# Revell "Snaptite" Jurassic Park T-rex



## PhilipMarlowe

Normally I'd avoid "snaptite" kits like the plague, but I scored a Horizon Jurassic Park T-Rex kit at WF, so I decided to practice airbrushing dinosaur skin patterns on this smaller cheaper kit before tackling it. 

I cut all the locator pins off and glued everything, after a TON of putty work it was ready to paint. The basic sculpt is actually pretty good if you get rid of the "snaptite" gaps. I also ditched the cheesy plastic base for a simple wood one. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and learned a lot. 

Comments and suggestions welcome!


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## djnick66

Thats actually a very nice model (and paint job). I liked the Revell kit because it has a more modern look to the dino itself, but the pose is still a bit old school with the tail down.

The Polar Lights snap dinos are very good too.


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## Auroranut

Looks great! I didn't realise the Monogram T-rex was so well molded. I like the camo!! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Chris.


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## Just Plain Al

Nice paint!! The wooden base is a big improvement.


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## PhilipMarlowe

djnick66 said:


> I liked the Revell kit because it has a more modern look to the dino itself, but the pose is still a bit old school with the tail down.


I didn't notice that at all till you mentioned it, but yep, technically iirc the tail should be held straighter and higher like the Horizon kit. The pose on the RM is very _Gwangi_-ish.


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## Hooty

Looks great to me! I like the simple base idea , too.

Hooty


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## Rebel Rocker

Holy Crap!! That looks GREAT!!

Wayne


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## PhilipMarlowe

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Seriously though, the paint job wasn't that hard to do, this is only my second dinosaur build(not counting the Aurora kits I painted day-glo colors in the seventies!). I pretty much followed the airbrush techniques from the dino section of David Fishers "Modelmania" DVD's. 

1)light brown base on the upper body

2)light tan base on the lower

3)airbrush a wide line of red oxide down the spine, and along both sides where the tan & brown meet

4)airbrush big splotches of olive drab along the spine and patterned areas, and run another set of thinner lines where the brown and tan meet.

5)airbrush smaller black splotches on the olive splotches.

Then you can wash, drybrush, and/or glaze to your hearts content, but that's the basic recipe. It's not hard to duplicate, and you can add an infinite amount of variety in the finish painting.


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## Roy Kirchoff

Nice Job, very dynamic. :dude: 

RK


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## Jodet

That looks fabulous!!! Thanks for the pics, I always love a good dinosaur paint job.


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## James Henderson

Is there a paint guide included with the Horizon Jurassic Park T-Rex? I'd love to see a copy if there is.


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## PhilipMarlowe

James Henderson said:


> Is there a paint guide included with the Horizon Jurassic Park T-Rex? I'd love to see a copy if there is.


There is, pm me your email and I'll try to scan it this weekend.


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## WarpCore Breach

That is a seriously awesome paint job to go along with a great build! :woohoo:

I don't have this kit myself - I do have the Lindberg "Jurassic Park" T-Rex, which is a totally different sculpt and which has been sitting in sub-assembled pieces for quite some time.

I am very impressed with the paint job and once I FIND that T-Rex model again... your pics and paint technique should be adequate inspiration to get it going again!

WELL DONE! :thumbsup:


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## Steven Coffey

Very nice!


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## SUNGOD

Nice job Phillip! I've been thinking about getting this kit for a while as it looks like a good sculpt. In fact, it looks like perhaps the best T Rex kit out there.


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## PhilipMarlowe

SUNGOD said:


> Nice job Phillip! I've been thinking about getting this kit for a while as it looks like a good sculpt. In fact, it looks like perhaps the best T Rex kit out there.


The Horizon JP T-rex was laser-scanned directly off the Stan Winston Studios maquette used as reference for both the CGI and full-scale animatronic T-rex in _Jurassic Park_, imho it's the best sculpt of a T-rex I've ever seen, plus it's HUGE. I'd be curious to hear the opinions of the other T-rex fans!

But for the price, the RM kit is pretty good.


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## jbond

All the Horizon JP kits came with excellent painting guides--probably the best I've seen for this kind of kit and I got great results from them, down to creating extremely realistic eyes for the Velociraptors.


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## PhilipMarlowe

Since several people expressed interest, here's two scans of the Horizon Painting instructions:

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/medium/IMG_00061.jpg


http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/medium/IMG_00072.jpg

These should be large enough for most, if anybody want's the full sized scans send me a PM with your email. And here's a picture of the Horizon parts with the R/M 'Rex, you can get a better idea of the size difference, I figure the Horizon will finish out at approx 28" long!


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## wolfman66

One of my weakness is not being able to paint a dino really good.But sure do like checking the ones you guys build and post on here and PhilipMarlowe that is one Fantastic job ya did on that T-rex:thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## SUNGOD

PhilipMarlowe said:


> The Horizon JP T-rex was laser-scanned directly off the Stan Winston Studios maquette used as reference for both the CGI and full-scale animatronic T-rex in _Jurassic Park_, imho it's the best sculpt of a T-rex I've ever seen, plus it's HUGE. I'd be curious to hear the opinions of the other T-rex fans!
> 
> But for the price, the RM kit is pretty good.




Yes the Horizon T Rex looks like a great sculpt and you could well be right about it being the best sculpt, but I suppose it all depends on whether you prefer vinyl to styrene. I'd go for the Revell one but that's just me.


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## CHowesSculptor

SUNGOD said:


> Nice job Phillip! I've been thinking about getting this kit for a while as it looks like a good sculpt. In fact, it looks like perhaps the best T Rex kit out there.


Thank you, SUNGOD, I'll take that as a compliment! Why on Earth would I do that?  Allow me to explain....

My name is Chris Howes and I'm the sculptor of this kit. I'm also responsible for the Lindberg JP 1 kits and the original JP 1 Kenner action figures. When I created this kit Revell had just bought out the Lindberg Models JP License from Crafthouse, it's parent company. I was the head sculptor at a small model company, Barnum Models, in Maineville, OH, outside of Cincinnati.

We provided both sculptural and mechanical model prototypes to the toy and giftware industries. Anyway, Revell approached us to do this kit since I had done the first set and other Lindberg kits like the ID4 Alien Exoskeleton and Attack ship, Godzilla, etc.

Actually got to speak to Stan Winston briefly about this project since I had to have access to restricted reference material during production. 

I hand sculpted this kit's prototype based on the photographs they provided. I'm afraid I'm something of a snob when it comes to 3D scanning. IMHO you end up with an accurate but soulless piece. It looses something in the process. The SLA process was in it's infancy in those days, so it wasn't even an option.

This was sculpted in it's various pieces with absolutely no undercuts so it could be manufactured using injection molded ABS plastic. I would have much preferred vinyl, but it was Revell, after all. This made it an extraordinarily challenging sculpt.

Excellent build and paint up, PhillipMarlowe! I'm glad you ditched the base. That was cooked up by the boys at Revell. My version was a nice rocky base, but they wanted a crushed vehicle and the result was less than satisfactory. Turns out they didn't like me much at Revell, I wasn't anal enough for them. So help me, they wore pocket protectors and had their pocket scales at the ready when they visited my studio to check on progress. 

There was much consternation and gnashing of teeth when they determined that my T-Rex's tail was, according to their mysterious calculations, 0.01 inches too short.  You would have thought I had sculpted antennae on him there was so much disapproval. These guys were REALLY upset. I kid you not. I just had to laugh, it was so damn silly. Not a human being on Earth would have come to the conclusion that it was too short. I think they made it up because they couldn't stand there not being anything wrong with the sculpt. They had to justify their jobs and the cost of the hotel, assorted meals, the plane tickets to Cincinnati!  To make them happy, I dabbed the end of the tail with a minuscule dollop of sculpting wax. There was a sigh of relief in the room and a palpable easing of tension..... tragedy averted! 

I found this thread while searching for the box cover art to show to some folks who are signed on to a custom 1/6 scale Stan Winston tribute figure project I'm working on. I thought it would be a fun idea to display Mr. Winston along side his T-Rex.

Actually, I've been thinking about sculpting a new and improved T-Rex resin kit for a long time. It would be nice to be able to sculpt it without the restrictions of injection molding in mind and with a much cooler pose. It could be the T-Rex I always wanted this one to be. Hmmmm...... gotta think about this a bit!

Thanks for letting me reminisce! If you'd like to take a look at some of my work from the past 20 years, please visit my website, www.chowes.com.

-Chris Howes


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## mcdougall

Hi Chris and welcome to Hobby Talk...Thanks for posting that humoress story about the lads at Revell quite funny...I see you sculpted the ID4exoskeleton also, cool...I've got a couple stashed away in my 'To Do' pile.
You're idea of sculpting an Ultimate T-Rex has me very interested, although Monster Models is my bag, I used to build Dinosaur models all the time, just ran out of room to display them all...
Welcome aboard :thumbsup:
Mcdee


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## SUNGOD

CHowesSculptor said:


> Thank you, SUNGOD, I'll take that as a compliment! Why on Earth would I do that?  Allow me to explain....
> 
> My name is Chris Howes and I'm the sculptor of this kit. I'm also responsible for the Lindberg JP 1 kits and the original JP 1 Kenner action figures. When I created this kit Revell had just bought out the Lindberg Models JP License from Crafthouse, it's parent company. I was the head sculptor at a small model company, Barnum Models, in Maineville, OH, outside of Cincinnati.
> 
> We provided both sculptural and mechanical model prototypes to the toy and giftware industries. Anyway, Revell approached us to do this kit since I had done the first set and other Lindberg kits like the ID4 Alien Exoskeleton and Attack ship, Godzilla, etc.
> 
> Actually got to speak to Stan Winston briefly about this project since I had to have access to restricted reference material during production.
> 
> I hand sculpted this kit's prototype based on the photographs they provided. I'm afraid I'm something of a snob when it comes to 3D scanning. IMHO you end up with an accurate but soulless piece. It looses something in the process. The SLA process was in it's infancy in those days, so it wasn't even an option.
> 
> This was sculpted in it's various pieces with absolutely no undercuts so it could be manufactured using injection molded ABS plastic. I would have much preferred vinyl, but it was Revell, after all. This made it an extraordinarily challenging sculpt.
> 
> Excellent build and paint up, PhillipMarlowe! I'm glad you ditched the base. That was cooked up by the boys at Revell. My version was a nice rocky base, but they wanted a crushed vehicle and the result was less than satisfactory. Turns out they didn't like me much at Revell, I wasn't anal enough for them. So help me, they wore pocket protectors and had their pocket scales at the ready when they visited my studio to check on progress.
> 
> There was much consternation and gnashing of teeth when they determined that my T-Rex's tail was, according to their mysterious calculations, 0.01 inches too short.  You would have thought I had sculpted antennae on him there was so much disapproval. These guys were REALLY upset. I kid you not. I just had to laugh, it was so damn silly. Not a human being on Earth would have come to the conclusion that it was too short. I think they made it up because they couldn't stand there not being anything wrong with the sculpt. They had to justify their jobs and the cost of the hotel, assorted meals, the plane tickets to Cincinnati!  To make them happy, I dabbed the end of the tail with a minuscule dollop of sculpting wax. There was a sigh of relief in the room and a palpable easing of tension..... tragedy averted!
> 
> I found this thread while searching for the box cover art to show to some folks who are signed on to a custom 1/6 scale Stan Winston tribute figure project I'm working on. I thought it would be a fun idea to display Mr. Winston along side his T-Rex.
> 
> Actually, I've been thinking about sculpting a new and improved T-Rex resin kit for a long time. It would be nice to be able to sculpt it without the restrictions of injection molding in mind and with a much cooler pose. It could be the T-Rex I always wanted this one to be. Hmmmm...... gotta think about this a bit!
> 
> Thanks for letting me reminisce! If you'd like to take a look at some of my work from the past 20 years, please visit my website, www.chowes.com.
> 
> -Chris Howes



A big welcome from me too Chris! Interesting to read your comments and even though I don't yet own the Revell kit it looks to me like you've captured the likeness spot on (must get it in the new year), and interesting to hear you did the JP1 kits for Lindberg too plus others like ID4 and figures for Kenner. Had to laugh about your comments on Revell and the tail. I think the term justifying their jobs sounds spot on. Very nice site and work too!


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## MonsterModelMan

PhilipMarlowe,
I think you did a GREAT job on the dino! I especially like the job you did around the eyes! That is always the area that I lookto first and it turned out GREAT!

Welcome to the BB Chris! Nice job sculpting this bad boy!

MMM


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## Dr. Brad

Nice work - especially agree with your choice to ditch the base....


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## PhilipMarlowe

CHowesSculptor said:


> I hand sculpted this kit's prototype based on the photographs they provided. I'm afraid I'm something of a snob when it comes to 3D scanning. IMHO you end up with an accurate but soulless piece. It looses something in the process. The SLA process was in it's infancy in those days, so it wasn't even an option.
> 
> 
> Excellent build and paint up, PhillipMarlowe! I'm glad you ditched the base.


That's interesting (and impressive) you sculpted it by hand, in some ways I prefer the sculpt of the head even over the Horizon, which was of course scanned.

Thanks for the kind words, and if you do produce another T-rex kit, please make sure to let us know!


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## CHowesSculptor

PhilipMarlowe said:


> That's interesting (and impressive) you sculpted it by hand, in some ways I prefer the sculpt of the head even over the Horizon, which was of course scanned.
> 
> Thanks for the kind words, and if you do produce another T-rex kit, please make sure to let us know!


I'm glad you like him! I hope you don't mind, but I showed off your T-Rex on Sideshow Freaks Forum (and gave you credit  ) to show the potential for the display I have in mind for my Stan Winston figure.

The more I think about it, the more I'm sure there is another T-Rex in my future schedule. At one time I was supposed to create a set of fighting T-Rexes for the Carnegie Museums of Natural History's new exhibit, but that fell through, unfortunately. I still think a kit of 2 T-Rexes fighting would be a lot of fun.


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## Scheisseler

CHowesSculptor said:


> I still think a kit of 2 T-Rexes fighting would be a lot of fun.


There's also something to be said for a kit of a T-Rex fighting a giant gorilla who's, say, carrying a woman with blond hair in one of his paws. You know, just in case you have nothing better to do.


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## CHowesSculptor

Scheisseler said:


> There's also something to be said for a kit of a T-Rex fighting a giant gorilla who's, say, carrying a woman with blond hair in one of his paws. You know, just in case you have nothing better to do.



I'll keep that in mind!  Faye Wray will have to be awfully small, though.

Funny you should mention that, I was just thinking about some possible projects and I had the idea of an Edgar Rice Borroughs/Frazetta/Pulp Magazine style savage gorilla carrying off a woman..... not quite Kong, but leaning in that direction.... shrink the girl and add a dino!


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## Mitchellmania

Awesome build up and great to hear from the sculptor! I had a great time building this kit years ago!!


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## Zombie_61

CHowesSculptor said:


> Faye Wray will have to be awfully small, though.


Well, she _was_ only 5'3" tall... 



CHowesSculptor said:


> ...I was just thinking about some possible projects and I had the idea of an Edgar Rice Borroughs/Frazetta/Pulp Magazine style savage gorilla carrying off a woman..... not quite Kong, but leaning in that direction.... shrink the girl and add a dino!


I think both would be very well received, especially in this community.


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## Gillmen

A very cool kit! Love the earth tones used on him.


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## veedubb67

PhilipMarlowe said:


> Seriously though, the paint job wasn't that hard to do, this is only my second dinosaur build(not counting the Aurora kits I painted day-glo colors in the seventies!). I pretty much followed the airbrush techniques from the dino section of David Fishers "Modelmania" DVD's.


Which one? I have all 5 and I can't recall a dino painting demo.

Rob
Iwata Padawan


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## PhilipMarlowe

veedubb67 said:


> Which one? I have all 5 and I can't recall a dino painting demo.
> 
> Rob
> Iwata Padawan



He airbrushes a big Raptor vinyl kit, I'm pretty sure it's in part 2 during the basic airbrush techniques section. But it's definately there.

And sorry for the late reply!


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## veedubb67

Thanks. Guess I'll have to break them out and look!

Rob
Iwata Padawan


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