Three Ceratops
Posted: 10. 02. 2022.

I was super into dinos back in kindergarden, and then again for a while in elementary school - when the BBC Walking With Dinosaurs series aired on TV. Totally forgot about them since. But when I visited a flea market last summer looking for cheap toys to raid for parts, I picked up this toy trike. It rekindled that old fascination, and now I have six of them... First three have been turned into tabletop miniatures, and I'm gonna write about them in this post.

The sculpt of this toy is quite nice, including texture and other detail. The material is a bit bendy, as plastic dinosaurs tend to be, but since it's a chunky creature there is no fear a thin part will bend and crack the paint. The original paintjob was really basic, but that was of zero importance since I was gonna repaint it anyway. I have no idea of the manufacturer; as a loose second hand flea market buy it didn't come with any tag or box.
It was cleaned and spray primed, and then painted mainly with a series of acrylic washes and glazes. Last I was into dinos they weren't represented as very colourful in the artwork. I had a quick browse through contemporary paleoart, and there are some rad, vibrant colour schemes these days. I opted for this black/white stripe scheme for my creature.


Then around Christmas I found myself in the toy section of a local department store. They had a great bargain on a range of glow in the dark dino skeletons, and I picked up the triceratops out of curiosity. Turned out to be such a fantastic little toy! I would have loved it as a kid. Firm transparent plastic, comes in pieces requiring assembly (no glue), and once put together it has movable legs, head, and jaw. I can confirm it is indeed "very interesting" and "noctilucent" as it says on its (rather shiny and attractive) packaging. I later went back and bought another pair of trikes, a stegosaurus and a spinosaurus, because I got a few ideas.

The assorted skeletons could be cut up into smaller parts and painted as old bone, so I could represent a dinosaur graveyard on my tabletop and photos. And a full triceratops skelly can be made, as an undead monstrosity for my fantasy games. If I was a necromancer, I'd totally raise some dinosaur remains for my shambling army...

The parts needed some prep, however. Pegs and holes on the bones for the bone pile were removed and filled with putty, and the smooth surface of the toy was lightly sanded, so it could take primer better. I actually converted my ceratops skeleton a bit. If you look at it more carefully you'll notice it has one too many pairs of shoulderblades. That's because I replaced its original front legs with legs from the Stegosaurus. The new legs gave it a nicer pose and stature, and since it's a necromantic creation I can live with this little anatomical fail. Removing the original shoulderblades would have meant rebuilding a lot of its ribcage from scratch with wire and putty, and that's more than I was prepared to invest in this case. I glued the legs in place, but left the head and jaw articulated so I can change the pose of them whenever I like.

After the primer, the bones were basecoated and highlighted with acrylics, using a sponge. Then I applied an oil wash (thinned Mig Oilbrusher 'Starship Bay Sludge', which is pretty much burnt umber). I finished it off with a few spot highlights with a brush and sealed everything with Citadel's Munitorum Varnish.




I'm super happy with the results, and they look amazing when set up in my miniature forest.

The last of the three is the spectral Ceratops. This one is straight out of the box; I only glued its limbs in place. I was happy to find plastic glue works on this plastic! Superglue fogging would have been a potential issue, since this is transparent material I wasn't gonna paint. It still glows in the dark for real, and looks nicely ethereal in the scenic shot with the help of a bit of photomanipulation.


Do you use kids toys and toy parts in your tabletop modelling projects?
Do you dream about raising an army of undead dinos?
Should I rewatch Walking With Dinosaurs after all these years?
Tell me in the comments.
Comments
Hi Lonacc, the department store in question is Nama. They have two locations in Zagreb and both had these glow in the dark dinos in stock in December.
Regarding your three questions: yes, yes, and yes!
Also, did you see that Kurzgesagt video about what dinosaurs might have actually looked like? I found it quite interesting, sort of shows how we imagine lifeforms purely based on the skeletons, dinosaurs might have looked a lot cuter. It does make me think of even scarier looking dinosaurs or contemporary lifeforms redesigned purely by looking at the skeleton!
Amazing article! There is so much gold hidden o flea markets! I am not sure what I like most, the triceratops, the u dead one or the spirit. I probably like the image of a necromancer running around with a skeletal dino best
@Bits Blitz Designs - I didn’t see the video, but I did come across artwork by C.M. Kosemen some time ago, which depicts redesigns of animals like swan, elephant, and zebra based on their skeletons. They’re uncanny, gaunt monstrosities. You’re right, this topic is definitely a fun thing to think about.
@Hydra - Thank you!
Excellent job! Gives me ideas…. :-D
Very nice indeed - a very cool project.
These are really lovely. The pre-dead dinos fit much better in your realistic looking terrain than I would expect them to, but your naturalistic patterning really sells the vibe.
I have picked up a lot of toy dinosaurs for gaming over the years, but these tend I tend to buy the nicely prepainted ones, like those manufactured by Sleich. Although I love painting toy soldiers, and I can certainly imagine myself enjoying painting a few dinosaurs, I have more than enough in the painting queue without adding dinosaurs to the list too
I did gather dinosaur skeleton toys here and there for years too though. I finally did a pretty quick and rough job on them for gaming back in 2017. They are gaming pieces, channeling 1960s TV studio aesthetics, rather than the more sombre approach taken here, but you did ask:
https://sho3box.com/2017/05/18/dinosaur-skeletons
@Wonky Dog - Thank you!
@Warburton - Cheers!
@Cheetor/sho3box - Thank you! I like what you did with the skellies, and the post is entertaining. I’m gonna have to look into that game Dinoproof.
Yes. Yes and yes.
(adore your work, so inspiring!)
Thanks MD!
Really nice add to your forest, the color of the bones is great, thanks for the recipe. What really ammuse me are those trees, I cannot remind any tutorial on those. Are real sticks?
For your questions… yes, yes, no. Just keep your good memories, sometimes reviewing programs from the past ruin them.
Thank you! The trees are indeed made with real roots (+ clay, paint and flock). I never made a tutorial for that.
Great idea!
There’s just something about dinos, isn’t it? As to necromantic abominations - Harry Dresden riding a reanimated Tyrannosurus to go fight a necromancer and his zombie minions is still one of my fave badas fantasy moments.^^
I have used and am still using a bunch of playmobil parts and kits for terrain building. They are’nt easy to cut and need texturing before painting, but are a great source for large, durable and still somewhat lightweight rock formations, big castle walls, etc.
A fellow dinosaur lover here - I never stopped playing with plastic toys which I prefered over everything else.
Yes, I’d definitely have a dino skeleton army, and yes I think you should rewatch Walking with Dinosaurs.
Can you please tell me the name of the department store where you bought the skeletons?
Also, I like the pun in the headline.
By Lonacc on 2022 02 10