Grabbing this lovely T-Rex and a sprue of ten 25mm square bases, I set about making a cool transport solution for some dwarves!
I started by gluing four bases together and attaching the dinosaur. Next, I coated the base with a lovely layer of sand.
Moving to the platform, I again glued four more bases together and then carved a wooden plank pattern into them. I then added some railings by trimming and shaping lengths of sprue.
Attaching four supports to the underside of the platform, I glued the whole thing to the back of the T-Rex. With the last two bases, I shaped them so that they would fit nicely over the supports, bulking them out a little.
After this, I only had a few seemingly unusable offcuts left. So I decided to make some sprue goo out of them. I popped them into a pot of acetone and left them to disolve for a while.
Once gooey enough, I rolled the mixture out into a thin slab. When almost dry, I cut a small length and attached it to both sides of the structure to form a girth (a big belt!). With the remaining plastic, I draped it over the front of the platform. This, I’ve decided, could act as a fabric banner, so I’ll paint it accordingly.
Painting
As I’ve said before, I’m not a very good painter, nor do I get as much enjoyment as others do. I really like the crafting and creation side of the hobby more. So with this in mind, I kept the paint scheme nice and simple by priming the whole model in grey and gently dry brushing all of the highlights. With a few strategic placements of black wash, the dino was done. As for the platform, I painted the wooden / metal parts and then went for a stripy effect on the fabric (just to add some colour).
I’m really happy with the result of this little project. And the good news is that I have a few more ideas of how I can add stuff to it in the future!
Here’s another dinosaur project you may have missed?: Napoleonic Cavalry – Dinosaur Edition – Use The Sprue