Blade-of-the-Moon's Art

[Doug Watson]

Had this awesome puppet version of Little Al donated to us, my plan is to use him for advertising the Park just gotta  figure out how to do it..my arm only goes about half way inside.  Any ideas?

I was thinking of a hand extension.  Found this online on how to make an arm and working hand extension. Would probably be better in metal but I know you know wood and that is what she uses includes a blueprint to make it.
http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/how-to-make-your-own-gigantic-steampunk-mechanical-hand/

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

That's not bad Doug..I'll have to get some parts and do some tests, see how much tension it can take./durability.  Thanks!

[Doug Watson]

That's not bad Doug..I'll have to get some parts and do some tests, see how much tension it can take./durability.  Thanks!

I see she uses string since she just wanted a working hand if you are putting a load on it I would go with picture wire or a thin braided cable plus beef other components up as needed.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

To make the mouth  close and open with that thick of foam it will need some strength.  Its amazing how much we take our own bodies for granted, all the wok and effort to make something that can  work as good as a real hand.

[Doug Watson]

To make the mouth  close and open with that thick of foam it will need some strength.  Its amazing how much we take our own bodies for granted, all the wok and effort to make something that can  work as good as a real hand.

When you hit your 60s, believe me you start to appreciate how resilient and remarkable the human body is especially when you are young. I used to throw my body around with reckless abandon in my teens and twenties, anything for a laugh. In fact I should have gone into stunt work but I am paying for it now and would be in worse shape if I had. Be sure to follow the links she provides especially this one that shows even more detail on the actual arm.http://www.instructables.com/id/Mechanical-Hand-2/
I notice he runs the thumb wire straight back like the fingers I think to get proper opposable thumb action I would run a wire to the far side of the palm and then across to get the thumb to move properly side to side.
Of course you can scale it down or up to meet your specific needs, could also work as a great back scratcher.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

lol it might at that..add some faux fingernails? 

I similar dumb things, felt like I was super strong so i moved boulders, hauled gravel, did it all myself, now my ankles swell and I can barely walk, my back hurts,  ect.. and i'm just 35.  Frickin awful, I have the drive but even that's lost some days.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Skin application and foam carving

[BlueKrono]

Awesome! Can't wait to see it next week.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Our 50th species coming to the Park soon!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Was looking over some references for redoing our styracosaurus at some point.  I noticed in figures like the Deluxe Collecta one the frill is basically straight out from the skull.  Other reconstructions show it at an angle.   I read this post : http://paleoking.blogspot.com/2009/03/  about how the skull should be restored from the type specimen which is crushed?  Can I get any other educated opinions?  It does make the skull smaller by a bit if true.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

[Simon]

 

Oh My!  That looks AWESOME, Blade!  Can't wait to see her painted up!!!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Heh thanks! basing her proportions on the new Safari Amarga for the most part, but a bit on the Sega one as well.

I have a couple paint options i'm considering.

[Halichoeres]

Are those unpaired spines at the front?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Are those unpaired spines at the front?

Yes, two of them as per the newest Safari model , which I used as the up to date example.

[Patrx]

Man, that is beautiful work.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Man, that is beautiful work.

Thanks bud!  Just about done with the poultry fencing stage, I also finished inserting the eyes today.  About another week and she'll be ready to transport and then paint!

[Halichoeres]

Interesting. The original description of Amargasaurus says there are paired spines on each cervical vertebra except the atlas and axis. It restores the axis with a single longish spine. Carabajal et al. 2014 says the axis has a neural spine, but it's incompletely preserved, so that they can't determine whether they would have been forked, as in Dicraeosaurus, or single. They don't say anything about an externally visible spine or spines, so I'm really at a loss here. Has anybody described the cervicals caudal to the atlas/axis since the original description? Maybe some emendation with respect to the neurapophyses? I'm just fascinated because I had never heard about midline spines on Amargasaurus before now and I somehow hadn't noticed it before on the Safari version. On the Safari version, the midline spines look, at any rate, to be too far back to belong to the atlas/axis. Moreover, the atlas doesn't appear from the holotype description to have neural spines of any description, which I believe is par for the course for a tetrapod atlas.

[Lanthanotus]

Awesome Amargasaurus, Blade... and these are exceptionally nice...

.. what are they?

[Jose S.M.]

I haven't seen those before in the thread, they look amazing, very cute.