Hell creek rib restoration question

[Alex S.]

Hey everyone I am preparing a rib from the Hell Creek formation it isn't in the greatest of shape and I still had a long way to go but wanted to start thinking about maybe trying restoration for the first time and wondering what you guys recommend. Here is the startand here is where I'm at right nowwith the right side there will need to be some fill to the missing bone. My question is though with the degree of curve on the right end do you think I'm close to the head and should try reconstructing the head? I could be looking at the curve wrong too and just have the bottom of the rib, either way though is there any method you guys use in reconstruction to get the bone texture? Thanks for the help I'll continue updating this as I get further into prepping it.

[Ptychodus04]

I'd say you are very close to the rib head. Cool specimen.

 

I use Apoxie Sculpt for my restoration projects. It comes in a variety of colors and can be tinted with dry pigments for custom applications. Paleo Sculpt is also a good product. They have a "Hell Creek" brown that matches most of these bones pretty well out of the jar.

[hadrosauridae]

It looks like you have probably 90+ percent of the form of the head.  Yes, you are missing a lot of outer material of the head, but the look of the curve, I'd say you have the basis to reconstruct off of.  Now, the first problem comes from, which animal rib you believe it to be, and which rib in the sequence.  The rib head shape changes from a simple curve, to a curve with flare and a process coming off it.  Spend a few hours looking at pictures of trike and ducky ribs. See if you can find a comparable match to your shape and size.

 

Reconstruction is not my forte.  Getting the total shape (overall, front, back, flares, ridges, etc) and the texturing takes more artistic talent then I possess.  You also have to decide if you want to blend the color to look natural, or use a contrasting color putty to give the complete look but make the original / reconstruction obvious.   

 

I would definitely use some epoxy putty to fill the cracks in the body of the rib, just for the strength and peace of mind.  MAke sure you are using a lot of Butvar/Paraloid as this looks very heavily fractured and will have a lot of micro cracks you cant see.

 

 

Edited March 15 by hadrosauridae

[Alex S.]

Thank you @Ptychodus04and @hadrosauridae I have some paleosculpt in hell creek brown that I use to crack fill and was going to try sculpting with that. I've never tried reconstruction so I figured I'd give it a go. I've had my mind on positioning and I'm still trying to work it out  my first thought is near the dorsal rib 15 on a trike for example just to to how narrow the distal end is. But I need to look at size. It's 43cm so I don't know if that matches yet. Thanks for the help I will keep you updated! I have a lot of rib chunks so I might try texturing with that.

[hadrosauridae]

Get some non-drying, plasticine modelling clay for practice.  If your rib is well coated in consolidant the wax in the clay wont affect it, but if youre worried, you can always just not have it physically touch the fossil.  But it will give you a chance to practice forming and texturing, as well as give you a total volume needed for measuring out they paleosculpt when youre ready for the final work.

[Alex S.]

That's smart that's @hadrosauridaeI will do that

[Alex S.]

Update: it was not a productive weekend for reading papers for my upcoming exams but it was a productive weekend in prepping my rib I have most of it air abraded and put back together and then some of the crack fill done. I put a small bit of epoxy clay in the center as a scaffold and have some modeling clay coming in tomorrow. From looking at some ribs I feel like this hadrosaur dorsal rib  seems like a good match.

[Alex S.]

Here is an update I got the clay in and have done some rough modeling of how I think the shape will go.

[jpc]

nice reconstruction work.  

Where did you get the photo of hadrosaur ribs?

 

[Alex S.]

@jpcthanks for reminding me I totally forgot to cite it. It was from one of Frank's old posts but the photo credit goes to David Evans in the book Hadrosaurs. It's a zoomed in pictures of E. Regalis in cage.

[Alex S.]

Update: I have formed the rib head. Overall I'm fairly pleased with the shape of it

If I did it again I think I'd build the ventral side up a bit more to make the intercostal groove more pronounced the epoxy clay was a lot more malleable then the modeling clay and it was hard to get the shape just right. It flattened a little bit on my rice bag as it was setting as well. For the fill I used some weathered chunkers

and some clay modeling tops to try and get the texture right and that worked pretty well. Here is the rib pieced together to see if I got the curve right.

Now I just need to do some painting to make it match the head a little better. I am absolutely terrible at painting and might see if my wife (who is much more talented than I) is willing to give it a go. Any feedback or methods those of you who restore use would by greatly appreciated. 

[hadrosauridae]

Bravo!  You did a great job on it!

[Alex S.]

Thanks @hadrosauridae in the future I think I'll build up the general shape a lot more than I did and hopefully that would make it a lot easier to work with. 

[Alex S.]

Finished!

I'll start with saying of all the arts I'm bad at painting so going into it I really just wanted to highlight the texture, that being said I still think it turned out good. 

all in all I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out it is obviously restored but I think it helped a lot from the base clay. All in all it was a great learning experience thanks for tagging along!

[Doctor Mud]

Looks great! Much nicer to look at, and close enough to the original color to look good, but different enough to show what is original and what is restored 

[Alex S.]

Thank you @Doctor Mud! I agree it was a good experience.

 

[jpc]

For the next one, you could use a wet sponge or something to lightly texture your reconstruction.  Just a thought, not a criticism.    

[Alex S.]

Thank you @jpc! All thoughts and criticisms are welcome here your right that would add a lot of visual appeal. Do you normally use sponges with a lot of open pores or a more tightly closed sponge?

[hadrosauridae]

1 hour ago, jpc said:

For the next one, you could use a wet sponge or something to lightly texture your reconstruction.  Just a thought, not a criticism.    

 

Will a sponge texture paleosculpt?  Its pretty dense to mold and I've used hard tools to texture in the past.  I never tried a sponge, so I may be missing out on a simple technique.

[jpc]

On 3/29/2024 at 11:42 AM, hadrosauridae said:

 

Will a sponge texture paleosculpt?  Its pretty dense to mold and I've used hard tools to texture in the past.  I never tried a sponge, so I may be missing out on a simple technique.

Yes... worth experimenting with.  A dry sponge might be best.  Dragging it along the surface, or imprinting texture onto the stuff by gently pressing.  Lots to play with....

[Alex S.]

I think it's worth a go I could also use a thicker paint and texture with a sponge x as well to provide a more weathered look.