Papi-Anon's Paleoart

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

Impressive Work. Well done.
You must have learned alot while doing this. So many things to consider while making it

[Papi-Anon]

The Mesonyx is fantastic!

Impressive Work. Well done.
You must have learned alot while doing this. So many things to consider while making it

Thanks! And yeah, LOTSA stuff learned from this. Interestingly, the whole project started just from repurposing the design for a non-paleo project. I had a set of cloven hooves for Sozai-chan figures as monstergirl upgrade parts to make a minotaur/satyr and was planning to make carnivoran paws when the idea to make mesonychid hoofed feet popped into my head. The project pretty much designed itself from there, lol.

On the subject of projects, I have a shapeways shipment en-route with another prehistoric Pokemon that (if it works) could be redesigned to make another Paleo-Pals figure to go with Lobey the Trilobite. Won't say which prehistoric Pokemon, but I will say that it's a pre-Cenozoic critter.

Also, here's a WIP I plan to have produced by Sculpteo this time due to file size constraints of Shapeways not accepting the 3D files:

[Papi-Anon]

Another little update. Revisted the 1:12 Deinotherium design and took a different angle at the concept. Went for a more modern elephant look with trunk and ear designs (albeit the trunk's still thicker than any modern elephants' snouts). While I love articulation, especially in detailed figures of decent sizes, I instead decided to have this be a fixed pose to preserve the sculpt better.

[Papi-Anon]

No CAD updates at the moment, but thought I'd post an excerpt from a sci-fi story I've been (slowly) working on that deals with paleontological creatures and immortals who can shapeshift into them.

(approx. 150mya)

A week had passed since the second Sobca had died, yet the phantom had remained by the site, unseen. She had warded off or eaten numerous scavengers that attempted to sup upon her father's corpse, brief pauses from taking in her new knowledge and memories. Sighing through her scaly but covert nares the daughter directed her gaze to the mound of earth she diligently guarded.

Beside her invisible form her father's remains had been buried, the act itself neither symbolic nor sentimental. With the piles of dirt and stones concealing the massive carcass, fewer scavengers came towards the area, leaving the orphaned heiress with the solitude and peace she desperately required.

On the day she began digging into the soil with her forearms and hind feet her father had already begun to decompose, his exposed, partially devoured bones bleaching in the hot sun with the stench of carrion wafting in the breezes. Now all that remained of the late Sobca the Second was a proto-grave, the first created by an animal to put its kin to rest rather than by the forces of nature interring a body by chance.

With another long sigh the daughter continued to stare at the mound, still shaken.

As the sun shined as bright as ever, the daughter of the former hound smacked her tongue about her jaws. The dry, acrid taste of her maw had festered beyond her tolerance, and her long throat felt raspy and hot. Rising, the carnosaur proceeded to the river, drawing her jaws into the cool water and then lifting up her head to pour the mouthful down. With each gulp her throat felt more and more rejuvenated, and the crisp fluid washed away the bitter dryness of her tongue and gums. A simple pleasure, the daughter felt her mind also cleansing from each drink. She had sobbed for two straight days without sleep after Sobca passed away, but now after a week she had slowly accepted the fate of her father, even if begrudgingly.

To her rear the ground reverberated slightly from weighty thumps. Startled, the daughter turned quickly to confront whatever had ventured to her spot...

...only to see a pair of plate-backed, spike-tailed herbivores lumbering towards the riverbank, taking no notice of the great mound, but also oblivious to the invisible killer but a dozen meters from them.

Her heart slowing back to its regular rhythm, the orphaned heiress returned her attention to the waterway. Her body relaxed as her throat once more moistened, and her belly gurgled in a low pitch as she cooled down, alleviating the effects of the balmy weather. Across the river, a rumbling of even heavier footsteps ambled over as the low grumbles and deep, heavy hoots of titanic long-necks came to sate their own thirsts, just like the day Sobca the Second died.

The memories of the late hound's passing had already fused within the daughter's consciousness, a deep pitting of terror welling within her belly at the inherited first-hand experience of the wrathful god painfully severing her father's face and mutilating his body during his forced paralysis. However, it took but a shudder and a slight shaking of her head side to side to suppress the recollections.

Day by day, the bequeathed fears, joys, sorrows and pains echoed loudly within her unseen body as the will of the late Sobca the Second slowly became clear.

She had already seen it: a glimpse of her father's predictions. The complex story of the system was becoming an immensely intricate, prophetic dream she could just make out the basics of as she swallowed yet another gulp of water.

Her late teacher had forseen a very tumultuous future for the world. The planet was progressively warming more, and volcanic activity and continental drift would slowly alter the ecosystems as the separating land masses would eventually become more isolated. The archipelago in the east would likely give rise to a new continent and the great sea it would sprout from would dry up over time. Global temperatures would then eventually drop causing sea levels to fall, vast ice sheets forming at the poles. From there Sobca the Second's geological predictions became hazy, educated guesses at best.

Calculations of life itself were much more speculative. The current super-predatory family the daughter was kin to would prosper in the years to come but the hound had planned to make other groups usurp regions from them. The titanic long-necked herbivores would grow in size as they speciated but would likely go into decline. Other herbivores would blossom as time went by, sea life diversifying along with the flying, membranous-winged reptiles.

A chirping sailed to the heiress's side as she paused to find that her feathered cousins had also decided to rehydrate, less than a meter from her larger, cloaked toes.

The daughter recalled her father's plans for the feathered, cunning descendants she was but a distant relation to. Sobca had intended to bring sapience to the avialans, interbreeding with them every few millennia to progressively pass stronger genetic memories into the bloodline.

As the small theropods sipped from the water, the lonely predator kept perfectly still, her breathing soft and silent. As mighty as the the orphaned daughter was, she never tasted these creatures' flesh or even their eggs. Warmth permeated her stealth form at the plumed flyers. The idea that one day these humble creatures might think and reason at the level she and her many half-sisters of different clades already did seemed more unbelievable than any of her departed father's plans.

Unfortunately, those very plans were heavily dependent on Sobca shepherding the many taxa according to his deviation of Cuga's grand scheme of life and evolution. Everything was now in doubt...but this was not the most somber of realizations for the daughter. Her father's memories had a single, truly ominous prediction that continued to send a chill up her spine.

The one incalculable certainty: the next great purge of life. To defeat an enemy, her late father's master would go to any length, even eradicating life itself if necessary. One hundred million years prior, Cuga nearly accomplished just that...

[Papi-Anon]

UPDATE!



By request of a customer, I have made a 1:20 scale set of Andrewsarchus skulls with a stand (open-mouth and closed-mouth) ready to order now on Shapeways!

Andrewsarchus Skull 1:20 Scale

[Papi-Anon]

First Update of 2022! (Took long enough...)

After many painstaking months I managed to get Postosuchus fully-printed. A few trial and errors went into many parts, and my next goal is to refine the design of the torso and tail scales along with improving the tail articulation. A lot of pics below, enjoy!













And a scaling pic with the Mattel Indoraptor!!

[Lanthanotus]

Impressive work, looks really good. I have a posable Godzilla figure with the same kind of articulation (I guess) and that allows for a lot of natural looking poses. Am keen to see more, especially once it is painted.

[Papi-Anon]

Thanks! Ironically this whole project started from me wanting to convert a Neca 2014 Godzilla into a postosuchus by swapping the head and neck of Goji with my design. Though technically the true start was a sculpted model I attempted a few years ago using retooled castings of said Godzilla and parts of the Hasbro Gyrosphere Indominus.

[Papi-Anon]

First post in a whole year!

Big news, Mesonyx is FINALLY available for download on Cults 3D for only $13.80 USD!

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/1-12-scale-mesonyx-action-figure]1:12%20Scale%20Mesonyx%20Action%20Figure

Included in the download are the two STL print files for all of the figure to be printed from Sculpteo.com using SLS Nylon PA12 and PA12 (HD-60μm) raw or polished finishes, along with individual STL files of each part for those interested in modding their own version for home printing.

[Papi-Anon]

Finally finished printing a new figure to sell soon (had some kinks to iron out in the joints). Presenting a prototype 1/12 Thylacine figure (still need to paint the stripes, mouth, eyes, and claws). Roughly the same size as Mesonyx but with a better articulation setup and sculpt.

I used a thylacine 3D mesh file from an ESIV: Oblivion mod that made a thylacine follower for most of the overall design, but reworked finer details like the heads and mouths to be more like photos of the famous Benjamin. I'll be printing a second complete model in the same SLS quality to showcase for my Cults 3D and CGTrader shops with a few minor joint refinements to make them stay tight for longer.

[Papi-Anon]

Something different than usual: WIP spec-evo art. Had an idea for a truly domesticated alligator subspecies from a not-too-distant future where genetic manipulation can not only shave off generations' worth of selective breeding to help proliferate preferred traits and remove undesired traits, but also foster newer features such as increased encephalization and higher sociability at a much quicker rate.

I present: Alligator mississipiensis familiaris, or, the gatordog.



It's just a head for now, but the idea behind the design is a more neotenous American gator with longer limbs, a leaner body, larger cranium, and shorter snout reminiscent of a wild gator hatchling, as many domesticated organisms possess varying degrees of neoteny. Not sure if it'll have a fully erect limb posture or just a very high semi-erect stance. The former is ideal but the latter seems more realistic in terms of the degree of changes already done.

[Papi-Anon]

I've started to revisit some of my older projects recently, using newer skills in CAD to do a subject better than last time.

First one was a redux of the good old Andrewsarchus holotype skull using the same mesh file the first one was derived from, but this time with more research into the skull features that I could glean from photos on the net of fossil/replicas at different angles and positions. The end result is a much cleaner and comparatively more accurate reconstruction that I like so much better than my first model. Coincidentally I was contacted via Shapeways by a customer who happened to be writing a paper on Andy and where it sits in the mammal family try. They wanted a copy of my model to use for reference as well as to potentially print a 1:1 scale replica of to mount at their campus. Should their paper be published they promised to credit me in the paper for use of my model, so I'm looking forward to how this turns out!





My second redux was the male Neanderthal head, this time using a model of a real-life modern human as the base. The modern human model is NOT my doing but in fact a paid commission of a real life person based on a few photographs. I won't say who the subject is, only that they consented to being the base model for this design. With that in mind most of this process of 'neanderthal-ization' was a bit of frankensteining the facial features into that of a Neanderthal's skull and using pictures of sculpted reconstructions as references for facial soft-tissue anatomy. In the spirit of a famous (albeit inaccurate) depiction of Stone Age people I've nicknamed this Neanderthal 'Bernard' since I originally commissioned from a different artist a female Neanderthal Head I had nicknamed 'Betty'.

[Papi-Anon]

Thylacine is up for purchasing on Cults3D!

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1-12-scale-thylacine-action-figure

[Papi-Anon]

My first Update of the Year of the Dragon!

First a modified figure, Jurassic World Placerias Amber Edition! Starting with a Hammond Collection Triceratops, I removed the head and tail and then rotated the knees and elbows around. The tail is molded silicone but I might just replace it with a non-articulated one made of epoxy putty. The 3D printed head is from a Skyrim wildlife mod that replaces various fauna with various other Permian, Triassic, and Cenozoic life. I'll need to add a throat to fill in the gappines of the head attached to the tail ball-end, and after that add some paint. For the sake of scientific accuracy I'm just gonna say this is an InGen Placerias, but at least my custom Postosuchus has something familiar to hunt! (Packing up to move right now, so will have to wait on re-enacting the famous attack scene from WWD).








Next up is one helluva doozie. Years back in my early days of designing custom figures in SolidWorks I had made a model of an articulated 1/12 scale Dorudon. For my experience at the time it was a decent early concept, but the cost prohibitiveness of printing it and not knowing enough about SLS 3D printing's limitations and properties made it too much of a gamble for the price I was quoted. Fast forward to 2023 and I have been revisiting older designs that either were never printed or were not that great, applying my acquired experience and skills to redo, and thus decided to do give Dorudon a 2.0 treatment. And so, at long last, Dorudon LIVES!












I plan to tighten up the 'hood' of the neck piece as well as redo the fins to allow better articulation at the shoulders and ditch the elbow joint. But other than that, Dorudon turned out pretty great thanks to all I've learned over the last 6-7 years. Once the modded parts are swapped out I'll sand it smooth, paint it like the WWB Dorudons, and then give it a glossy seal over the paint.

[BlueKrono]

@Papi-Anon I'm excited about that Dorudon! The teeth look especially nice. Remind me of leopard seals'.

[Papi-Anon]

@Papi-Anon I'm excited about that Dorudon! The teeth look especially nice. Remind me of leopard seals'.

Thanks! I was worried the size of the teeth might cause them to not be printed with enough details, but thankfully they managed to keep their shapes just fine. Crazy to think that fully-aquatic whales once had many different types of teeth compared to the rather uniform teeth of modern toothed whales.

[Papi-Anon]

UPDATE


While Dorudon is a WIP I've uploaded the SLS printable files (Sculpteo/Shapeways printing) to Cults 3D for a lowered price. Once I can iron-out the finer details and test out FDM-printable versions of Dorudon's parts then the final price will be set at a higher amount, so if you want to tinker with my design or get early access to the future designs at a discount then click this link

[Papi-Anon]

UPDATE

Postosuchus is now available for download!

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1-12-postosuchus

[Papi-Anon]

Back-to-Back UPDATES!

This is another project from several years back when my SolidWorks skills were still developing that I shelved and recently redid with my greater experience. Presenting an un-feathered 1/12 scale Velociraptor!

Before you all get out your pitchforks and torches, there's 2 reasons this is unfeathered:

1) I needed a base to build off of for a feathered design (which is the next paleo-project I'll be tackling).

2) While I am all about giving logical feathering for appropriate genera where it is most reasonable to reconstruct (ex.- many coelurosaurs and some basal ceratopsians where fossil evidence is available and phylogenic bracketing makes sense), I am willing to pander cater to some who can't let go of their nostalgic memories of non-feathered dromaeosaurs for the sake of expanding my customer and follower base.

And don't worry, the feathered version will be based on more recent interpretations and not some goofy, sparsely-plumed, cockatoo-mohawk reptile.












































Download your own un-feathered Velociraptor here:

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1-12-velociraptor-un-feathered

[Papi-Anon]

Taking a pause on velociraptor's feathered model thanks to a thought that popped into my head: could my thylacine figure be used as a base for other similarly-shaped mammals?

Answer: HECK YES.

And so here we see my current WIP: a sorta-1/12 scale Pakicetus/Sinonyx combo print. Since the two distant cousins share similar body plans I decided to make a figure of Pakicetus with an alternate head, neck, and tail for Sinonyx. PLUS I can use this body scaled up to make a hypothetical mesonychian Andrewsarchus later. Yeah, I know, getting ahead of myself. Nonetheless, here's the current state of the project: