Hey . . . didn't I see you in a Gamera movie?
I have been fortunate lately to have a lot of commissioned work doing PaleoCraft's wonderful prehistoric mammal series. Sculptor Sean Cooper does a wonderful job with these strange and mighty beasts of yesteryear and gives them the credit they deserve next to their more famous prehistoric predecessors, the dinosaurs.
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For this article, we are looking at one of the weirdest of the weird . . . the Glyptodon. He is just a few shades short of a Gamera villain, in fact. Imagine a giant beaver, about the size of an SUV with the body profile of a box turtle, armored from head to tail with solid bone. Glyptodon had huge jaws, but more impressive must have been the muscle needed to support the weight of the "shell."
The kit comes in just two parts plus a base. Everything is molded to the body except the tail so this is a kit you could really do well even if you are just a beginner. There is also very little work to do to prepare the kit for assembly and paint. Below, you can see that there is a small knob to trim out for a good fit and I am using my favorite tool, Xuron Rail Nips. Below right, you will see that I have also inserted long, heavy drywall screws in concealed areas of the kit. This allows me to hold and turn the kit while priming and painting without touching the surface.
After a coat of light gray primer is applied, the painting process begins with an application of FW Inks' Burnt Umber and then a misting of Sepia via airbrush (an Iwata HP-B in this case). Next, I spray the interior of the ears, nose and mouth with Life Tone Bronze Flesh, as you can see in the picture above right.Next, I coat the shell with FW Inks' Raw Sienna and the small spikes around the edge of the shell are done with Badger's Near Black.
When that dries, it gets a coating of Testor's Dulcote to seal it in. Next, we apply a few layers of color to the shell and top of the head. The idea is to create a sense of depth, randomness and variation in the colors. I start with FW Inks' Antelope Brown (which is a bit greenish) as seen to the right. Then, to mute that, I applied a thin layer of Badger Poison Plague Yellow (below left). Then, in the photo below right, you'll see some vertical streaking with FW Inks' Raw Umber. I also bring that down the head and tail as well to give it a sense of continuity.
I seal that with Dulcote again, and when it is dry, I go back over the top of the kit with a few transparents very lightly--Createx Light Brown and Lifetone Chestnut and Nuance Umber.It is also time to drybrush the kit to bring out the highlights. I put a dusty drybrush coating of Poison Plague Yellow over the top of the kit and treat the fur areas with Americana Honey Wheat.
When that dries, I coat it with Dulcote one more time and then apply a very thin Burnt Umber oil wash, wiping off the surface as I go.
Finally, the eyes. They are only about a millimeter across, but you can still do a decent job of that with a steady hand.I painted the eyeball white and put a single black dot in for a pupil using the tip of a toothpick. When I am sure that is dry, I apply bubbles of Lifetone Chestnut to the eyeball. It spreads out a little, so if you want a darker eye, you have to do it a few times--and you want very, very little paint on the toothpick.
Mammals usually have very dark brown eyes, but if you do that on a kit like this it will get lost in the other colors, so I went with a lighter, almost red look here.
I did not take pictures of the base as I did it, but it was done by painting the resin Weathered Black and Near Black, two nice shades of gray from Badger. I drilled holes in the base and inserted some dried plant matter and grass plugs made from Woodland Scenics hobby grass.Then, I applied a thin mixture of white glue and water (about 10:1 in favor of the water), and using a small sieve, I sprinkled down layers of various shades of green and earth tone ground foam from Woodland Scenics. When it dried, I hit it with heavy coatings of hair spray, which is essentially glue.
Once that was stable and dry, I could attach the kit to the base. I used a drywall screw. Be careful if you do this because if you don't pre-drill the right size hole, you can crack the kit. When the Glyptodon is firmly on the base, I use screws to secure it to a nice bamboo cutting board. Bamboo is the most renewable wood resource in the world, so there is no reason to feel guilty about it.
One final note on the creature--ironically its incredible defense system probably lead to it's downfall. Many scientists believe it was hunted to extinction by humans who realized, if you could just flip him on his back, you could eat for a month! So it goes.It is a great kit and was a pleasure to do . . . even though it was one of our commissioned buildups, which means I have to part with it the moment I am satisfied.
However, we are always open for build up work. All you have to do is email us at editor@creaturescape.com and you can get a no-obligation estimate. So, if you are tired of seeing your collection as a bunch of stacked boxes, we are here to help.
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