Huntonia's Amateur Prep Work

[fossilhunter21]

On 12/10/2021 at 5:34 PM, Huntonia said:

Cleaned up a small possibly enrolled Nephrolenellus last night!

Before, barely peaking out of the matrix:

Scribing timelapse:

 

After scribing, still a little bit of matrix clinging around the glabella, unfortunately the left macropleural spine is nowhere to be found

After landscaping and a little bit of abrasion on the cephalon:

Very nice job on that bug!

 

Looking foward to seeing more of your work.

 

-@fossilhunter21

[Huntonia]

11 hours ago, fossilhunter21 said:

Very nice job on that bug!

 

Looking foward to seeing more of your work.

 

-@fossilhunter21

Thanks! I'm working on a Flexicalymene I'm hoping to have done by Tuesday so stay tuned!

[Huntonia]

I thought for sure I would have this bug finished and posted by Tuesday but here it is late as always.

In my defense I am getting better at estimating the time a prep will take, this one is the trilo's fault!

 

 The other night after finishing up the Nephro I last posted I dug out this small crushed Flexi to work on.

Lots of little cracks and worrisome spots on this guy so the first order of business was to apply some superglue to the scary spots. Then I started up with the abrasive using bicarb. As expected the matrix pealed away nice and easy, these bugs come in very soft stone.

Here's how it looked after a quick initial abrasion session:

Look at the detail on this bug! Very hard to get good pictures of sadly but it looks really nice in person. You can also see the cracking that makes this a nerve-wracking project.

At this point it was getting late so I put it away and figured one more prep session would finish it. I didn't get any work on it done over the weekend but Monday night I got right to work. I scribed out the crushed left pleurae, and cleared some space around the pygidium. Then I switched over to abrasive only to find the last bits of matrix between the axial rings were much harder than everything else. 

 

I find these spots are usually a bit harder than the rest of the matrix but this was the most extreme case I've had. I had been using 15 to 25 PSI for most of the bug without issue, this stuff wouldn't budge even at 50 PSI! Finally I gave up on the bicarb and decided I'd have to use dolomite. So I put it away again and last night took out some dolomite to finish it up, which worked. Although a couple of spots took 40 PSI with pure dolomite to finally get off!

It's not quite as clean as I would have liked, I had to leave some matrix in fragile spots, especially on the bug's left side and around the glabella.

Still covered in pustules, these are very easy to abrade right off.

I'm fairly pleased with how this turned out and it's good to get some practice with less cooperative subjects. I still have a long ways to go but I'm starting to feel more confident in my ability to work around damage and fragility in a specimen.

[fossilhunter21]

Wow! You did a very amazing job on that bug! 

 

Looking foward to seeing more of your preps. 

 

-@fossilhunter21

[Huntonia]

Here's a look at my latest project, my first trilobite prep for 2022! Yet another E rana, just 2 more to go after this one. 

 

Immediately I could tell the pygidium is missing on this bug and the thorax was in less than perfect condition, but the cephalic doublure is nice

Once I got a good start the problems started to become more clear. The first few segments are right where they should be and the rest are punched in.

I wanted to keep this bug on the matrix but it popped off while I was scribing, so I went ahead and cleaned it up as a roller. I'm getting pretty comfortable with Penn Dixie material, really trying to get every last bit of matrix between the segments as I abrade now

This one proved exceptionally difficult to get good photos of for someone with no real experience with photography, so sorry they're not the best pictures. I kept the matrix and made it into a bit of a pedestal, not sure whether I want to glue the bug back on or leave it as a loose roller

[R0b]

I would keep it as it is with a pedestal but not glued to it.

 

I like it

[Kane]

Since it is missing the pygidium already, you may as well leave it on a matrix pedestal, letting its cephalon hang over like you have it here. You might not have to make an irreversible choice about this either if you use just a tiny, inconspicuous bit of wall tack where the bug makes contact with the rock; that way, you can leave it on the pedestal or remove it any time you want!

[fossilhunter21]

Very nice job!

 

-@fossilhunter21

[Huntonia]

15 minutes ago, Kane said:

Since it is missing the pygidium already, you may as well leave it on a matrix pedestal, letting its cephalon hang over like you have it here. You might not have to make an irreversible choice about this either if you use just a tiny, inconspicuous bit of wall tack where the bug makes contact with the rock; that way, you can leave it on the pedestal or remove it any time you want!

That's a great idea! That's just what I need, something that will hold the trilo in place but won't require acetone to remove it, thanks! 

[Diplocaulus]

Wow, great prep job!

[Sjfriend]

Love the eyes. You did a great job of cleaning it up. And I too would leave in on the pedestal but having it removable is a great idea. Like the way it looks standing up like that.

[Huntonia]

15 hours ago, Sjfriend said:

Love the eyes. You did a great job of cleaning it up. And I too would leave in on the pedestal but having it removable is a great idea. Like the way it looks standing up like that.

Thanks! These E rana sure clean up beautifully! I agree, I'm not a big fan of the look of loose rollers, always prefer to leave my bugs on the matrix

[Huntonia]

I've been totally forgetting to post on here 

I have been prepping, sadly not a whole lot. But now school's out for the summer, and I just finished a very successful trilo hunt so there should be lots to come in the next few month.

 

Here's a few projects I've finished since I last posted:

First here's a really small but complete E. rana, had a lot of fun working on this cute little guy, did not have much fun trying to photograph him. I was worried this would be a difficult prep due to the size but it went pretty smoothly. I used abrasive exclusively for this one.

Before:

After (scale in inches):

And a bit of a size comparison with a decent sized complete and a massive cephalon:

[Huntonia]

Next my first Canadian trilo prep! From @MarcusFossils a little cluster of Flexicalymene cf granulosa. This was my test bug and I have a couple complete ones to work on this summer, very excited to see how they go.

Before:

After some quick initial abrasion to get a feel for the material and the bugs before I get too gung-ho:

Then I got really going and didn't take many progress pictures. Almost done:

Finished. I was really impressed with the tiny ventral glabella on the right fixigena of the main cephalon, absolutely love seeing neat little additions appear under the microscope:

Turned out pretty nice I think, I'll put a bit more effort into smoothing the matrix when I work on the completes but this piece just didn't feel worth the extra effort to get those final little scratches out. I feel good about the scribing and abrading on this piece so I'm confident the completes shouldn't give me too much trouble.