Blue the Raptor

Blue & baby Blue raptors

Top & Bottom Jaw - Dovetail Joint

This has to be my favourite project to date and I look forward to doing more of them. From previous projects of similar scale the main issue was always the glue, because we use gorilla glue that expands to fill any gaps in the joins, this meant the segments needed to be strapped together. So with that in mind at the cut section instead of a straight cut with snap plugs we chose a dovertail joint, this meant that the segments would fit tightly together and the glue would expand into the gaps without pushing the segments apart. This also helped with this particular model because it needed to be cut into four segment, two for the upper jaw and two for the lower, this made it easier when painting because I decided to paint the two halves seperately and attach them just before adding the detail.

Applying the lower jaw base coat

As you can see from the image the top and bottom sections where very different in tone of green this was to help simulate a realistic finish once the shades were covered with a wash. A wash is a very watery low pigment paint that covers like an ink, seeping into the cracks and just shading the flater surface, this technique helps to put the shadows into the texture of the model and with this model to bring out the skin detail.

Using the airbrush to apply three different shades of blue for the marking around the eye helps to build depth into the finished piece.

Finally the eyes, using a piece of card cut into a elipse as a template I airbrush a light layer of black on to the eye to give me guidelines to work to. The base layers are two shades of orange and the iris is a bright yellow, pupil is solid black with a spot of white to show the light glare. The finishing steps are very fine lightehing lines from the pupil fading to the outer edges and once dried covered with a cast resin to make the eye look more realistic.