Introducing PaleoWorld Studios

[caspakian]

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.

Well, I don't have a shed full of unbuilt kits, but I do have 3 sheds full of built, unpainted kits. I prefer to see the skin detail in all of it's glory, not covered by paint.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I thought all the kits were nicely detailed and quite unique in the pose offered and so forth. I wondered, is it just me or does the oloro look a little "shrink wrapped' or perhaps malnourished? I keep going back to it and wondering what it is about the sculpt that kinda seems off, and I think its because the dinosaur appears emacciated.

[Simon]

Yes, the ribs shouldn't be showing as much and the gut should be deeper.  (Ans it also shouldn't look like a camel in profile)   

[Simon]

Well, I don't have a shed full of unbuilt kits, but I do have 3 sheds full of built, unpainted kits. I prefer to see the skin detail in all of it's glory, not covered by paint.

That M.O.  sounds very familiar.  Are you in Northern California?  Or perhaps we posted on the same thread years ago on another site???

[wings]

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.

@Blade-of-the-Moon:
Just to clarify,

"...On the famous "mummified" specimen collected by the Sternbergs in 1908, there are large folds of skin above the cervical vertebrae...(Czerkas 1997)"

"...The trace in these regions probably formed when the carcass was initially deposited on its right side. The trace reflects the external features of the right side of the body before much shrinkage of the tissues occurred, and the contours may accurately represent the actual muscle mass in those areas. In the neck region, the integument trace suggests both a massive musculature ventral to the vertebral column and a broad region of what had been soft tissue dorsal to the vertebrae. Combined, these structures suggest a neck outline much deeper in dorsoventral aspect than is typically portrayed in most hadrosaur reconstructions...(Murphy et al. 2007)"

(*see specimen on http://www.bhigr.com/store/product.php?productid=591, just zoom into the image on the neck region of the animal)

Although, it is rare but there are papers on this topic. Perhaps at the time when Czerkas published his article, there are critics whom would doubt the validity of this observation. However, Czerkas's idea does coincide with Murphy et al. (2007) finding on "Leonardo" (see above). I highly doubt that the soft tissue would expanded so much after burial, while logically I would think that shrinkage of dermal materials or lost due to erosion would be more likely. So potentially, the neck could be "thicker" than what is preserved on the specimens.

In addition, since often you would like to base your sculpture from others' skeletal diagrams, let's use your references to answer your query on the thickness of the neck on the Parasaurolophus,  it is clear that both Paul (from his field guide) and Hartman (from his deviantart gallery or his blog) drew their Parasaurolophus with muscular necks. If you are looking at Paul's (since you have the book already) reconstructions on some of the hadrosaurs juveniles (like the hatchling reconstruction on p313) you will find that the juvenile animals appear to also have similar built to the adults (i.e. the curvature of their necks and the slope of the spine at the front end of their ribcages). Based on this, it shouldn't be too hard to see that this kind of muscular necks develop fairly early in life for these animals.

References

• Czerkas, S.A. (1997). "Skin". In Currie & Padian (ed.). The encyclopedia of dinosaurs. Academic Press. pp. 669-675.


• Murphy, Nate L.; Trexler, David; and Thompson, Mark (2006). ""Leonardo," a mummified Brachylophosaurus from the Judith River Formation". In Carpenter, Kenneth (ed.). Horns and Beaks: Ceratopsian and Ornithopod Dinosaurs. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. pp. 117–133.

I thought all the kits were nicely detailed and quite unique in the pose offered and so forth. I wondered, is it just me or does the oloro look a little "shrink wrapped' or perhaps malnourished? I keep going back to it and wondering what it is about the sculpt that kinda seems off, and I think its because the dinosaur appears emacciated.

I suppose sometimes you can see a bit of "ribs" on healthy animals (http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Dragon-Komodo-Komodo-Indo-AR-336.jpg, http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Dragon-Komodo-Komodo-Indo-AR-090.jpg).

For people who might be interested on the actual specimen(s), here is the paper (http://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app57/app20110051.pdf).

[caspakian]

Just so everyone knows, there are 3 different sculptors making models for this company. I would have to do an email search from my conversations with the company spokesperson (who is one of the sculptors) to figure out which sculptors did which pieces. Their names are Vladimir Trush (Russia), Vitaly Klatt (Germany), and Gennady Danshin (Russia). After looking back to the beginning of the thread, I see this was all stated previously.......

[postsaurischian]

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.

Of course I did .

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

Thanks for the info . I will try to contact Vitali Klatt.

[Gennady Danshin]

Dear guys, great thanks to the all for good words about our modelworks. Especially - to Spike 
The beginning of our Studio works talks was on here:
http://www.dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php/topic,370.msg7956.html#msg7956
At present we are working for new figures of paleo fauna - permian reptiles, pleistocene mammals and hominides.
By the way, some dino-figures made by Vladimir Trush you can see at his site:
http://dinos.vx5.ru/index.php?view=category&catid=1

[Gennady Danshin]

New figure from PaleoWorld Studio: Olorotitan running with tree, scale 1/40, L=20sm

[tyrantqueen]

What does sm stand for? And where can I get this kit?

[Gennady Danshin]

What does sm stand for? And where can I get this kit?

For purchasing write, please, to Vitaly Klatt:
[email protected]

[redrik]

I painted this little flock of Olorotitans.

[redrik]

I painted this little flock of Olorotitans.

[tyrantqueen]

The head looks a bit like a cassowary. I still need to get this kit

[redrik]

This is the skeleton of a new sculpture "fight Dimetrodon Limbatus with Ophiakon retroversus)

[tyrantqueen]

This looks like it could be very interesting

[caspakian]

Oh man, I can't wait for this!!!

[jtn144]

What scale is this going to be?

[postsaurischian]

  Very promising! I always like a yin yangish composition .
      I'l keep an eye on this one.

[redrik]

Thank you, friends! 
The size of 1x10. Dimetrodon from nose to tip of tail 28 cm.
Now I do musculature.