Introducing PaleoWorld Studios

[gorgosaurus]

I´ve received some kits from a new European producer of prehistoric animal kits, "PaleoWorld Studios".
The Studio comprises three sculptors - Vladimir Trush and Gennady Danshin of Russia along with Vitali Klatt in Germany. Their kits are cast in high-quality polyurethane resin and distributed from Germany.

Inostrancevia and Scutosaurus is in 1/10.




This Tarbosaurus bataar is in 1/40.


This Tarbosaurus bataar vs Tarchia gigantea scene is in 1/40.



I bought their Olorotitan arharensis in 1/40.
7 piece kit - head, body, tail and 4 limbs, plus base.
Something about it jarred with my sensibilities at first, but it´s growing on me.
The dorsal spines depicted may have been restricted to hadrosaurines, whilst lambeosauruines had a dorsal "frill". Must check that this is at all grounded in the scientific literature and not something I picked up from an unreliable source. The crest is better than other representations I own. It may not have been this inflated ventrally, but the fossil bone preserved here is very thin and crushed flat.




My 1/10 Turanoceratops tardabilis is destined for a special little conversion.
No quibbling that Vitali Klatt´s original pose is impressively dynamic.
5 piece kit - body and four legs, plus base. Excellent fit.




Paints up a treat. (Not mine, which is built but not converted yet).


These sculpts are all full of "personality" and packed with detail. The clean, crisp, almost faultless castings fit very well together, needing relatively little clean up and puttying. All parts are keyed for strong and tight joins.
If there are any minor inaccuracies they are debatable and an easy fix for any modeller worth his salt. Most won´t notice them.
To keep cost down, packaging is very basic - which is just fine by me.
The kits cost around 40-45 Euro´s each, maybe double this for the duelling pairs, plus shipping.

If you want to buy, contact [email protected] for prices, availability and shipping.

PaleoWorld Studios call themselves a "new on the market" Studio.
I will certainly be supporting and promoting them as much as I can.

Spike.

[radman]

Well that is just freakin' awesome!  I especially like the tarbo/tarchia.  You are correct, these are full of vibrant action.  Prices  (ballpark, at least)?

[gorgosaurus]

Prices around 40-45 Euro´s per figure - that´s around 90 euros for a "duel".
These kits offer much better value for money than 1/40 scale stuff I´ve received to date from Shapeways.
My Tarchia is 26 cm long and hollow to save on resin costs and weight. The gnarly detail is a painter´s dream. Kit design and engineering of the fitting of parts is very professional, making the pegged joins strong and almost invisible. Mine came mostly pre-assembled with only the tail to glue on.
As I said above, contact [email protected] for specific prices, availability and shipping info.

Spike.

[tyrantqueen]

The trike is the only one I really like. The rest....are meh.

[ajax]

Beautiful models, great details, pretty expensive but the fight scenes are just Awesome. The footprints in the mud and the muddy feet in the first scene look very real.

[mmfrankford]

I love the Tarbosaurus vs Tarchia kit, I would like to own that one. Nice active poses on the line, look forward to seeing their future releases.

[wings]

I bought their Olorotitan arharensis in 1/40.
7 piece kit - head, body, tail and 4 limbs, plus base.
Something about it jarred with my sensibilities at first, but it´s growing on me.
The dorsal spines depicted may have been restricted to hadrosaurines, whilst lambeosauruines had a dorsal "frill". Must check that this is at all grounded in the scientific literature and not something I picked up from an unreliable source...

It is very hard at this time to say that "dorsal spines" are restricted to Hadrosaurinae. How many well documented Lambeosaurinae "dorsal frills" do we have? Not very many really, the most well known one is the Corythosaurus AMNH 5240 (Brown 1914). Compare to Lambeosaurinae we do have more examples on the Hadrosaurinae, like the segmented skin "frills" of either Edmontosaurus or Anatosaurus (Horner 1984), the medial "dermal callosity" in Kritosaurus (Lambe 1914), and some of the recently published Brachylophosaurus specimens like "Leonardo". I think it is fair to say that we just don't have enough described specimens to make such assumption.

However, the neck of the animal does seem a little thin dorsally (above the neck vertebrae). This kind of "thick neck" was described by Czerkas (1997). You can probably see a similar condition in "Leonardo".

[gorgosaurus]

Thanks for those tidbits, Wings. My study has a serious deficiency in Hadrosaur papers, need to do something about that.

I agree about the cervical musculature and ligamenture - we don´t see enough horse-necked Dinosaur interpretations. The sculptor´s intent may have been to emphasise a "swan-neck". 

Here´s a conversion I was working on in 2008 with my Foulkes Parasaurolophus as a thicker-necked Lambeosaurus.


... and a less swan-necked Olorotitan.


Spike.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Wow Spike, that Lambeosaurus looks great. 

I'm currently working on my 1:1 juvenile Parasaurolophus female. I've been going on the Schleich figure's looks as well as MB-CG calling Para model. Is there proof of the neck being thicker or is it more of a theory still ?  I kind of prefer the sleeker look to the neck myself. Could a more robust neck have developed as the animal grew ?

[gorgosaurus]

As wings has said, Czerkas suggested that nuchal ligaments may have extended between the skull/neck and the elongated neural spines in the shoulder region of some hadrosaurs, as can also be seen in the "withers" of some ungulates. I´m not aware of much response either way in the scientific literature, so it might be fair to say that no concensus has currently been reached. Some hadrosaur "mummies" show considerable amounts of soft tissue in the neck region, this also exhibiting heavy folding. It´s not clear whether this is a taphonomic artefact (tissue being pushed around by sediment), but it could very well argue against "skinny" necks.

Basing a representation on toys that have become popular is fine, but a far reach from veracity. Heard of the recent study that showed a majority of Americans with a higher-education all portrayed Tyrannosaurus with a semi-erect to almost erect gait, apparently views influenced by the popular media and toys. Scott Hartman´s or Gregory Paul´s skeletal reconstructions would be more reliable sources.

Spike.

[caspakian]

Beautiful models, great details, pretty expensive but the fight scenes are just Awesome. The footprints in the mud and the muddy feet in the first scene look very real??



I don't know where you get the "pretty expensive" part. I thought they were very affordably priced and the quality is second to none.

[gorgosaurus]

I don't know where you get the "pretty expensive" part. I thought they were very affordably priced and the quality is second to none.

I agree.
These are resin kits, not toys, and most other producers ask much more for products that aren´t always as good. All too often I´ve spent twice or thrice the cost of these and then had to invest tens of hours fixing de-gassing and moulding blemishes, doing clean-up and puttying poor joins.
In my books, it won´t take more than a few more releases, perhaps of a slightly more elegant nature, to put them right up there with the best in the field.
Spike.

[gorgosaurus]

Here are two examples of some more delicate work by PaleoWorld Studios.

A pair of Australopithecus afarensis in 1/20th scale.

The squatting figure is barely 4cm high.
3-piece kit, body and 2 arms, plus base.




The standing figure is a little over 5cm high at the top of his raised hand.
2-piece kit, body and left arm, plus base, branch and tiny horn for the skull on the ground.




I just assembled mine today.
Had to look very hard to find any seam lines that needed removing.
Parts snapped together so tightly that puttying is probably unecessary.
I´ll simply disguise the joins with strokes of thickened paint to represent hairs.
Spike.

[caspakian]

I don't know where you get the "pretty expensive" part. I thought they were very affordably priced and the quality is second to none.

I agree.
These are resin kits, not toys, and most other producers ask much more for products that aren´t always as good. All too often I´ve spent twice or thrice the cost of these and then had to invest tens of hours fixing de-gassing and moulding blemishes, doing clean-up and puttying poor joins.
In my books, it won´t take more than a few more releases, perhaps of a slightly more elegant nature, to put them right up there with the best in the field.
Spike.

I talked to Vitali about new projects and although I can't remember the exact names, he has planned a couple more pre-dinosaur permian monsters that were discovered in Russia. This is what has gotten me interested more than anything else. As much as I love dinosaurs, they are a dime a dozen compared to the pre-dinosaur monsters and the post dinosaur mammals and birds.

[postsaurischian]

These are resin kits, not toys, and most other producers ask much more for products that aren´t always as good. All too often I´ve spent twice or thrice the cost of these and then had to invest tens of hours fixing de-gassing and moulding blemishes, doing clean-up and puttying poor joins.
In my books, it won´t take more than a few more releases, perhaps of a slightly more elegant nature, to put them right up there with the best in the field.
Spike.

Very well said. Regarding the quality, material and producing process you can't call these models expensive.
Comparing the Lambeosaurus directly to a Shane Foulkes sculpt of course shows that they're still not there, but they're on a good way, I think .
Unfortunately I like the Scutosaurus best ..... unfortunately, because it seems to get killed within the next seconds and I'd like to see it standing up feisty & proud .

Oh .... and I love the sitting  Australopithecus ! Are they only available as a pair?

[gorgosaurus]

Comparing the Lambeosaurus directly to a Shane Foulkes sculpt of course shows that they're still not there, but they're on a good way, I think .

I think you meant to write comparing Olorotitan to Shane Foulkes sculpt, postsaurischian.
Remember that Shane´s been at this for yonks and his sculpt is 1/18 not 1/40. Yes, he´s definitely the man to beat when it comes to the combination of sculpting skills, kit quality and customer service. Even so, I did feel the need to re-skin his 1/18 Iguanodon - but this was admittedly his very first commercial release.

I sympathise about Scutosaurus, too often portrayed as the victim...

As far as I know, the squatting Australopithecus is available individually - contact [email protected] for a price including shipping.

Spike.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

As wings has said, Czerkas suggested that nuchal ligaments may have extended between the skull/neck and the elongated neural spines in the shoulder region of some hadrosaurs, as can also be seen in the "withers" of some ungulates. I´m not aware of much response either way in the scientific literature, so it might be fair to say that no concensus has currently been reached. Some hadrosaur "mummies" show considerable amounts of soft tissue in the neck region, this also exhibiting heavy folding. It´s not clear whether this is a taphonomic artefact (tissue being pushed around by sediment), but it could very well argue against "skinny" necks.

Basing a representation on toys that have become popular is fine, but a far reach from veracity. Heard of the recent study that showed a majority of Americans with a higher-education all portrayed Tyrannosaurus with a semi-erect to almost erect gait, apparently views influenced by the popular media and toys. Scott Hartman´s or Gregory Paul´s skeletal reconstructions would be more reliable sources.

Spike.

Ah, thanks .

To put it simply I'm using what I have.  The Schleich Para received a very positive review on the blog for accuracy. I'm also using Malcom's Para, the Tamiya one and Sideshow one for fleshed out versions. I am using Hartman's skeletal but mine isn't a full adult and even using my copy of Paul's Princeton Field Guide I'm still missing multiple views and angles on the skeleton and musculature in particular.  The back area is giving me fits now trying to figure if I should be going with more of a ridge of fleshing it out more.  Sorry for going off topic here. I'll be posting pics of my frame so far in my art thread soon. Feel free to post there.

[Simon]

The pre-dinos are awesome.

The dinos look real good, not sure if they're quite up to my standards yet, though ...

The hadrosaur is the best, but does anyone else think that they made it look like a camel in profile?  That neck is way too long and way too curved - it looks just like a camel to me.  Otherwise it is an impressive sculpt.

[caspakian]

The pre-dinos are awesome.

The dinos look real good, not sure if they're quite up to my standards yet, though ...

The hadrosaur is the best, but does anyone else think that they made it look like a camel in profile?  That neck is way too long and way too curved - it looks just like a camel to me.  Otherwise it is an impressive sculpt.

Take a look at any artists first attempts and you will see them mature as the years go by. And years from now, I bet people will be very sorry that they didn't pick these up when they did not have the chance. If I had to pick one of the dinos as being the most accurate, the Tarchia is flawless in my opinion.

[Simon]

I'm not disagreeing with you - but I am not one of those folks who will wind up their lives with a storage shed worth of unbuilt kits.  I won't have time for serious kit building again until my kids are out of school and I can scale back my work schedule.  If I can get one or two done per year right now I'm lucky. 

So I collect what I find pleasing and unique to my eye.  Which means I pass on 90% of the kits that I do find to be nice and accurate.  I don't care about how rare a kit is.  I have never bought a kit for that reason.

The Tarchia is my favorite Ankylosaur - I have been talking Malcolm into making one for several years.  This one looks real nice, right down to the oversized head, except that I don't like the pose since I am not interested in building that diorama (which is a VERY nice diorama, BTW.  Of the dinosaur kits above I think this dio is the best ...)

In any event these folks should be encouraged and I have no doubt that their future efforts will get better and better.  These sculpts definitely have a certain unique style which is exactly what they should aim for as new kit makers.  Now the accuracy needs to be ramped up just a notch for the dinos.  The Scutosaur and Inostrancevia are freaking awesome.