Ceratopsian's custom paints and everything else: new 10 May 2024

[Justin_]

What are the palms the Dacentrus is munching on? The foliage would be good for cycads as it is more upright than some similar ones I got recently on eBay.

They remind me of the days when pet shops used to sell small terrapins that came with a clear plastic dish shaped like a pool and island with a palm tree like this. (Thankfully I never had one myself, despite probably pestering my mum for one!)

[ceratopsian]

@Justin_ It came unbranded in a group of four trees of assorted sizes on eBay from lanatime.  I think it must have been March or maybe April.

What are the palms the Dacentrus is munching on? The foliage would be good for cycads as it is more upright than some similar ones I got recently on eBay.

They remind me of the days when pet shops used to sell small terrapins that came with a clear plastic dish shaped like a pool and island with a palm tree like this. (Thankfully I never had one myself, despite probably pestering my mum for one!)

[ceratopsian]

In April, I posted pictures of my new CollectA Bajadasaurus.  I said that I liked the sculpture itself but I was less keen on the paint scheme, as I found the straight brown line cutting right across the animal's body too jarring.  At the end of lockdown, it left my cabinet and travelled to Martin Garratt for a makeover.  I'm very much in love with  Bajadasaurus n her new clothes!  I like all Martin's work for me, but this one stands out for me as special.  My deep regret is that I didn't ask for a base.  (The one I used for some of my photos was borrowed from the Safari Stegosaurus he repainted and based a while back for me.)

To refresh your memories, here's the original.  (I thought for a minute of fetching the old version to photograph with the new version - then remembered I no longer had the old version!)



And wearing her new outfit:















If you want more photos, or hi-res images, here's a link to my Flickr albums:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69501171@N03/albums/72157715397618962
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69501171@N03/albums/72157713846849067

[Shonisaurus]

You have the bajadasaurus with its new great paint. It reminds me a lot of the painting scheme of Carnegie's amargasaurus and logically PNSO's amargasaurus whose painting is similar to Collecta's bajadasaurus. As always your repainted dinosaurs are much better at painting than dinosaurs with their old color scheme.

[ceratopsian]

Thank you @Shonisaurus. It is lovely to have you back again. I missed you.

[Jose S.M.]

That came out beautiful! Lovely makeover.

[Faelrin]

What a stunning paint job on it. Vast improvement. I like the base as well.

[Bokisaurus]

Wow, that's awesome! It really brings out all the lovely and delicate details.
It just show you how great a figure this one really is.
I hope one day CollectA will repaint it to give it justice as the current paint scheme really does not showcase the awesomeness of it.
Thanks for sharing!😃

[Libraraptor]

Again a great example of "We turn toys into models". That paintjob is stunning!

[ceratopsian]

Thanks everyone. A small update. "Cinders shall go to the ball!"  Or translated, Martin is going to make me a base for her after all. She certainly deserves one of her own! I'm sending a kit to him later this week and her base can come to me with the kit when it is finished.

[ceratopsian]

Most of my repaints and kits are Martin Garratt's work, but today's animal comes from a different source. 

A few weeks ago a very talented Thai artist put up images on Facebook of a repaint he had just finished.  It was of CollectA's 2018 1:40 Deluxe Iguanodon.  That is a model I really like (as, he said, did he).  I loved his repaint.  It reminded me of snake skin and seemed very jewel like.  I don't think it very likely that Iguanodons would have looked this showy but in aesthetic terms, it appealed enormously.  I assumed it was intended for his own private collection.  Just as I had decided that I would ask him if he would paint me a similar one, he put it up for sale.  So I leapt at it.

I've bought a few things from Jakrid Sangjak in the past - his repaint of the CollectA Diplodocus that I showed back in April in connection with the 2020 grey re-release; his Tamiya Chasmosaurus and baby kit; his Tamiya Parasaurolophus juvenile. He has a very detailed, distinctive style.  And a lovely sense of balance within that detail - for instance, the echo of the turquoise on the tail with the splash on the Iguanodon's head.

I expected the journey to me to take for ever.  However, it took less than a week!  When I expressed my surprise to my postman, he said he had just delivered a package further up my road that had taken three months from China.  So I was lucky I guess.  And it didn't get stopped by customs for a change either!

Here's the photos, including a couple of the repaint alongside the (very fine!) original.















If you want more images, or hi-res images, go to my Flickr album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69501171@N03/albums/72157715431771967/with/50214680813/

[Shonisaurus]

Wow!!!!! It looks great that painting looks even a lot better by far than it did with the original Collecta iguanodon. That Thai artist is a true marvel, magnificent piece of art, thank you for the photographs and I am so glad you bought it.

[Libraraptor]

Beautiful once again!

[Halichoeres]

Both of those repaints are gorgeous. The 'earthy' palette of the Iguanodon really suits it.

[Bokisaurus]

Wow, impressive new repainted figure! It's really amazing how these figures comes to life after being given a much more complex paint job.

[ceratopsian]

Thanks for the comments on Jakrid's Iguanodon.  I intend to buy more from him in the future!

Today's model is very different from things I normally buy, and I acquired this vintage model almost by accident.



Last autumn I went to the annual TetZoo conference held here in London.  It wasn't the happiest time, as the pony I looked after had been put to sleep very recently, and I was in need of distraction.  I turned up to the conference with plenty of cash in my pocket but disappointingly didn't find much in the sales room to entice me, other than a couple of pieces by Bob Nicholls (which are still waiting to be framed).  However, Darren Naish told the assembled crowd in the lecture hall that he had a few things for sale.  Among them was an Invicta Stenonychosaurus.  I don't collect Invictas, though I have often thought about acquiring some, especially the sauropods.  He was only asking a tenner and I had cash burning a hole in my purse....  So I went up afterwards and asked for it.  He looked at me as if I were an unlikely dinosaur toy collector and asked if I knew it was rare.  Perhaps he thought I was buying it for my grandchild to mistreat!

Here it is, complete with the cobweb it acquired over the winter and which I failed to notice before taking the snap:



Some of you might disapprove, given that it is a rare model, but I decided to commission Martin Garratt to give it a coat of paint.  I had seen one that he had done for sale on Urzeit and liked it.  But with one thing and another, and then lockdown, it didn't go to him until this summer, along with the CollectA Bajadasaurus.  My commission was simply a scheme with a vintage feel.  I wanted something to remind me of how dinosaurs looked when I was a girl, and indeed a young woman.  So in this case I don't mind the lack of feathers and the pronated wrists one iota, though it's a world apart from the Troodon pack on my Einiosaurus diorama by SenSen.  (I'm not going to disappear down the rabbit hole of the complexity of the classification of these troodontids.)

(An aside – I just went to look for my copy of The Dinosaur Heresies – and it's not on my bookcase.  What happened to it?!)

Some shots of Martin's work:









As usual, if you want to see hi-res or more photos, here's my Flickr album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69501171@N03/albums/72157715208134568

[BlueKrono]

I don't think handing anything over to Martin Garratt's capable hands is ever a bad idea. It looks great!

[Crackington]

Wow, fantastic paint job! I needed to do a double-take to see if it really was the Invicta.

I wouldn't worry about it being rare either. Yes they are getting harder to find, but there'll still be hundreds if not thousands of them spread throughout the world. There's only one like this though - truly unique and beautiful!

[Shonisaurus]

@ceratopsian I congratulate you on your new repainted figure, in this case by Martin Garratt sincerely this great Invicta figure badly needed a repaint like that, it looks like a figure made of resin. I'm glad for you

[Tyto_Theropod]

That's a beautiful figure, @ceratopsian, and what a provenance, too!  Darren is one of my ultimate heroes of zoology, so even though I don't tend to do vintage models, I'm actually a bit jealous!  Anyway, I always like to see an Invicta painted and Martin's work is gorgeous as usual.  I love the look of that vintage Stenonychosaur - even if it probably looks nothing like the real animal, it's a gorgeous piece and definitely deserves pride of place in your collection.