Blade-of-the-Moon's Art

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

started working on another new big dino..one that has been heavily requested by my boss here ( the kids that visit).

[Redonix76]

Cannot wait!!!!!!!!! I'm sure it'll be an incredible piece!!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

It's going to be different. For a half body piece it's still 12'x12'. The skull is longer than Stan's but not nearly as wide..just how wide I have to figure out.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

skull diagram:


I'm having some trouble on the back of the skull and wanted to get some input.
I've found three variations in the way the back of the skull is portrayed.


For examples, the first I've only seen in art I think. The new CollectA figure looks like the middle one, the last looks like the Carnegie piece.

Need to figure out which one to use, I'm not finding any great top shots online.

[Doug Watson]

I'm having some trouble on the back of the skull and wanted to get some input.
I've found three variations in the way the back of the skull is portrayed.
Need to figure out which one to use, I'm not finding any great top shots online.

I can't find any published material and the stuff I have seen online doesn't give an author so I would be hesitant to use it. If I was doing it I would try to contact Paul Sereno or Nizar Ibrahim since they actually found bones from the back of the skull so their restoration that you have seen with the new mounted skeleton would be the most up to date. Their latest papers only show a lateral and a 2/3 frontal view of the skull so they wouldn't help. Another option would be if there is anyone in the forum from the Washington DC area maybe they could skip down to the National Geographic Museum and snap some shots for you from the new mounted skeleton if it is still on display.

P.S. It seems the exhibit ended April 2015 so contacting the authors would be the best bet. The University of Chicago sells a cast of the skull but unfortunately no photos online.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I'm having some trouble on the back of the skull and wanted to get some input.
I've found three variations in the way the back of the skull is portrayed.
Need to figure out which one to use, I'm not finding any great top shots online.

I can't find any published material and the stuff I have seen online doesn't give an author so I would be hesitant to use it. If I was doing it I would try to contact Paul Sereno or Nizar Ibrahim since they actually found bones from the back of the skull so their restoration that you have seen with the new mounted skeleton would be the most up to date. Their latest papers only show a lateral and a 2/3 frontal view of the skull so they wouldn't help. Another option would be if there is anyone in the forum from the Washington DC area maybe they could skip down to the National Geographic Museum and snap some shots for you from the new mounted skeleton if it is still on display.

P.S. It seems the exhibit ended April 2015 so contacting the authors would be the best bet. The University of Chicago sells a cast of the skull but unfortunately no photos online.

I'm not sure I'd want to bug them with this, they are probably quite busy I'm sure. 

I have found some pics online I've tried to work from, the skull from the newest exhibit is one of them, and Bonadonna's work as well.






That reconstruction doesn't look very wide at all. I've figured about 2' for the back of the skull where the neck connects, but this one looks even thinner than that.

This guy is what I was going on before :


But it looks wider than that skull above.

There is also this turnaround digital image, but it doesn't show the top either, seems like they go out of their way to not show that view..lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbdifmJXgGc

[alexeratops]

A spinosaurus... well if the kids suggested it, you gotta do it.  But I do have a feeling the kids will be confused about the leg situation.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

A spinosaurus... well if the kids suggested it, you gotta do it.  But I do have a feeling the kids will be confused about the leg situation.

we already have a juvenile with shorter legs, this one as an adult we're making a half body busting through a fence so you won't see much past the shoulders..ala Universal's Spino. 

I hope to use CollectAs smaller Spinos in a teaching diorama near it though.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I sent an email to Tyler Keillor about the Spino skull and he sent me some good references, the back and front view of his skull which I'm using the side view of as well too.

Here's a quote from his email:

Check out "Irritator", a close relative of Spinosaurus.  One reason you're finding different designs for Spino. is that no complete skull has been found, so people are using other dinosaurs as surrogates, and Irritator is the closest relative yet found with the skull more or less complete... although it is terribly crushed so the width is not accurately represented in that fossil. 
For the model I built, based upon the largest Spino. snout housed in Milan, I get skull+ closed jaw dims of 63" long, 28" high, 22" wide.

I had no idea Irritator was any closer to Spinosaurus really than Baryonyx or Suchomimus. It also seems I went a bit larger than I had to as mine is around 72" in skull length.  I did rightly figure up about 20" as the rear width pf the skull..though with the increased length I might have to make it a little wider.

This information means the new CollectA Deluxe Spino isn't 1:40, as I mentioned in my post in that topic the neck width astounded me as it seemed to be 30" wide.  That doesn't sound like much til you actually see it added and subtracted.  The Carnegie Spino has a 20" wide neck which is much closer for this uber-slim dinosaur.

[alexeratops]

A spinosaurus... well if the kids suggested it, you gotta do it.  But I do have a feeling the kids will be confused about the leg situation.

we already have a juvenile with shorter legs, this one as an adult we're making a half body busting through a fence so you won't see much past the shoulders..ala Universal's Spino. 

I hope to use CollectAs smaller Spinos in a teaching diorama near it though.

Those are both good ideas!   

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

A spinosaurus... well if the kids suggested it, you gotta do it.  But I do have a feeling the kids will be confused about the leg situation.

we already have a juvenile with shorter legs, this one as an adult we're making a half body busting through a fence so you won't see much past the shoulders..ala Universal's Spino. 

I hope to use CollectAs smaller Spinos in a teaching diorama near it though.

Those are both good ideas!   

Thanks, the half body will be a huge space/material saver too.

The CollectAs really will lend themselves well to this purpose.  I have an idea for several spread out exhibits called " Our changing view of dinosaurs" pushing the idea of just how much our perceptions have changed.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Pretty much what we are looking to build :

[HD-man]

Pretty much what we are looking to build :

What's it gonna come out of?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Pretty much what we are looking to build :

What's it gonna come out of?

A broken fence and the back covered with camo netting.

Sort of like this:

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

4th day indoors... Making Spinosaurus teeth

[Archinto]

This Spino project is going to be Awesome! What a cool idea! I've been thinking of how to build a large statuary for my yard. I'm gonna watch this one!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

This Spino project is going to be Awesome! What a cool idea! I've been thinking of how to build a large statuary for my yard. I'm gonna watch this one!

Thanks! You might check out some of my older pages to see how we built a 1:1 T-Rex, Triceratops, and many others.  Granted my methods aren't the easiest to replicate..but feel free to give it try  or you could try this method : http://dinosaursfoamfibergl.com/  the basics are the same.

[AcroSauroTaurus]

Wow, now your going to make a life-size Spinosaurus (front half). Are you going off of the 50ft estimate, or the 60ft estimate? Either way it will look awesome when its finished!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Wow, now your going to make a life-size Spinosaurus (front half). Are you going off of the 50ft estimate, or the 60ft estimate? Either way it will look awesome when its finished!

I didn't pay a lot of attention to the full length, the largest skull estimate is, I think, 5'8" so I rounded this one off to 6'.   I hope so, it's a ton of work. due my inability to cast things I'm making each tooth individually. it's taken me most of the day to make the upper set.

[AcroSauroTaurus]

Wow, now your going to make a life-size Spinosaurus (front half). Are you going off of the 50ft estimate, or the 60ft estimate? Either way it will look awesome when its finished!

I didn't pay a lot of attention to the full length, the largest skull estimate is, I think, 5'8" so I rounded this one off to 6'.   I hope so, it's a ton of work. due my inability to cast things I'm making each tooth individually. it's taken me most of the day to make the upper set.

Six foot is a reasonable estimate, since we don't really know the full size of the animal. One of the fun things about recreating dinosaurs is speculation! (in reasonable ways, that is)