LabRatKing Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 Ok, trying this again as I mistakenly hijacked @BellamyBlake excellent thread by bad tab shuffling! Sorry! anyway.... heres is what I started with. Managed to get five coats of white spray paint stripped off. As you can see this is a pretty poor cast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 Next, root sculpt and pit and void correction: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 Next, bourlette and enamel work, plus a bit more root: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 More details and another layer. Yes it’s thick and exaggerated, but this is to ensure there’s extra Apoxy to sand and polish away and still have enough to do physical weathering! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 Now wait at least six hours to do lingual side, then a few more to do initial sanding. Then physical weathering, prime and paint. Was given two weeks to do this project, bet I can finish it in four or five more days! The warm temps are helping cure times significantly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Trilo Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 Looks great, the root looks real “If fossils are not "boggling" your mind then you are simply not doing it right” -Ken (digit) "No fossil is garbage, it´s just not completely preserved” -Franz (FranzBernhard) "With hammer in hand, the open horizon of time, and dear friends by my side, what can we not accomplish together?" -Kane (Kane) "We are in a way conquering time, reuniting members of a long lost family" -Quincy (Opabinia Blues) "I loved reading the trip reports, I loved the sharing, I loved the educational aspect, I loved the humor. It felt like home. It still does" -Mike (Pagurus) “The best deal I ever got was getting accepted as a member on The Fossil Forum. Not only got an invaluable pool of knowledge, but gained a loving family as well.” -Doren (caldigger) "it really is nice, to visit the oasis that is TFF" -Tim (fossildude19) "Life's Good! -Adam (Tidgy's Dad) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BellamyBlake Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 Haha no worries it happens! Great work; I look forward to the final photos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 So thanks to a sunny day I was able to save a few hours cureing time and get the pre-sanding primer and reference detail washes done. This darkens the incised areas and highlights the high points. I used one two very light coats of gray universal bonding primer. About an hour later I spayed on a thick coat of black primer, then immediately wiped it down. I do this to ensure I don’t accidentally sand off details. Now however a few hours is needed for the next step, as one never wants to overwork epoxies with solvent based primers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 A bit of wetsanding and a black wash or two later and it is starting to look like a tooth. You can see a few low spots that will require a bit more putty and sanding, but I think a full paint is much sooner than expected. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carboniferouspat Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 Nice job on the painting ,looks good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 15, 2020 Author Share Posted October 15, 2020 So a few days later and the long process of final paint and weathering begins. This about five cycles of paint and bff with a Scotchbrite pad. Only a few done more to go! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Trilo Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 Its looking very tooth like “If fossils are not "boggling" your mind then you are simply not doing it right” -Ken (digit) "No fossil is garbage, it´s just not completely preserved” -Franz (FranzBernhard) "With hammer in hand, the open horizon of time, and dear friends by my side, what can we not accomplish together?" -Kane (Kane) "We are in a way conquering time, reuniting members of a long lost family" -Quincy (Opabinia Blues) "I loved reading the trip reports, I loved the sharing, I loved the educational aspect, I loved the humor. It felt like home. It still does" -Mike (Pagurus) “The best deal I ever got was getting accepted as a member on The Fossil Forum. Not only got an invaluable pool of knowledge, but gained a loving family as well.” -Doren (caldigger) "it really is nice, to visit the oasis that is TFF" -Tim (fossildude19) "Life's Good! -Adam (Tidgy's Dad) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 16, 2020 Author Share Posted October 16, 2020 Well, as you have probably noticed there are no serrations. Last night I got some more weathering and buffing and painting done. I just now figured out how to make the serratia museum accurate, but I will have to make the proper tool to do it first, so, later today I will post details on that. PVC pipe and enameled inductor wire from my HAM radio days should do the trick! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Flynn Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Wow! Great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 17, 2020 Author Share Posted October 17, 2020 Phase1 of the serration sculpt. Again overly thick and exaggerated but gotta leave extra to sand away and bring into scale. Used a few feet of induction wire wrapped over a few inches of 1 inc PVC pipe with one half sawed off to make a comb to get the spacing on the serrations correct. It’s cool here today so curing times are longer, but this makes the Apoxy easier to work with. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 19, 2020 Author Share Posted October 19, 2020 And here we are. Final paint and weathering complete. Nothing left to do but clear coat and placement on a custom base. I’ll post all that when complete. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 19, 2020 Author Share Posted October 19, 2020 Colors a bit off in the photos due to my led work lights Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Trilo Posted October 19, 2020 Share Posted October 19, 2020 Looks great it looks like a real tooth “If fossils are not "boggling" your mind then you are simply not doing it right” -Ken (digit) "No fossil is garbage, it´s just not completely preserved” -Franz (FranzBernhard) "With hammer in hand, the open horizon of time, and dear friends by my side, what can we not accomplish together?" -Kane (Kane) "We are in a way conquering time, reuniting members of a long lost family" -Quincy (Opabinia Blues) "I loved reading the trip reports, I loved the sharing, I loved the educational aspect, I loved the humor. It felt like home. It still does" -Mike (Pagurus) “The best deal I ever got was getting accepted as a member on The Fossil Forum. Not only got an invaluable pool of knowledge, but gained a loving family as well.” -Doren (caldigger) "it really is nice, to visit the oasis that is TFF" -Tim (fossildude19) "Life's Good! -Adam (Tidgy's Dad) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huntonia Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 It does look quite realistic! I'm not a big fan of replicas and reproductions, but that is one you can certainly be proud to display! Especially since it's your own craftsmanship! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 20, 2020 Author Share Posted October 20, 2020 8 hours ago, Huntonia said: It does look quite realistic! I'm not a big fan of replicas and reproductions, but that is one you can certainly be proud to display! Especially since it's your own craftsmanship! I prefer the real deal too, but I know better than to let students handle the real thing. had an oreodont skull "disappear" that way... These are strictly for education. The base models are all museum casts that were donated to us here at the Uni. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huntonia Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 3 hours ago, LabRatKing said: I prefer the real deal too, but I know better than to let students handle the real thing. had an oreodont skull "disappear" that way... These are strictly for education. The base models are all museum casts that were donated to us here at the Uni. I hadn't realised this was for education. Makes sense, sorry to hear about the oreodont skull. That cast will certainly serve well for it's purposes, excellent work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 20, 2020 Author Share Posted October 20, 2020 6 minutes ago, Huntonia said: I hadn't realised this was for education. Makes sense, sorry to hear about the oreodont skull. That cast will certainly serve well for it's purposes, excellent work! Yeah, somewhere on here is another thread about this entire fiasco, as of right now there is 90ish pieces that all have to be given the treatment. Already started what is most likely a partial american lion (zero provenance or ID on that cast...and it was a victim of what I would call an unacceptable mold alignment) and will likely start work on about half a dozen various mandibles that thankfully only need paint, so can be done simultaneously. I won't even start to think about the hundreds of actual fossils that need proper work just to be stable for storage, let alone display and education. A big problem I have is many of them were either painted with spray enamel (like this one), or are raw plaster which takes a week of stabilizing work just to get it ready for sculpt and paint. I learned the hard way that due to differences in expansion rates and hidden bubbles in the casts, I can't use my resin oven to speed the process along. I have a Castroides skull cast that "popped" while installing proper looking enamel on the incisors...was huge voids in the cast. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 Anyone want to suggest a display stand style? I started with an oak plaque...hated it...tried a yellow orange sandstone slab...hated it. Free floating was my vote but the boss shot it down as students won’t be able to handle it in the future for lab practicals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted November 18, 2020 Author Share Posted November 18, 2020 FINISHED What you can't see is the embedded neodymium magnets in the back of the tooth and the display frame....keeps it in plce for display, but is easily removable so students can handle it and such. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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