$300K and counting- Dryptosaurus is now UNLOCKED!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 29, 2021 at 10:11:52 PM

WE HAVE HIT $300K! And with that, the 1/18th scale Dryptosaurus aquilunguis is now UNLOCKED and selectable from the 'add-ons' menu to include in your pledge. Add-on price: $73(US)/ $76 (INT)

The Dryptosaurus figure will measure 16"/ 41cm in length and will feature 22 points of articulation, three sets of alternate feet, base, interchangeable standing lower legs, and a bendable tail end.

Parts Layout

While I don't currently have a built prototype of Dryptosaurus, the parts are sculpted, molded, cast and on their way to me as I type this.  I expect to have a built prototype to show by the end of the weekend. For now though, here's a look at its unique parts layout. Sharing both feathered and non-feathered parts, Dryptosaurus is the only Tyrannosaur figure in the planned assortment that has a semi-feathered appearance, creating a very special look among the others that is sure to stand out.

I'd initially planned out the parts sharing for this one with a color layout. This isn't usually necessary, but seeing the parts construction in advance was very helpful in this instance.

Personally this is one of the ones that I'm most excited about simply because of its unique design. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one put together!

Sculpting

For the sculpting on Dryptosaurus, I had Jake Baardse sculpt a 'naked' head, devoid of scale details on the areas to be covered by feathers.  As with our Yutyrannus, I opted to hand-sculpt the feathers in order to maintain a consistent look with the other feathered figures in the Beasts of the Mesozoic assortment. That and I just like sculpting feathers.

Once I had the printed parts, I then sculpted the fine feather details in castilene wax.

On the final product, the feathered shells on the body will be made of a flexible plastic so as not to impede the articulation.

In-progress package art by Shannon Beaumont

As of this update, Shannon is working on the package art and she recently sent me this color study for her work-in-progress piece. Dryptosaurus here has just gorged on a big meal and now the local birds are helping clean up the scraps. 

I love how Shannon always finds a way to tell a story with her illustrations. Being so familiar with modern-day wildlife, she's extremely adept at seeing the possible parallels of behavior between the prehistoric and the modern wildlife. This one's character has been inspired by that of a Grizzly Bear, and I can totally see that. As with all of her work, I can't wait to see the finished version!

That'll do it for now, but stay tuned for another update soon about the color inspirations for the Tyrannosaur Series.  Thank you everyone for your support and enthusiasm thus far-$300K in just over 6 days is no small feat!

 Proceratosaurus is our next unlock at $315,000- let's keep it going. :)

-David

Art Post Card Set #2 added plus a look at the Tyrannosaur color inspirations
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 29, 2021 at 08:24:36 PM

Hello everyone! As we approach the one week mark, I've added the Post Card set #2 to the campaign and this is now selectable from the 'add-ons' menu to include in your pledge. 

Add-on price: $11(US)/ $13 (INT). 

Featured here are the package illustration work of Gabriel Ugueto, RJ Palmer, Raul Ramos, Raph Lomotan, and Shannon Beaumont. You may even notice a few new ones here which we'll be taking a closer look at later.

Color Design Inspirations

 As I've done with the previous Beasts of the Mesozoic series', each of the figures for this line have colors and/or patterns inspired by modern day animals, with the exception of the Special Edition items of course. Some end up deviating more than others from their inspirations, but these were all the starting points that would eventually lead to their final designs. You can click the image for a larger view.

Protoceratosaurus is SO close now, just a few hundred left to go! I'll have more info on that after the unlock.

See you all soon!

-David

Proceratosaurus is now UNLOCKED!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 29, 2021 at 08:24:28 PM

 As some of you may have noticed, the 1/18th scale Proceratosaurus bradleyi has been UNLOCKED! This is now selectable from the 'add-ons' menu to include in your pledge. Add-on price: $32(US)/ $35 (INT)

The Proceratosaurus figure measures 8" / 20cm long, with 19 points of articulation including a bendable tail and base. It shares parts with Guanlong but will feature different arms, tail and head. And though I don't have the parts to show just yet, this and the other small Tyrannosaurs will include interchangeable feet like the other larger species. 

 Sculpting

For these smaller species', I commissioned the multi-talented Raul Ramos to sculpt the skulls so that they could be printed to scale and then sculpted on top of with castilene/ wax. 

Working from what little fossil evidence that has been found for Proceratosaurus, and referencing the remains of similarly related species, Raul sculpted this beautiful reconstruction of the skull.

Printed to 1/18th scale, the skull ends up being less than 1 inch long. Here it is with the alternate feet for the 1/35th scale T. rex.

At such a small size, I was concerned that the printed details would get lost were we to print a fully-detailed head, so I opted to hand-sculpt over the skull. Aside from solving the detail issue , this will  also allow us to offer the skull later on in our Shapeways store. Here's a look at the work-in-progress sculpt.

 This process is being repeated for Suskityrannus, Eotyrannus, and Moros. As for the look of the head sculpt...

 Package art by Gabriel Ugueto

 This beautiful Proceratosaurus package art was done by paleo artist Gabriel Ugueto, and is his first of three for the Tyrannosaur Series. I'm thrilled to have Gabriel on board to help with this line as I've been a fan of his work for sometime now. We actually collaborated on the final design for this one and I couldn't be happier with the result. It goes without saying that my head sculpt is heavily inspired by his illustration as will be my painted prototype. 

I plan to show the final sculpted prototype for Proceratosaurus before the end of the Kickstarter campaign. This pace has really caught me off guard... not that I'm complaining though. :)

We're just over $10K away from our next stretch goal, Qianzhousaurus sinensis!

Great work so far everyone- thanks so much, and please keep sharing and posting!

-David

WE ARE FUNDED... ALREADY!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 08:50:51 AM

WOW. What more can I say, but WOW. Today was unbelievable and well exceeded my most optimistic expectations. We reached our goal of $185,000 in under 13 and half hours. Thank you all so much for the enthusiasm and support thus far and most importantly, thank you for believing in this project.

It's been a crazy and exciting day but it's time for me to get some rest now. I'll see you all tomorrow with more reveals and closer looks at the figures. 

And the great thing is, we're just scratching the surface- stretch goals here we come!

-David

Teratophoneus curriei is now UNLOCKED!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 02:57:40 AM

Congrats everyone! The 1/18th scale Teratophoneus curriei  is now UNLOCKED and is selectable from the 'add-ons' menu to include in your pledge. Add-on price: $53(US)/ $55 (INT)

Teratophoneus is part of the Wave 2 assortment and is estimated to deliver in March of 2023.

Sculpted Parts Layout

While I'm still awaiting the resin castings for this sculpt, luckily I have plenty of sculpted parts to show you all.

 Here we have a look at the sculpted parts layout for the Teratophoneus figure. You may notice that it shares most of it's parts with the juvenile T. rex, albeit shorter lower legs and of course a different head.

Head Sculpt

As with many of the figures in the Tyrannosaur Series, Jake Baardse did a fantastic head sculpt for this figure.

And Aaron Doyle did some nice work with the parts separation for the articulation points.

For the final step, I used castilene wax to modify the the back portion of the head in order to fit it to the existing juvenile T.rex neck, which was also hand-sculpted. During this process, I'll drybrush a light coat of paint on the printed resin so that I can see the existing details better for matching them by hand. The digital parts were printed by Raul Ramos.

 Expect to see the unpainted built prototype this coming Friday, barring no postage delays.

 Teratophoneus package art by Raul Ramos

 Raul has once again knocked the package art out of the park with Teratophoneus. You can bet the final paint work on the figure will be heavily inspired by this illustration.

Remaining Prototypes- Current Status

 With all of the stretch goals unlocking so quickly, I'm getting to a point of running out of finished prototypes to show.  For those interested, here's the rundown of where we stand at the moment:

-12 completed prototypes

-2 built prototypes are being painted now (Daspletosaurus and Albertosaurus)

-4 have castings on the way (Teratophoneus, Dryptosaurus, Qianzhousaurus, and Alectrosaurus). These are all expected to be built by this time next week

-4 smaller figures (Protoceratosaurus, Suskityrannus, Eotyrannus, and Moros) have head sculpts that are in-progress now

My goal is to show at least the finished sculpted prototypes for each figure before the Kickstarter concludes. 

That's all for now. Dryptosaurus is the next unlock at $300,000- let's do it!

Thanks everyone!

-David