Mounting a Psittacosaurus Replica

[LordTrilobite 671]

I recently bought a Do It Yourself Psittacosaurus skeleton cast. And I thought it would be fun to share the process of mounting the skeleton.

 

I already had a skeleton cast of a juvenile Psittacosaurus but now I also have an adult version!

 

As it came painted, I could just have mounted it as is. But I wanted to give it a more interesting post rather than a a straight spine and tail. Since the spine and tail come in bundled segments of vertebrae. I thought I would cut them apart so that I could create curves better. And as I was modifying it anyway, I might as well improve it here and there as well. Some parts like the vertebral foramen on the vertebrae and some fenestra are filled in on the original cast. So I decided to dril some holes to make the details a bit more accurate.

 

 

 

 

Size comparison with the adult and juvenile skeleton. The frame I made for the juvenile is pretty basic and primitive so I want to make a better and prettier mount for the big one.

 

 

Drilling out the vertebral foramen in the middle and separating the vertebrae.

 

 

Process of drilling holes and opening up the inside of the skull to more accurately reflect actual openings in a real skull. I'm not done smoothing out the new hole syet though. So right now it still looks quite ugly. More to come soon!

[JohnBrewer 437]

[FossilDudeCO 501]

Looking good so far!

Make sure you keep us updated!

By the way, these are beautiful casts, where do you get them from? @LordTrilobite

[doushantuo 1,551]

NICE!!!!

[Kevin H. 106]

Waaah how cool is that

 

[Mahnmut 4]

Very nice!

I´d like one of those...

And that way it is much more fun than simply buying an assembled one.

Enjoy it!

[LordTrilobite 671]

15 hours ago, FossilDudeCO said:

Looking good so far!

Make sure you keep us updated!

By the way, these are beautiful casts, where do you get them from? @LordTrilobite

I got it from Triassica, a UK based company that makes a number of different casts.

[Troodon 2,858]

Very nice replica have fun putting it together.  Bones looked pretty detailed.  Check the phalanx count on hands and feet, looks short on pictures.

[LordTrilobite 671]

Yes I noticed it seems to be missing a few phalanges.

[JohnBrewer 437]

1 hour ago, LordTrilobite said:

Yes I noticed it seems to be missing a few phalanges.

 

Im sure you have a few real ones in your collection you could put in the model  

[LordTrilobite 671]

Real chinese fossils are hard to come by. So I'd have to make any missing phalanges from scratch.

[JohnBrewer 437]

12 minutes ago, LordTrilobite said:

Real chinese fossils are hard to come by. So I'd have to make any missing phalanges from scratch.

 

Sounds like a 3D printing job to me. 

[Troodon 2,858]

Very talented to be able to make them.  Yep 3D printing the way to go..  

[LordTrilobite 671]

Here's some more progress on opening up the fenestra on the right side of the skull. It's starting to look fairly nice but I still want to smooth it out some more.

 

 

 

 

I've also separated most of the dorsal and cervical vertebrae so that I can mount the skeleton in a curve.

 

 

[Troodon 2,858]

Looking good.  The detail on the verts is super.   I like the idea of mounting it with a curve.  Its more work but will payoff in the end.  

[sandgroper 61]

This looks terrific, you're doing a great job!

[Fossildude19 3,635]

  

[Triceratops 17]

Very cool. Your alterations have improved it a lot. Can't wait to see more!

[LordTrilobite 671]

More progress on the skull. I've opened up the supratemporal fenestra with a drill and filed them down. Still not done but it's getting there.

[Troodon 2,858]

Looking good, like that you are making it look right.  It's definitely worth the extra effort. 

[LordTrilobite 671]

Here are some more updates on the progress for my Psittacosaurus mount. I've separated all the vertebrae near the base of the tail. So now I can mount it in a variety of poses. I've also started experimenting with Magic Sculpt. There are a few areas on the cast that have some air bubbles or other artefacts that happened as a result of the casting. So I've repaired some of those. One on the nose can be seen here.

 

 

I've also separated the toe bones and added some extra phalanges because based on all the reference I could find Psittacosaurus had more bones in their toes than the cast had when I got it.

[Aurelius 45]

That is great! I've got one of the actual specimens from Triassica (seems they only sell replicas now), and you've given me some ideas as to how I could possibly improve it in the future.