C. megalodon

[Peat Burns]

So, I can't get myself to spend the kind of money necessary for a complete, large, megalodon tooth.  I'd rather spend that kind of money on other fossils in the rare instance that I actually purchase fossils.  I have found some beautiful, complete megs personally, but none bigger than a couple inches.

 

There is a store that I discovered down in Indiana that I call the "Wiccan Store" that has all kinds of beads, incense, crystals, and odd ball assemblages of things.  I went into it years ago just to see what was in there and discovered that, way in the back, they have a little room devoted to rocks, fossils, and minerals.  They used to have a big bin of broken megs averaging about $8 each for the big ones (now all they have are tiny ones in comparison).  At any rate, I bought a huge broken tooth - 6-inches (15 cm) - for $8.  I want to put a monster tooth on display.  But I want the full effect of size that a complete one offers.  So here was my solution (as usual, I forgot to take a true "before" photo, but the photos I did take, early, are sufficient).

 

Here is how it started - the broken tooth with the beginning of the build-up of palaeosculp.  I add no more than about an inch at a time and then let it set-up before adding more.  It gets too difficult to form when in large globs.

 

The basic form is complete and I'm beginning to add texture here.  

 

 

Here is the mostly complete restoration.  It was not my intent to restore it like it just fell out of the mouth of the shark, but rather restore it to how it likely looked in the geologic context prior to breaking in half.  Painting is by far the most difficult step.  Matching any one color on the tooth takes as many as 5 or so separate colors and careful mixing to match.  It's not perfect, and I may still work a bit on the texture of the root in spots, but I'm reasonably happy with it.  I showed it around and no one noticed it was restored until I told them, so that's good enough for me for display purposes. 

 

Apologies to the sharktooth experts if there are any morphological gaffs.

 

 

@Nimravis @Darktooth @Tidgy's Dad @Bobby Rico @Cowboy Paleontologist

 

 

 

[minnbuckeye]

Looks GREAT! About as big as that log you found. Did you engrave the artist's initials on the back so, in the future, no one mistakes this for a complete meg? That is what I did when I repaired a cheap tooth for a small boy that was shark obsessed.

[Peat Burns]

8 minutes ago, minnbuckeye said:

Did you engrave the artist's initials on the back so, in the future, no one mistakes this for a complete meg?

Thanks, Mike.  LOL (I wish it was that good!), but no, it gets a catalogue number written on it, and in the catalogue, I indicate what areas are real and what areas are restored.  It's a very good point that you bring up, though!  Definitely important to document.  On skeletons, such as the Oreodont I did, I include a color-coded bone-map in the record book indicating bones associated with the original animal, bones used from other animals, and bones that were cast or sculpted.  This is in addition to the individual catalogue numbers written on each real bone and the associated descriptions in the catalogue.

[Praefectus]

Nice Meg restoration. You did a great job on the details!

[Nimravis]

Great Job Tony, know one would notice and it works for the purpose that you restored it for.

[Peat Burns]

50 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

Great Job Tony, know one would notice and it works for the purpose that you restored it for.

Thanks, Ralph 

[Peat Burns]

1 hour ago, Praefectus said:

Nice Meg restoration. You did a great job on the details!

Thanks !

[Dinoguy89]

Looks good, you did a nice job

[Ptychodus04]

Well done @Peat Burns. That will present much more effectively than 1/2 a tooth!

[Peat Burns]

1 hour ago, Dinoguy89 said:

Looks good, you did a nice job

 

1 hour ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Well done @Peat Burns. That will present much more effectively than 1/2 a tooth!

Thank you 

[Ptychodus04]

25 minutes ago, Peat Burns said:

 

Thank you 

It’s more like  + @Peat Burns = 

[Peat Burns]

13 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

It’s more like  + @Peat Burns = 

Bahahahahaha!  Very clever! 

 

Or  + ptychodus04 = 

[rebu]

Very good job, well done looking for a tooth myself now and people with your talent scare me  Really well done

[Ludwigia]

@Peat Burns Excellent work, also on Bingo. I'm impressed!! You're right about the color. Sculpting is hard enough, but mixing and matching the color is still a hit or miss thing for me. I have a few casts of my donated finds done by museum preparators and never cease to be amazed at how genuine the color composition looks.

[Darktooth]

@Peat Burns Great job Tony! Looks awesome. I think you matched it well.

[Troodon]

Well done, very jealous of folks than can sculpt and then paint.  

[Pemphix]

Very good job !

 

[Bobby Rico]

@Peat Burns Nice work Tony very nicely sculpted and you can’t fault your colour matching and painting. You got a nice display piece and next up you have to make a stand (realistically and not metaphorically speaking. )

[digit]

Excellent job, Tony!

 

People like you and @fossilized6s who have incredible artistic talents make me.

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Misha]

Really nice work with that tooth!

Highly impressive how that blends in with the fossil itself.

[jcbshark]

That's some excellent work right there Nice job!

[Bronzviking]

I am an Artist and i'm impressed with the texture and color matching you were able to achieve on the meg. What type of sculpting clay and paints do you use? Thank for sharing!

[Peat Burns]

@rebu, @Ludwigia, @Darktooth, @Troodon, @Pemphix, @Bobby Rico, @digit, @Misha, @jcbshark, thank you very much for your kind and humbling comments.  Much appreciated 

[Peat Burns]

2 hours ago, Bronzviking said:

I am an Artist and i'm impressed with the texture and color matching you were able to achieve on the meg. What type of sculpting clay and paints do you use? Thank for sharing!

Thank you very much.  The sculpting material is PaleoSculp, which I love.  Water-soluble prior to hardening.  The pitted root texture was made by using a tooth-brush-sized wire brush with fine, brass bristles, and tapping the bristles lightly against the Palaeosculp prior to hardening.  Doing this at different times during the hardening process achieves slightly different results, which can be useful.  Some of the cracks and linear features were cut-in when the material was still soft.  Others were carved after the material hardened.  Smooth surfaces of the blade were achieved by using a sandpaper series of decreasing grit sizes, ending at around 2000 grit.  Color matching was aided by the use of layers, with more opaque base-layers followed by varying degrees of opacity in subsequent layers, including diluted "washes" as final applications.  For heavily textured areas, I applied a base coat, let it dry, and then used a dry-brush technique to provide the contrast in the "hills and dales" (), so to speak.  To match the enamel shine on the blade, I used clear, satin, aerosol spray out of a can from the Walmart.  I did not apply the aerosol to the actual fossil!  The paints were the cheap acrylic Walmart craft paints that come in the small bottles at the Walmart (about $1 each).  I have used these on everything from fossils to fine art, and they have held-up to 24-hour display lighting as well as indirect sunshine for years.  See pics below.

 

Here is a painting on which I am currently working using the cheap Walmart craft paints (I'm a CHEAP-skate, what can I say .   I prefer to call it "frugal" ). (I am totally guessing here, but I think @minnbuckeye might like the subject matter  )

 

This is a palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of a pre-settlement peatland (before it was destroyed by drainage) based on geographic, bathymetric, and macrofossil data that I did back in 1993 using the same Walmart paints.  I can't detect any fading or deterioration of any kind.  This was sealed with an aerosol artists fixative.

 

 

Here are the paints and the pallete I used for the meg tooth.

 

 

 

 

[Ludwigia]

Great artwork! You obviously have a lot of experience with color.