This is a Tyrannosaurus Rex hatchling figure from The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Before anyone says, yes, I know that the 'Rex' part isn't supposed to be capitalized. I picked him up on eBay for pretty cheap, considering it is 20 years old. The figure is in excellent shape, save for the black marker scribbles on it. When I found it while browsing, it just seemed to say, "Help me." So I'm going to clean him up and over time make him look more movie accurate and give him a sweet diorama base. Today, though, we're just going to do the cast on his leg. I didn't want the cast to figure like it was just part of the figure.
Alright, first thing's first, we gotta wash the figure. Nothing fancy here, just regular ol' soapy hot water. None of the black marker came off from this but that's okay. We still have a clean surface free of any previous oils or whatever to work with. Now let's...hey, wait a second...
A three-fingered Jurassic Park Tyrannosaurus Rex? Not in my damn house. Thankfully, this little guy is made of rubber so we'll just do some cosmetic digit removal with a craft knife.
That's better. Don't worry, little guy. We'll patch those holes up once my modelling putty arrives. Although using the craft knife here gave me an idea. Originally I had just planned on gluing some cheesecloth on top of the cast in thin strips and calling it good but looking at the figure, I wasn't convinced that doing that would give the proper illusion of the bandages being wrapped around the Rex's leg. I cut some pieces out of a folded piece of cheesecloth, trying to make them just a little bit wider than the cast in the sculpt.
Then, I made incisions along the top of the cast where the thigh met the belly as well as the bottom of the cast, between the thigh and the calf...
...and with the help of Scholar, stuffed the pieces in the top one by one, using the end of a pair of scissors. I imagine that if I had a clamp or something, I could've done this part alone but if it means getting it right, I'm fine with an extra set of hands helping out. I only wound up using the first five pieces, which is great because that sixth one would come in handy later.
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| You can already see the difference with just one piece. |
When I tapped my fingers on the cheesecloth, the fabric became a little frayed but honestly, I'm okay with that. It'll give the illusion of weathering, like the cast has been on for awhile and may be starting to break apart like what Sarah Harding wanted.
So remember that left over piece of cheesecloth? Good thing I didn't immediately chuck it out (even if I had, I still have pretty much the whole 3 yards worth of material left in the package) because a little bit of the original cast was still showing through at the bottom corner, so we tucked this piece in, put a drop of glue down, pressed it together, trimmed off some of the excess frayed fabric and BOOM! Baby T. Rex has a new cast.
I'll probably end up trimming some of that fabric encroaching on his knee a bit more but I'm pretty happy with how this little alteration turned out. Depending on how long the modelling putty takes to arrive, part 2 will either be about building up the diorama base or prepping and repainting the Rex himself. Probably the former but you never know. Anyway, let me know your thoughts down below and I hope you enjoyed this first little post because I have another 3 dioramas in the midst of being planned out. Thanks for reading and if you like what you see on this blog, you be sure to nudge that "Follow" button and stay cynical!
-The Cynic
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