson's sculpts, the now retired Gastornis. A great sculpt that once again lacks depth in the paintwork, though I carelessly forgot to take "before" shots of my copy. I'll include some more details about the new colour scheme when I post the finished product. For clarification, it's basically done, the only major final steps are painting the claws and eyes (although that's usually the hardest part to get right haha).



Cheers.