Lanthanotus' Collection of Prehistoric Life

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks for your replies. I own the PNSO Ouranosaurus and it is splendid, but very small and a bit too gaudy in its colors for my taste. It really is a shame Battat left this and quite a few others out when they re-released their dinosaurs. Apart from the Stegosaurus, all can still compete with the great majority of offerings, despite outdated at points (as the Utahraptor).

[Shonisaurus]

My congratulations. It's honestly my favorite ouranosaurus.

[Lanthanotus]

Want you to show to my custom PNSO Tarbosaurus. I usually hesitate to custom PNSO figures for their quite intimidating level of detail and after all, only few figures shout out for a custom. However, for all their lacklustr apparance, the recent theropods have a terrible overbite. No matter if you are "pro lips" or "against", you`ll have to admit that no animal aside from crocs has its teeth aligned with the very outer limits of the skull. but in recent PNSO theropods the teeth look, as if they just grow out of the scales aligning the jaw line. Anyway, for all my ecological background I am definetly "pro lips", so the otherwise stunning Tarbosaurus had to suffer some surgery.

1st thing to do, cut out all the teeth in the upper jaw with a sharp knive. Admire the massive obverbite
(Yes, I know the fossil skull shows a quite short lower jaw, but it is very unlikely that in live the overbite was so massive
if present at all)



2nd: Make stamps from the original jaw texture with SuperSculpey to replicate the texture later.


3rd: Insert PE foil into the mouth to avoid "glueing" the jaws together when modelling the lower jaw with Fixit Sculpt.



4th: Model the lower jaw, sorry, forgot to take photos....
5th: Replicate the paint....
6th: Cut original teeth in half and glue them into the gaps within the upper jaw.
7th: Enjoy the result (even if it does not look 100% like an original PNSO work )

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

Wonderful! Oh Boy, i think this goes on my List to do, too. When i get him. You did a great job and i am really thankful for all the Pics aswell. Danke dir

[Dusty Wren]

Oh, this came out fantastic! You can hardly tell you modded it, it looks very natural. Your color matching for the paint is dead on.

I like that you put the teeth back into the upper jaw. I've been thinking about trying this with the Torvosaurus, but I couldn't figure out what to do about the upper teeth. Thanks for posting your progress pics; now I've got loads of inspiration.

[Duna]

Wow, what a nice improvement, congrats!

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

That's a fest set of lips, a much improved figure.

[Shonisaurus]

You have been great! How much artist is there in this DTF? I am overwhelmed and in awe of so much art. That tarbosaurus is a masterpiece. I wish PNSO would take note of your work at least for the realization of future theropod figures. Outstanding improvement over the PNSO original. That tarbosaurus is the one I wish I had.

[Patrx]

Nice fix! Relatively simple, and it looks great.

[Lanthanotus]

Thank you all very much fpr your kind comments. I am really much more happy with the appearance of the otherwise totally awesome sculpt of the Tarbosaurus.
While being a modern rendition, the sculpt nevertheless transports for me the vibes of the old Burian painting. Also, being made of a more rigid plastic I have hopes it
may sustain its own weight indefinetly. Gonna post some pictures soon of the Quinzhaosaurus, modified that too, but in  different way with no additional sculpting.

[SidB]

Very impressive work - though I'm sort  undecided in this debate, I have to say that your modification is quite convincing. It's interesting how my mind works though - seeing its lips closed, to me it gives the Tarbo a 'hmmm' appearance, as if it is pondering a deep question, such as 'to bite or not to bite'?

[Halichoeres]

This looks much better. I'm not much of a customizer, but I'd have bought this figure if it looked like this to begin with.

[SenSx]

Impressive !!! 
It feels so natural, you are very talented !

[Lanthanotus]

Thank you all.

To be sure I went the easy way in this custom as the level of detail in PNSO is very hard to replicate for me, even when using the stamps. In most animals though the visibe jaw line does not correspond to the skull as dinosaur reconstruction want to make us think. I would prefer a more straight jaw line in the first two thirds from the snout to the eyes, but that would require too much changes for a customization.

As promised I want to show you an even easier customization, the PNSO Qianzhousaurus. I just cut off the very long teeth of the upper jaw and tried to shape the reamining scales a bit. Then I carved out the inner sides of the upper jaw a bit and painted them again. Lastly I cut the loose teeth in half and glued them back in. The result is not as convincing as in the Tarbosaurus I think, but I deem it an improvement over the "Mr Burns" look of the original sculpt and I may add some refientments later.

[ITdactyl]

Maybe putty-fill, file and repaint the upper lips so Q doesn't look like Gram gum-gum.

Kidding of course. It's just that Q is the first to have visible cuts compared to the other Tyrannosaurs you had dental surgery on. 
I am happy to find a kindred spirit who gladly makes modifications to the figures they like.

[Shonisaurus]

My congratulations on the new look of the qianzhousaurus, by the way does it take a long time to make the modifications of the dinosaurs?

[Lanthanotus]

Yeah, given, the Q-saurus is comparabaly cheaply made and looks unfinished on closer inspection. Also, as the jaws are especially narrow, the cut off teeth expose the lower jaw and give the animal a somewhat weird look from the front. That`s my point about PNSO theropods, the teeth are so close to the outer limit of the sculpt as they never could be in the real animal. In other figures, as for example in the Papo Allosaurus or the Ceratosaurus, it is possible to add lips to the sculpt and incorporate the upper teeth without cutting them off or adding any material to the upper jaw (see here or here). That is basically not possible for PNSO theropods, there, material woul dbe required for lower and upper jaw if you would want to leave the teeth of the upper jaw in their original position.

As for the question about how long it takes... it depends, but basically this custom work can be done in less than two hours, not includingtimes for the sculpting material to cure (8 to 24 hrs) or paint to dry.

[Lanthanotus]

I am very proud to present my latest acquisition...

Last weekend a long time of waiting ended after a quite fast parcel from the US was hold back by Customs for a considerable while (and ransom). For the first time I had commissioned a work after I had seen the incredible paint work by our forum member irimali. I asked for two commissioned painting to improve my desk display. It was a very pleasant experience and irimali a most ressourcelful artist keen to get the best for the customer, me. Depending on the depth of someone`s pockets, commission work may not be a cheap endevaour, but in fact in this case it was most justified and I deem myself very privileged to own these two individual pieces of "classic landscape". Each painting was done in acrylics and measures roughly 25 by 130 cm. My new desk is not build as of yet so I can only show the paintings enrolled.

But in fact, photographic images can barely give credit of the intricate work done here (and to the colors, only used a mobile camera). One has to see it in person to appreciate the depth and detailing of each single plant. The upper painting is ment to represent the Permian to Jurassic, the lower Early to Late Cretaceous. I have some figures frequently changing on my desk display, others (as my customized Papo Apatosaurus) are there permanently. As this goes nicely in scale and sculpting with the near perfect PNSO Stegosaurus, this new background will enhance the figures even more and them the paintings. Even my non-Mesozoic loving wife appreciated the masterful work, that makes it look so easy to bring some "colored lines and blotches" to life.

I am very glad and hope I can present the final build soon, though it may still take until spring or so.

[Crackington]

Wow lovely work. They make beautiful backgrounds for dioramas.

It will be great to see the finished desk.

[SidB]

Yes, they ARE incredible. Absolutely splendid backdrops for the figures. I'm inspired!