Need help with Orthocone sculpture

**tonmo** · Dec 04, '11, 12:17pm

Great! Added this to the front page slideshow. Thanks for sharing!

**Cuddlycuttlefsh** · Dec 10, '11, 4:51pm

I'm not sure how I even got here,or even got to the video. But when I've never seen this considering I don't type in spanish. But this is cool.

Kinda looks like what your making here, excluding the size :p

**Terri** · Dec 10, '11, 10:42pm

Wow, that is cool, thanks for sharing!

**modelnut** · Dec 11, '11, 11:55am

CC,

That's the one. Though my DVD is in English thankfully.

Here is another video with the only other images I have been able to find:

I am almost ready to start painting. I had to do some surgery a few days ago to bring my beast nearer to being anatomically correct if there is such a thing for a beast that only comes down to us in shell fragments.

- Leelan

**modelnut** · Dec 11, '11, 8:44pm

A couple pictures of the surgery. I hollowed out a space for the siphon and the "bellows" part of the mantle.

First layer of paint, stippled black.

Followed by white and deep red.

And that is enough for today.

- Leelan

**tonmo** · Dec 12, '11, 6:27pm

Looks great!!

**Cuddlycuttlefsh** · Dec 12, '11, 9:12pm

Same here

Keep up with the killer sculpture!

**modelnut** · Dec 13, '11, 7:37pm

I may change the color scheme a bit I am thinking. I like this image even though I didn't sculpt it. Ten arms are much easier than twenty-four don't you think?

We will see tomorrow. My day off. Lots of time for painting.

- Leelan

**Architeuthoceras** · Dec 13, '11, 8:49pm

Originally Posted by modelnut

Ten arms are much easier than twenty-four don't you think?

And probably more accurate.

If you want something hard... Try one of these color patterns for the shell, the pinstripe in B looks cool.

**modelnut** · Dec 14, '11, 6:32am

Geez. That looks way too intricate for my nervous hands to paint. Perhaps if someone made a pattern in a decal . . .

Na. I will try for a nautilus paint job. That won't be too inaccurate will it? Are there specific fossilized patterns for Cameroceras?

- Leelan

**modelnut** · Dec 14, '11, 7:11pm

Getting there.

- Leelan

**Cuddlycuttlefsh** · Dec 14, '11, 7:34pm

Personally, In my opinion. When it comes to making nice, smooth, perfect textures like the shell. I think decepting organic structures are so much more easier. You don't have to be perfect.

**Architeuthoceras** · Dec 14, '11, 11:07pm

Looking good

**modelnut** · Dec 20, '11, 1:30pm

OK. I need a little help with my base. I've researched lots of images online and can find nothing definitive on coral or much of anything else. Can you help me? I don't want to be too anachronistic in what I put in the background. But I don't want it to be boring either.

-Leelan

P.S. I have lost the thread that had this diorama: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEA-CREATURE...49102897385056 It is too big but might stir the grey cells.

**modelnut** · Dec 20, '11, 5:54pm

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e9...ne/Base01a.jpg

Here is the base so far. There are several starfish on it. They are made from macaroni. Sanded thin and painted blue and red. The sponges are made of Magic Sculpt. The red coral is the top of an aquarium plant. The blue table coral is made of index card glued into shallow cones. I painted them with CA glue and sprinkled salt on it to give it coral-like detail.

The blue table coral I am not sure about. It might not have evolved yet. But I can find nothing "Aye" or "Nay" online.

Friends in my local modeling group say that the base is good as it is. But I think it looks a little empty. I know it should not attract attention away from the main model. But even a small section of reef is not so sparsely populated even in the Ordovician I am thinking.

Any thoughts or advice?

- Leelan

**Cuddlycuttlefsh** · Dec 20, '11, 6:03pm

Not sure if it is blend-able to smash green plants with coral, but this picture might give an idea.
Oh and maybe some shells? It's up to you.

Click image for larger version.

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**modelnut** · Dec 20, '11, 6:36pm

Thanks, CC,

I've had that picture for years now. Some of those details are a little hard to reproduce in 35th scale. I can do the brain coral. The cone anemones are too small though. I have no idea how I might model crinoids that small. I though about gluing tiny flowers on top of dressed wire but I don't know if that will work. The thought of doing teeny tiny bivalves --- ? It gives me the shakes just thinking about it.

What I need to know are specifically what type of coral existed in the Ordovician and Silurian ages. Then I could ease my mind on that detail anyway.

- Leelan

**modelnut** · Dec 20, '11, 6:42pm

Click image for larger version.

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This is another good one.

The thing is that the base shouldn't be so busy as to attract attention away from the Orthocone. It is a delicate balance. I am trying for verisimilitude, truth in my display.

- Leelan

**Architeuthoceras** · Dec 20, '11, 8:41pm

Horn Coral and Horn Coral

**modelnut** · Dec 20, '11, 9:44pm

Surely horn coral is not all that there was? Many of these period displays or dioramas show something that looks like brain coral. Maybe the formations don't have the "brain" convolutions but they look to be the same size and shape.

Can you say that there was no table coral then? I can't find anything that says what variety of coral existed then. Except the horn coral you mentioned.

- Leelan