Display Ideas - Hell Creek

[BellamyBlake]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm making a display of Hell Creek Formation for a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth I'm getting. Though it's a replica, it's a really pretty one, and making an equally gorgeous display for it would just be fun.

 

 

I envision this. I'm wondering how I might sculpt the hills and ridges. I thought about cutting cardboard boxes up into shape and hot gluing them to a wooden plinth. I would then paint it and cover it in sand to replicate the features. My only concern about that is how I would carve the features of the ridges - those fine details - into a box. I considered perhaps covering those boxes in clay and carving details into the clay, though I'm not sure if the clay will stay put.

 

Anyone have any ideas on this? I'd appreciate it

[snolly50]

Just an idea, print the wonderful image above on heavy stock. Affix it, gently curved, to an appropriately sized and shaped wooden base. That is, the bottom edge of the printed image fastened to the back edge of the base. On the base itself clay sculpt a suitable matrix surface mimicking the natural ground on which the tooth may have rested. The effect you are looking for is a patch of ground with the fossil, backed by a vista of the natural area.

 

Alternately, you might consult @Bobby Rico, who can give you ideas from an artist's conceptualization.    

[BellamyBlake]

9 minutes ago, snolly50 said:

Just an idea, print the wonderful image above on heavy stock. Affix it, gently curved, to an appropriately sized and shaped wooden base. That is, the bottom edge of the printed image fastened to the back edge of the base. On the base itself clay sculpt a suitable matrix surface mimicking the natural ground on which the tooth may have rested. The effect you are looking for is a patch of ground with the fossil, backed by a vista of the natural area.

 

Alternately, you might consult @Bobby Rico, who can give you ideas from an artist's conceptualization.    

You're absolutely on point about the effect I'm aiming for. Thank you for the suggestion, I'll look into a higher resolution photograph to use as a backdrop.

[ReptileTooth]

In modelism and wargames I've  seen hills and cliffs built with polystyrene sheet sused in home isolation(not ones properly cut and shaped with sand paper, wood bark or cork simutaling  the sides of rock formations. All properly painted. 

[Bobby Rico]

Sounds like an interesting project and thanks @snolly50 for the heads up, I wound use some real stone/rocks with modelling material for foliage glued to it (Stuff used for toy train’s landscapes) and with some sand for the substrate.  I made a couple of diorama with a vintage dinosaur and a mammoth that I painted. Are you adding a T.rex model to the display ?  If there is any help you need feel free to ask me, looking forward to seeing it. Cheers Bobby 

 

 

 

[BellamyBlake]

4 hours ago, ReptileTooth said:

In modelism and wargames I've  seen hills and cliffs built with polystyrene sheet sused in home isolation(not ones properly cut and shaped with sand paper, wood bark or cork simutaling  the sides of rock formations. All properly painted. 

 

Thank you for your input. I think polystyrene is a lovely idea. May I ask, how would you use wood bark or cork to simulate the sides? Would you cut these up and glue them to the polystyrene, painting them thereafter?

 

47 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

Sounds like an interesting project and thanks @snolly50 for the heads up, I wound use some real stone/rocks with modelling material for foliage glued to it (Stuff used for toy train’s landscapes) and with some sand for the substrate.  I made a couple of diorama with a vintage dinosaur and a mammoth that I painted. Are you adding a T.rex model to the display ?  If there is any help you need feel free to ask me, looking forward to seeing it. Cheers Bobby 

 

 

 

Thank you for your thoughts, and lovely display! I don't intend to incorporate a model into it. It'll just be the Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth replica, as well as a smaller actual Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth that I acquired.

 

I didn't think of incorporating in real rocks or model material. I'll purchase some, and that should make this much easier. Around here, I'm not sure how feasible it will be to obtain rocks that I can build into those ridges, so for that part I may simply go with foam. But, smaller rocks would be useful for the foreground.

 

I'm attaching the plan I have in mind. I'll definitely post it once it's finished, cheers for your help

[Bobby Rico]

Thinking about it the rock in the stegosaurus diorama was made of modelling clay and painted 

 

A walk in the woods or a beech can be great place to find material to use in model.  
 

The next post shows a substrate I made out of sand and glue it worked well I think.