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Ichthyosaur skull question


Andyl

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Hiya - I'm wondering if anyone can help me fill in the missing areas of my ichthyosaur sculpt? It's an attempt at an ichthyosaurus breviceps skull but I just can't  find any photos / diagrams that give me the information / confidence to complete the back. Any help would be really appreciated!

many thanks!

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That's really nice! 

Hope to be able to see the finished version when you're done. :)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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That's a nice little sculpture  of an Icthyosaurus skull :dinosmile::dinothumb: well done

Life started in the ocean. And so did my interest in fossils;).

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Mice job so far!  I would attempt something like this, but you probably wouldn't be able to tell if it was an Icthyosaurus or a banana. Not real great at sculpting.

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Looks like it's shaping up to be a great sculpture. Sadly I don't have any good reference of the back of Ichthyosaurus skulls. It might be worth checking out Ichthyosaur skulls in general to get an overall feel for the type of proportions and details you'd expect to find.

The only images I seem to find are from the Pterosaur Heresies website. But that website is not to be trusted so I dunno where to get good reference.

 

It might be worth visiting the London Natural History Museum as they have loads of Ichthyosaurs there. They have a 3D Opthalmosaurus (I think) skeleton as well. Using that as reference might help.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Thanks very much for all your replies - I'm happy you guys enjoyed it. Unfortunately opthalmosaurus at the natural history has gone when they changed the central hall layout - I couldn't find it anywhere else .. I'm just after a generic ichthyosaur skull layout really. I've looked at pterosaur heresies but yes there is no point replicating something incorrect. Thanks Doushantuo there's a new image there which will help :dinothumb:. Below is my skull first attempt - it's I.conybeari. It's going to remain unpainted until I get a chance to cast it into resin. My plan is small series of species..

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Thanks very much for that drawing Paul :dinothumb::dinothumb:!

its exactly what I was after! 

When you see how much cartilage there is I suppose it's no surprise that these small bones all collapse. I will have a go at finishing it off now  And keep my eye out for the book :dinothumb:. Thanks all!

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Can't wait to see your finished product, Andy!

Looking forward to meeting my fellow Singaporean collectors! Do PM me if you are a Singaporean, or an overseas fossil-collector coming here for a holiday!

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Andy

 

I may be interested if you can make copies of your completed skulls. 

 

Here are some drawings of the occiput of Ichthyosaurus sp.:

 

 

occiput of Ichthyosaurus rear view.jpg

occiput of Ichthyosaurus side view.jpg

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Thanks Paul :dinothumb:. My aim is to make copies but I'm not sure of the timescale. I want to concentrate on trying to make a good job of the sculpts first.. When I have 3 or 4 done to my satisfaction I will start looking at reproducing them - that's the plan!

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Hi,

that looks great!

As I am also building scale replicas of marine tetrapods I am intrigued to see your Ichthyosaurs.

My Focus is more on Cetaceans, and my level of detail is way below yours as far as I see your skulls.

I´d really like to discuss materials and ways of reproducing handmade models,

I would also like to add one of your ichthyosaurs to my marine tetrapod family, should you decide to reproduce them. .

Maybe the geoworld ichthiosaur is interesting to you also, because it is cheap and not quite as bad as the others from that series. I found it a good basis to improve upon.

Cheers

Jan

 

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something

Thomas Henry Huxley

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thanks Mahnmut! I must admit to browsing some of your posts previously. Trying to see how other people do stuff is a great way to make progress :) You are much more prolific than me and they look great! At the moment skulls are what im concentrating on but i would like to put a skeleton behind one eventually! If you want to ask me stuff then feel free to message me. - I may have some questions for you as well!

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Hi,sent you a pm.

Cheers

Jan

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something

Thomas Henry Huxley

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  • 1 year later...

Hi guys - wow - i hadn't realised it had been so long since i was last here. Progress has been made and the finished skulls are due to be cast in resin in around a months time. Unfortunately my baby daughter has had some health issues / operations in the last year which has meant this project, and others, have been on the back-burner quite a bit.

I also had the opportunity to compare the skulls with some examples of the real thing which caused me to do a bit of a rework but which also took more time!

I was however lucky enough to be able to sculpt a bit in Charmouth Heritage Centre where there was a pretty cool ichthy skull on temporary display that was preserved in 3d.

This allowed me to get a pretty good idea of how the rear of the skulls works and i built a quick model around a teaspoon to try to understand things!

I will try to get some photos of the finished skulls uploaded too - (they are currently with someone else being prepped for the resin casting)

 

many thanks!

Andy

 

 

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they look a bit rough because they have been baked and reworked a few times - hence the different shades of pink/brown. The grey is a sealing paint that has to go on over the teeth to stop the silicone from finding its way into nooks and crannies that would cause problems when taking the mold.

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Looks to be coming along nicely. :)

I am sorry to here about your baby daughter and hope she's happy and healthy now.

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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Such cool stuff here!

I have wanted to sculpt something on the computer and 3d print it for a while now but have not gotten around to it yet.

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