David Silva's Beasts of the Mesozoic Tyrannosaur Series

[Reuben03]

This just in: a new and improved version of the golden pheasant colour scheme for Dilong. I like it!

pretty!

[Faelrin]

Certainly an improvement I think. Kind of similar to what happened with the Centrosaurus I suppose.

[Flaffy]

Definitely an improvement over the previous strawberry-smoothie coloured Dilong. The Golden Pheasant inspiration is a lot more obvious, and appealing on the new design.

Still not a fan of random splotches of light yellows and creams breaking up the red colouration. Makes the already extravagant colour scheme a bit too busy imo.

[andrewsaurus rex]

i tend to agree.  i'm not a fan of the technicolor dreamcoat schemes on either the tyrannosaur series or the ceratopsian series.  I would greatly prefer more subdued, naturalistic paint jobs.  However, these brightly coloured ones must be popular, else BOTM wouldn't keep pumping them out, so i'll just have to live with repainting them....still delighted to have so many 1/18 dinos coming out.

[Faelrin]

I don't really agree with that assessment for the tyrannosaur series, especially in comparison to the previous ceratopsian, or even the dromaeosaurid series. I feel like most of these are pretty subdued as is, with a few exceptions which are mainly for smaller animals such as the Dilong here, or Proceratosaurus, and maybe the Alectrosaurus.

The rest tend to be based on either birds of prey for the feathered ones, while the scaly ones are generally based on lizards and snakes with darker colorations. Anything goes for the only other two remaining tyrannosaurs to not have concept art done yet, the Albertosaurus, and Moros (possibly based on the painted redstart though from the color chart made a while back).

That aside most still don't have painted prototypes yet, which the end result could differ from the concept art some, so that should be kept in mind as well and could go either way.

[andrewsaurus rex]

Fair enough.  My comments were made mostly with the Ceratopsian series in mind.  I haven't been paying a huge amount of attention to the tyrannosaur series yet because it's still a ways off, but from what I've seen so far it is still a little garish in coloration imo.  But I definitely agree it is better than the ceratopsian.  It's just that predators are rarely brightly coloured, as many rely on ambush and being neon red is counterproductive to that.

I will say some of the tyrannosaur schemes are striking and attractive......it's just I feel they aren't realistic, but I know many will disagree..

[suspsy]

I don't really agree with that assessment for the tyrannosaur series, especially in comparison to the previous ceratopsian, or even the dromaeosaurid series. I feel like most of these are pretty subdued as is, with a few exceptions which are mainly for smaller animals such as the Dilong here, or Proceratosaurus, and maybe the Alectrosaurus.

The Triceratops looks spiffy, but I just can't picture it looking that way in real life. All three T. rexes, OTOH, look perfectly plausible. The Dino-Riders one even resembles the scheme John Gurche used in a couple of his paintings from the 1990s.

The rest tend to be based on either birds of prey for the feathered ones, while the scaly ones are generally based on lizards and snakes with darker colorations. Anything goes for the only other two remaining tyrannosaurs to not have concept art done yet, the Albertosaurus, and Moros (possibly based on the painted redstart though from the color chart made a while back).

IIRC, the redstart is the only bird left on that chart, so unless David has changed his mind completely, it's definitely the Moros.

I hope the Albertosaurus gets a turtle-inspired colour scheme like the Qianzhousaurus.

[suspsy]

Some images of the Guanlong sculpt in progress are on Facebook.

[Flaffy]

Some images of the Guanlong sculpt in progress are on Facebook.

[Flaffy]

Not sure how I feel about this one tbh.
Don't know why, but the figure so far feels rather awkward. Maybe it's the "over stockiness" as a result of the thick layer of feathers?
Or maybe it's the neck. The seams are rather obvious, though understandable at this stage of sculpting. But a natural curvature of the neck is obscured through the addition of feathers, which results in an almost vertical/straight neck pose.

The size / scale of the feathers seem to be at odds with the figure too; Being far too large for such a small body, especially near the extremities (head, face, fingers). This was not an issue on the Yutyrannus due to the figure's much larger size:


Would something this delicate (Guanlong's feathers) have been better if sculpted entirely in 3D software?

[andrewsaurus rex]

if the feather sculpting gets too fine, you probably wouldn't be able to see it once the paint is applied and the figure could just look bulky.

I'm not a huge fan of all the articulation on these BOTM figures but given it is there, the best way to hide it is with dark colours where the most obvious joints are...it makes a big difference.  I doubt BOTM selects their colour schemes with this in mind, however.  When I do my ceratopsian figure repaints I make sure the mid torso joint is somehow covered in dark colours, otherwise the figure looks like it is earing a suit of armour (ie a breastplate).  In fact I've thought that would make a cool repaint for someone so inclined.....sort of a dino rider with part of the ceratopsian figure painted like it's wearing armour (breastplate, shin guards on all 4 legs etc).

[Dusty Wren]

I agree with @Flaffy--the Guanlong looks a bit odd. Part of it seems to be that the neck joint isn't at the back of the skull, like it is in the 3D mock-up. It's lower down, almost underneath the skull. That seems like it's going to limit the mobility of the head.

[Faelrin]

Is it just me or does the crest look a bit on the short side here especially when compared to the 3D render that was originally used for it? I do agree the neck does look a little off and/or stiff, but maybe it'll look better once painted up, and I am also aware this is probably in an early wip stage too. I did see in the FB comments that David said the pictures don't really do the sculpt justice, so maybe it could be the angles the images were taken at throwing things off as well.

It looks like many folks had some of the same concerns over there in the FB comments about the crest, shape of the neck, etc.

I must say I am a little surprised it wasn't posted over to instagram too as usual though (maybe no time?). Would have missed out on this had I not checked here.

[suspsy]

More images of Guanlong are up now.

[Faelrin]

Well it looks much better to me here then it did yesterday. Glad because this is one of my most anticipated ones honestly.

[Sarapaurolophus]

I quite like the contour feathers on Guanlong. Gives it a bit more volume, similar to Safari Ltd.'s Deinonychus.

[The Prehistoric Traveler]

Edit.

[andrewsaurus rex]

nanuqsaurus is a surprising omission from this series.  I would have thought it a chance to make something very interesting and a bit different...

[suspsy]

In progress artwork of Moros is on Facebook now. It is indeed based on the painted redstart!

[Halichoeres]

https://twitter.com/Beast_SculptKit/status/1380928436965937154/photo/1