Bullyland Ichthyosaurus repaint

[bettashark]

This is my very first repaint! To be perfectly honest, I'm mostly practicing for when my 2020 Safari Ichthyosaurus gets here, as I've heard the paint job isn't well-executed.
Why repaint this model? Well, aside from being a similar animal, the paint on mine was well...bad. It was a far cry from what the advertisements showed and from what other people seem to have gotten. Mine was faded and blotchy, and then the paint started wearing off. All in all, not great. I was happy enough as a kid just to have an ichthyosaur, but that paint needed help.
Well, I don't have a before picture, and I don't even have a current picture (not much changed today though), and I'm not finished yet! I'm going for a cetacean-inspired look with greys and whites in subtle stripes and gradients. Debating about a yellow flash on the side as seen in several dolphin species, but I may just keep it simple.
I do have a question though! What should I do about the eyes? Near as I can tell, basically all ichthyosaur models use the sclerotic ring as the iris, which obviously is inaccurate. But short of re-sculpting the head, I have no idea how to un-shrink-wrap the eye area. Which leads me to my dilemma: Repaint the iris and pupil into the sculpted inner circle (which was once the pupil) and try to hide the weirdness with shading, or paint the eyes as originally sculpted.

[DinoToyForum]

Hi, I edited your post to make the image appear - you were linking to the webpage instead of the image file, so I fixed that for you.

Looks good!

[bettashark]

Aha, that's what I was missing!  Been a fair few years since I used an smf forum, got very used to other ways of internetting.
Thank you!

[Bread]

Looks great so far. Can't wait to see the finished product. Also welcome to the forum!

[BlueKrono]

You have an excellent grasp of cetacean coloration.

[Shonisaurus]

I thought that at first that ichthyosaurus was made by a different toy company, you have the color of said superb ichthyosaurus. I congratulate you on your work.

[ceratopsian]

While I can't offer advice on how to treat the eyes, I can at least say that the scheme you have chosen for the body is an excellent one.

[Dusty Wren]

The stripes on this guy are looking really good so far. I like the idea of giving him a bit of yellow--it would break up the monochromatic grays and give the sculpture a nice focal point.

The eyes are tricky. If you paint the sclerotic ring and the area immediately around it a darkish gray, I think it would reduce any shadows from the sculpt and "flatten" the area a bit visually. If you paint the iris a really bright color (like a yellow), the contrast will probably help sell the illusion, too.

That's just a theory, though Can't wait to see how this project develops!

[Libraraptor]

Can one not sculpt the eyeball over the sclerotic ring somehow? With super sculpey? Not an expert, just want to ask.

[Justin_]

I think you should first try hiding the outer ring with shading. If that doesn't work use some kind of filler to smooth out the sunken area around it.

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

Nice Repaint, @bettashark 

@Libraraptor Good Idea, i would try to sculpt it, too. Not with Super Sculpey (You need to bake this like Fimo professional e.g.) but maybe with 2 Part Epoxy putty. Like Green Stuff or Milliput. As far as my experience is with green Stuff, i think it is perfect for this Project. Water can be used to smoothen it/make it less sticky. But it can be Hard to get it really smooth like an Eyeball. Maybe it should be Sculpted in 2 Stages. First the "base" of the Eye, so that the back of the Eye fits right on the old Socket. Then the Eye and get it hardend up. Then using different Sandpapers to get the surface really smooth. In the End, you can glue it perfectly on the old Sockets/eyes and paint them. At least this is the Way i would try. Nothing can be more annoying than weird Eyes on a otherwiese great Figure. To me.

But if this would be too adventurous, @Justin_ is right aboit trying to hide it with paint. But i don't know if you can make it invisible for your inner Eye.

[PumperKrickel]

I'm going to suggest something that's potentially very dumb, but what if you painted that outer ring to look like eyelids? I'm not aware of any direct evidence against eyelids on ichthyosaurs, and it would visually further remove the figure from looking like a fish.

[bettashark]

Update: As the indentations I'm trying to hide aren't very deep, I'm trying to fill them in with multiple layers of paint. I suspect this wouldn't work for deeper holes, as the paint could start to crack, and of course it needs to be applied in layers, or it will crack anyway. But so far it's going surprisingly well! Acrylic paint is easy to smooth with a damp finger. I'm also shrinking the nostrils to fine slits and softening the browbone. It already looks better! I'll try to get pictures later.
In the meantime, has anyone tried using cold porcelain/resin air-drying polymer clay? It seems like it would be the ideal material for resculpts. Unlike paper clay (i.e. Crayola Model Magic), it shrinks very little, is strong, and has a smooth finish. (You can also whip up your own at home from white glue and corn starch or talcum powder.)

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

Update: As the indentations I'm trying to hide aren't very deep, I'm trying to fill them in with multiple layers of paint. I suspect this wouldn't work for deeper holes, as the paint could start to crack, and of course it needs to be applied in layers, or it will crack anyway. But so far it's going surprisingly well! Acrylic paint is easy to smooth with a damp finger. I'm also shrinking the nostrils to fine slits and softening the browbone. It already looks better! I'll try to get pictures later.
In the meantime, has anyone tried using cold porcelain/resin air-drying polymer clay? It seems like it would be the ideal material for resculpts. Unlike paper clay (i.e. Crayola Model Magic), it shrinks very little, is strong, and has a smooth finish. (You can also whip up your own at home from white glue and corn starch or talcum powder.)

Sounds good so far!
Yes, i already used Air drying Clay to Rework Dinosaur models. Keep in Mind, that it is maybe not the finest Material to work with, and it sticks not that great on a Figure. I used a small Drill and some wire to create something like reinforced concrete. I know, that there is some "finer and lighter" Variant of that Clay, but i never used it. Would be better for this whole process, i guess.
Also, you can carve and sand it, after it got hard.

[bettashark]

Here's the good side  The other side needs some more work, but that's fine. Definitely looking more natural. I'm going to let this thick buildup of paint dry for several days before I try to add anything on top of it. Fingers crossed it doesn't crack...

[Turacoverdin]

Looks like you accomplished your goal, hopefully it all goes smoothly. The paint scheme is lovely BTW. I would advocate for the yellow flash you mentioned previously, but that's your choice, of course.

[Dusty Wren]

How's the thick layer of paint holding up after a few days of drying, @bettashark? My Safari Deinonychus has a flaw on one of the toes, and if I could just patch it up with paint, that would be a lot easier than some of the alternatives. 

[bettashark]

@Dusty Wren It's doing surprisingly well! No cracking, though it has shrunk a very tiny bit more since I took photos. It's definitely doable, but not necessarily easy. I'm not able to work on it right now, so I'm just letting it dry super well, and then I'll see about finishing it. I picked up more paint and better brushes, so we'll see how that goes.

[Newt]

If you use this technique in the future, you should consider using acrylic modeling paste to give the paint more body. Anyhow, the model is looking good! I think the delphinoid color app is really working for it.

[Dusty Wren]

That sounds promising, at least. I wonder if different brands of acrylic paints will have different levels of shrinkage. I've got some heavy body acrylics that are supposed to retain their shape after drying, though I've never used a thick application on a model before. Will have to do some experimenting.