Saturday, October 12, 2013

DinoSkulls

The Indiegogo campaign has come to an end. The perks and goodies have been mailed, and the money transfer has been "initiated." The Paypal donations have already cleared and that is what I purchased the perks, the cases, and paid for the shipping with. There was enough to put in a quick order for a few pieces before they disappeared. The Carnotaurus was discontinued with only 3 left in stock, so I wanted to act quickly. They also offer damaged skulls for a fraction (about 1/3) of the regular price. So, I ordered one of each that they offered. At most it would just be a little gluing. I will highlight the first shipment for the Paleo Porch Mini Mobile Museum:

The package as it was delivered. Well packed, I might add. 


Three boxes=3 skulls


Opening the Carnotaurus first


These are really high quality replicas. 


Scaled down for super-easy transport


They even come with very nice little stands with their names and scale size on it: 


Here is where the fun begins: How badly would these be damaged? They didn't say:


The deinonychus was missing a few (4) teeth, as you can see, and was now a two piece. 


I learned about Duco cement at University taking my Archaeology course. This stuff is fantastic for nearly any type of medium you need to reattach and it works brilliantly on resin. 

 

The jaws, being good little levers were heavier on the end so I had to employ a bit of spacering and rubberbanding. 



The Brachiosaurus was another story. The jaw was separated from the skull, just as the deinonychus was, only it was missing many, many more teeth. Both from the lower jaw:


and the upper: 


This actually let me realize just how good these casts are. Brachiosaur teeth are notably described as "peg-like" or "pencil-like" and these are. All of them. But, they each have the flattened wedge shape on the inside. That made it only a little easier. 


Also, the don't simply get smaller from the front back. They vary in size all along the tooth row. 
There was a lot of checking and double checking. 

Some progress:

Upper was a bit easier, or that is to say went quicker. 


I am still not 100% certain they are all in the correct "sockets" but they look pretty good


Required the same advanced techniques for holding things together . It was here I realized there is a great opportunity to market DragonSkull shoes. They would still look better than crocs


Once all the teeth were in and the jaws were rigged into place
 it was just a matter of the Duco setting up. Total time to get 
 to this point about 2 and a half hours. 




With the jaws being so heavy on the ends and needing pressure in all the right places, I was worried that the Duco might not make it. Shouldn't have worried though, once the bands and spacers were in the right places it was just a matter of time. Now that the Duco has completely cured, the glued joints are stronger than the regular resin pieces. 



 They may have come out of the boxes completely different, a few hours of work and dry time, there isn't that much difference in the finished products. And now you have the first three skulls in the Paleo Porch collections. These three and a few teeth and claws will be at the Pioneer library meeting this Thursday and Friday to potentially negotiate workshops at all 10 libraries in their system during summer vacation. I think it is a fitting sample of what the Paleo Porch Mini Mobile Museum will have to offer 


More to come as I work with retailers to get more bang for buck. I will update as new orders arrive and new workshops get planned, check back here for more updates!