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RB's Fossil Crab Prep Thread !!!


RJB

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   Alrighty then.  I made it out into the garage again.  Been working on the house some more and its always nice to get out prepping again.  Anyways, ive done some finish up work on a couple of fossils.  I finished up this crab and it came out purty good.  I decided to 'bowl' this crab for no other reason than, 'just because'.   Ive posted the last picture of this along with todays pic so no one has to go back to page 4 to compare.

 

RB

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It always looks like you can free more of the specimen from the matrix. How do you determine when it's time to stop?

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

It always looks like you can free more of the specimen from the matrix. How do you determine when it's time to stop?

 

When the crab stops showing up, you stop looking for it. After enough time prepping, you start to get a feel for what's going on. Ron is a master when it comes to crabs. I think he can see under the rock sometimes.

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On 4/22/2019 at 5:00 PM, Mark Kmiecik said:

It always looks like you can free more of the specimen from the matrix. How do you determine when it's time to stop?

its hard to tel from the picture, but for prepping, some of the area's are very deep and it gets harder and harder to prep.  There may be the 8th leg on the left side somewhere by the claw/chela but if I dived down and made an even deeper hole and not find a leg, then im left with a deep hole with nothing in it. and I have a problem with the way the rock flows when im done.   Its a gamble. 

 

On 4/22/2019 at 6:26 PM, Ptychodus04 said:

When the crab stops showing up, you stop looking for it. After enough time prepping, you start to get a feel for what's going on. Ron is a master when it comes to crabs. I think he can see under the rock sometimes.

Some real nice words to hear my freind.   

 

RB

 

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   Got out into the garage today after a trip into town and started a small Tumidocarcinus concretion.     I had 'whacked' this open and glued it back together quite awhile ago and decided to just go ahead and go on the prep attack.   Ive got a HECK of another concretion from NZ coming in a week or so, so would like to get this one finished and then maybe start that one?   Nice to have so many prep projects that I have to somehow make a decision which one to attack!  :)  Poor me.    Here are pictures of my prep job of today. 

   Oh, this is only about 4 hours of prep.  Even though this one is 'sticky', these small ones dont take long? 

 

RB

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3 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

At least you provided the crab a beer to enjoy while you work on him.

That was a thirsty crab, I think he had 5 beers?  

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Another 5 hours of prep.  This crab has problems up the guzoo!!!  Still, I paid moneys for it so I will finish it.  There were some shards missing and you can see that in the back of the crab concretion, but it was horrifying to find a huge cavernus cave with the left dactil/movable finger having a missing piece!   Even though it was quite the heart attack, it can be fixed, just takes more time and who wants a missing piece?!!!  Rear end has problems with only one Coxa and lots and lots of stickyness and lots of crushing!  This one will be saved for trade.  Will not go into the collection, but thats with most of the crabs I do so its really not to be unexpected.  Dang it!  and still has about 6 more hours of prep but with a few circles with my magic wond over the crab it may turn out purty dang nice?

 

RB

 

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  I thought I could finish this up in about 6 more hours?  I can see now, that was wishful thinkin.   I put in almost 6 more hours and can easily see now that Ive got about 4 or 5 more to go?   I got out my 2 part putty, coloring powder and little tiny tools for applying the putty and gots to work.  I also made some fako rock by that left Dactyl (movable finger) so  it looks really messy right now!!!  Im a little bit nervous and hoping that I can sculpt and carve it so it looks as natural as can be?   I also got a real NIGHTMARE in the mail today, but more on that later.  Gots to finish up this little nightmare first. 

 

RB

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@RJB three words come to mind whenever I see you work on a crab: storming, forming, and norming. :D

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Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

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    Alrighty then.  I finally got this thing finished.  Not the best crab from New Zealand but far from the worst.  Still, not going into the collection.  This crab has lots of problems and the worst of those are fixed to the best of my ability.   One more out of my way. 

 

RB

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   Ok, not long ago I received a large concretion in the mail from New Zealand.  Apon receiving it and opening it my heart sunk.  A disapointment I never want to experience again.   Over the last few days ive been gluing it back together.  Not happy with the way its going but at the same time, with some scribing here and there in some little tiny spots i was able to get this thing together to the best of my ability.  The really really bad thing is that I cut off some rock on the 2 biggest pieces and cut right through the right Propodus!!!  The biggest mistake i've ever made bar none!!!  I had to leave it alone till today and finished up the gluing.  I can fix it, but who in the heck wants to fix something like that when it should'nt have happened in the first place!!!!  Later today I went on the prep attack!  I was going purty dang fast too!  I seemed to have lost the excitment for this crab and just wanted to get some rock removed.  I can see now that I have to slow down.  This may still turn out to be a purty nice crab even though im gunna havta fight some glue and fix a few things.  

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What a frustrating business this crab has become! It's starting to shape up though, and a crab this size sure looks to be worth the extra time. Keep on fighting, Ron.

                                                                                              scampering-crab-s.gif.46e69ae5a3e202efe4b788fc14d018e0.gif

Start the day with a smile and get it over with.

 

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19 hours ago, Pagurus said:

What a frustrating business this crab has become! It's starting to shape up though, and a crab this size sure looks to be worth the extra time. Keep on fighting, Ron.

Thanks man.   yeah, lots of ups and downs with this crab business.  but I realy do love the highs.

 

RB

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Do you ever do a ventral prep? Can you tell dorsal from ventral without cracking the concretion open?

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Do you ever do a ventral prep? Can you tell dorsal from ventral without cracking the concretion open?

Of the 15k posts that Ron has done on crab preps, I can only recall 1 ventral prep from him.

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@RJB that busted crab is a real heartbreaker for sure. Thankfully, I know a guy who’s a wizard at prepping crabs. ;)

 

We kick ourselves for the mess ups but they happen to all of us. I was working on a mosasaur skull once and knew I needed to stop and consolidate the tooth I was working on but was in a groove and kept on scribing. About a second after I decided not to stop and consolidate, the tooth exploded. Then, I had to stop and find all the pieces and glue the tooth back together.

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16 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Do you ever do a ventral prep? Can you tell dorsal from ventral without cracking the concretion open?

  Ive done 2 ventral preps.  One of Pulalius vulgaris and one Tumidocarcius gigantius.   The ventrals are interesting but much rather have the dorsal.  On some concretions you can tell what is ventral/dorsal and on those I always choose dorsal. 

 

15 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

We kick ourselves for the mess ups but they happen to all of us. I was working on a mosasaur skull once and knew I needed to stop and consolidate the tooth I was working on but was in a groove and kept on scribing. About a second after I decided not to stop and consolidate, the tooth exploded. Then, I had to stop and find all the pieces and glue the tooth back together.

  You are too nice my freind.  You should have said something like,,,,,,,   "you good for nothin piece of $#@%,  how dare you ruin that pincer you freakin da frackin $$$&#@E!!!   :)

 

RB

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He's too nice to actually say something like that... but thinking it may have been a possibility.. for a very brief moment. :shrug:

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Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

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3 hours ago, RJB said:

You are too nice my freind.  You should have said something like,,,,,,,   "you good for nothin piece of $#@%,  how dare you ruin that pincer you freakin da frackin $$$&#@E!!!   :)

I cringed for you when I read it and again when I saw the picture.

 

You good for nothin piece of snarge, just go ahead and throw it in my box since you’ve already ruined it. :default_rofl:

 

2 hours ago, daves64 said:

He's too nice to actually say something like that... but thinking it may have been a possibility.. for a very brief moment. :shrug:

Shhh. Don’t go getting everyone to thinking I’m nice. You’ll ruin my rep. :P

 

Now, I’m off to get more coffee. :coffee:

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   Ok all, lets calm down.  Starting to sound like a bunch of hoodlums, especialy me.   Been busy today doing about 5 more hours on Mr. Nightmare Crab and it has more problems than Carter has pills!!!  I cant believe all the glue ive been putting on this thing and one spot for the carapace took about 30 drops!!!  I also put in some time adding the cut off piece of Propodus back on.  Just hope this works out?  Im quite nevous!!!  Gots a long ways to go but the next prep session is going to be very interesting seeing how the cut off piece works out? 

 

RB

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Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

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@RJB I have never regretted seeing any of your posts!  But wow, I have seen the heart sink when the power tools find something unexpected @Doctor Mud Did it in front of me one day too but hey - its too hard to predict and with those massive Tumo nippers they are easy to accidentally find (speaking from experience).

 

Any more movement on the Meandricampus?  That looks like a mean little crab.

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