TONMO member Sordes has made some excellent clay models of nautiloids. Can't wait to see them painted!

Picture 1:

Several models of nautiloids I made some days ago. The inspiring examples for them were Endoceras, Orthoceras and Cyrtoceras. Stupidly the small details are very hard to see because the sculpting mass is very bright and reflects too much light when it's photographed.

Picture 2:

"Front view of the Nautiloid models"

Well I think they are brilliant! Well done Sordes!

Very nice models! :cool:
wonderful detail!
:notworth: :notworth: :notworth:

Thank you very much!
They look still a bit boring in this unpainted version, perhaps I´ll make casts of them and that´s better when they´re still unpainted. I have plans to make some other models with mini-dioramas (similar to those of the Endoceras-model from Jeff Johnson) when I have more time.
By the way, they are like the Mesonychoteuthis and Dosidicus-model made of Fimo, a Sculpey-like modelling mass.

Im impressed nice detail!8-) :smile:

Here are some excellent photos of two views of a model complete with lovely bases with sponges.

Top stuff Markus, these are going to look amazing painted.

Thank you for posting the pictures Phil!

In fact the base with the corals and sponges was much more work than the nautiloid itself. If I find the time I´ll make bases for the other nautiloids too, and very probably other nautiloid models.

Sordes, your work is beautiful. You're reminding me that I need to get back to work on my own projects.

very cool....what type of materials are you using?

All my models are made of Fimo, the german Version of Sculpey.

Here are some photos of my new Nautiloid model. It has a length of about 25cm. Total working time was about 6hours+. The photos doesn´t show it, but it has even a very complex radula in its jaws.

If anybody want, I can also post a "making-off" of this model.

Excellent model Sordes !! 8-)

It would be nice to see how it was made. 8-)

Here are several pictures from the sculpting-progress. At first I took a piece of wire and added some tin foil. Than I sculpted the shell and added surface-details before I hardened it. Then I scuplted the radula, baked it and aded the jaws to bake it again. The now hard jaw was attached to the head.

The next step was the sculpting of the tentacles, which was much work because I had to add all the surface details at the inside and the outside. After that I attached the tentacles, sculpted the eyes, the siphon and at last the surface details of the rest of the head before it came in the oven. The last step was the sculpting of the cap on the head, which can be seen on the first pictures I uploaded.

Wow...amazing! Please make casts of them! I would buy one of each of the finished models!!!!! They look stunningly lifelike.

Thank you Sordes, that is very informative. Keep up the good work. :notworth: :notworth:

Just a small anachronistic "diorama" showing the giant orthocone feasting on a tasty little Cladoselache (which fits perfectly between the tentacles).

I finally managed to paint one of the first three models I sculpted. It is not very nice I think, but perhaps it will interest some of you:
http://bestiarium.kryptozoologie.net/?p=184

Sir,

You are a genius! That orthocone looks absolutely fantastic in that diorama. You've painted it very well indeed. Love it.

By the way, some time ago Kevin posted some amazing information about patternation on these ancient nautiloids. I believe some incredibly preserved specimens have tracing of a zig-zag pattern on the shell as illustrated in some old engravings. I'm not sure where the old thread is, but it would be very interesting to see the images again. I wonder if that patternation has survived recent scientific scrutiny?

Please post the images of your painted models here too!

Hallo Phil, thank you very much for this compliments! I have also already read somewhere about the preserved colour pattern, which show brown or brown-reddish colours and those denticulated patterns. I have a book with wonderful illustrations by Burian (one of the best paleo-illustrators of all times) which shows some of the nautiloids with such patterns and colours.
If I would make the model again, I wouldn´t make such bulbous eyes (I have no idea why I did this) and would make it more like the last big model. But for the big model I needed 7 hours or so, and for this small painted model I needed only a half hour to sculpt it. I would also sculpt it without nautilus-eyes, and probably without a hood. The big model would surely look ways better than this one if I would paint it, but I would never use water colours, but only airbrush, what I don´t have.
Here are again the pictures from my blog, I made also two uploads in the gallery. The two upper pictures show how I photographed it in front of a book about prehistoric marine life, the one left below shows it painted but still without finish, and the one right below shows it with finish on the base.

Der Meister :smile:

Have you acquired an airbrush yet for the giant orthocone? Can't wait to see you tackle that with the same rigeur,

Brilliant stuff, Sordes.

PS: Burian was the one whose work truly introduced me to paleontology in the first place, after having been lured into a mesozoic dreamworld as a mere toddler by a mirrored print of the great Yale Peabody mural by Zallinger, "The Age of reptiles".

I still think it looks "wrong" printed right :wink:

Thank you very much for the compliments! I still have no airbrush, and in fact I have no idea when I will buy such a system. I could use it very well for all the other models I made, because water colous are really not good to paint on sculpey.
The book "The age of reptiles" is really a great book, there are also several photos from the exhibition of the paleontological institute of Tübingen, where I photographed already many fossil cephalopods.

Fantastic, That is a very Beautiful model Sordes. :notworth::notworth:

I made again another model of an orthocone nautiloid. It was especially made for being comparably easily reproducable. I made it with another more "modern" design, with a plain skink and eyes more similar to modern squid, and more elongated, what made it much more elegant. I also made no highly structured hood like those of nautilus and my former models, but with a comparably plain hood. This makes the unpainted model still comparably boring looking. With colours it will look much nicer and more interesting. It is always a bit difficult if you have to sculpt a very smooth surface, because it looks not very interesting. When I sculpt whales, I always try to add some scars (like on this model of Baird´s beaked whale: http://bestiarium.kryptozoologie.net/artikel/blainville-schnabelwal-mesoplodon-densirostris/ ), but this doesn´t work on cephalopods...But I made a structured surface of the shell, and a fine inner structure of the tentacles, which can not be seen at the photos.
I will make molds of them in the next future to cast them in tin. Would anyone be interested in a cast of this sculpture? I will also probably add a base with a sea bottom. I am also currently working on a much more complex sculpture of a nautiloid which is with the tentacles attached at the sea bottom-base, similar to the one of Jeff Johnson.

That beaked whale is so well rendered, but your take on the orthocone has gotten me seriously interested into understanding its actual appearance, way back in the early days... before the dark times, before the Empire...

Okay I did it again...already some time ago. I scupted my first real mini-diorama with a nautiloid. As all the other models it looks boring at this unpainted stage, but I could imagine it could look well if I once manage to paint it. It was also a lot of fun to sculpt the base with all the little details. Here are some photos:

Not boring at all Sordes:notworth: Very nice detail!

Excellent work. You just get better and better at these! That shell looks really nice, even and smooth, I expect that must have been quite hard to do.

Fantastic job, well done again.

Thanks for your compliments! In fact the shell is not completely plain as those of the other models too. I could make it completely smooth, but it looks much more interesting if it is a little "eroded", what looks much more natural. Something what was really hard was the arrangement of the tentacles, especially because some broke off during the first time in the oven and the attaching of the new sculpted ones was really not easy. Furthermore there were some problems with the flexibility of the unhardened tentacles, so there is still a gap between them and the ground on some regions. My idea was to sculpt it like it would be directly on the ground, similar to an octopus.

Sordes,
Do you know if the sculpty will hold up if kept in water? Your modeling has given me an inspiration to try to make something I can't find but I have never worked with the clay (not much with any clay really) and I want to use it for a fountain base.

Such polymer clay is like plastic when baked, it has nothing to do with real clay. It should normally work if you keep it in water. But keep in mind that this stuff is not very cheap, so I would not make big things with it.

I'd be more worried that sculpey might leach dangerous chemicals into the water. When I tried fimo and sculpey a few years ago, I was told that the better one was also sort of toxic when soft. Google leads to some claims that both are non-toxic but at least one claim that when baking, or if baked at too high a temp, it releases toxic fumes...

These guys don't seem to know either: http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?=&p=1155730

I'm just worried about Roy's reports that using soda bottles to take octos on airplanes turned out to have some lethal water-quality problems... but of course people have put random plastic toys into octo tanks a lot without problems...

Nice!!!

I've had a few goes with sculpey models and casting...It's a lot of fun!
Your work looks GREAT!!!

Monty, Thanks for the aspect but I want to make an octopus for a fountain, not put it in a TANK :grin: (I have enough live ones at the moment thank you). A friend made a ceramic bowl base that I bought but just could not make an octo for the center fountain part. I have looked for something to drill out but thought I might try my hand a making one myself so that the water could come out of the siphon :tongue: It might be a total flop but the sculpty sounded like something that might work since it ends up like plastic and they have several with a little texture and color.

As an asside, one of the discussers on the polymer in a tank forum from your direction mentions that somethings are not marked aquarium safe for over precaution. In the dialog he mentions silicone. I KNOW THERE IS A DIFFERENCE in silicone that is marked aquarium safe (it is vinegar based) and most of those not marked that way (ammonia based). The difference killed an experiment I was doing with feeding polyps (the tank divided with the non-aquarium safe silicone killed its inhabitants). Cure time may nullify the effects but I will never buy silicone that is not marked as vinegar based (or aquarium safe) again so that it is not even in the house for accidental use.


Sordes,
How big is big? I was thinking about something softball sized but not solid (hollow in the middle for the pump - one of my main problems with finding something ready made).

What is big? I would say softball-sized is very big, because this is a whole lot of material, but it is still in a comparably economic range. Okay, you can spare material by using tin-foil or other stuff as I made it for my giant nautiloid. If I wanted to make a really big and water-resistent scultpure I would use real clay and burn it, but for softball-size sculpey should work. For the more volulous parts just take tin-foil and you can safe about 20-40% material.
BTW, yesterday I made the first tin cast of one of my models. There were some problems and it is not as professional as a buyed model, but it looks still very fine. If I make a smaller nautiloid sculpture with which I am happy I can cast it too. At the moment I´m working on a small dragon for a necklet.

JimmyTheKid what medium did you use for your casts?

In my humble opinion.. I wouldnt chance anything foreign in my tank! :) And the 'real' octopus should be enough of a amazement! lol

JMHO

Kirk :)

well i was so motivated by your sculptures that i decided to try to make one myself. I wanted to do something easy so i attempted to make a Beluga whale. I did as much as i could but it still looks like a mix between a duck and a dolphin, haha. Anyways i'll show you what it looks like when i'm done. I'm not expecting it to look much like a Beluga at all since its my first try at working with clay but at least its fun..

kirk,
I think you missed my post! The questions about keeping the material in water are for a living room fountain, not an aquarium!

WOW! :shock:

Sordes, I just posted a new thread asking for advice about just what you have sculpted. And I posted a picture of your finished nautiloid that I found online yesterday.

Very nice! I hope mine turns out as well.

-Leelan

Modelnut, I THOUGHT that was one of Sordes when I saw the post ;>)

If I find time I will again sculpt a new nautiloid, but with another look, most probably witout any hood, and probably withouit a structured skin, and also without nautilus eyes. I am still not really happy with my models, and I am still trying to make one, which would be good enough to make casts of it (this seems to be impossible for the Cameroceras I sculpted). Yesterday I finished a miniature of a critter which looks a bit like a mix between the swamp slug of Dagobah and one of the Tremors-monsters. But sculpting a C´thulhu-bust or a moon-beast would be very cool too...damn, too much ideas and much too less time.

Here are some photos of little sculptures I made. All my cephalopods, a "clash of the titans" between Mesonychoteuthis and Cameroceras, some whales (Mesoplodon densirostris, Janjucetus hunderi, Prozeuglodon, Odobenocetops and a hypothetical double-tusked narwhale-ancestor) and some little critters, including the famous tasmanian globster, which was only a rotten piece of sperm whale tissue and the little slug-monster I sculpted yesterday:

IMPRESSIVE! :shock:

I have a long way to go to catch up with you, my friend.

I have only taken three sculptures to completion. I have too many ideas and not enough room . . . :roll:

-Leelan

Your models are really fantastic, especially the whale-squid. If there would be casts of them for sale, I suppose I would buy them (or try to copy them myself...). There is really not much more you could do better. I would love it if I could made myselft to finally sculpt finally again something like the giant orthcone, and not only things which are not bigger than my fingers. I especially like that you paint your models. I was always to lazy and have painted only a handfull of my models, and I have to say in a very ugly way.