Old Prospector

Why aren't there any young prospectors?

Probably because they're not any fun if they're not old and senile.

-Evan

Skeletal Mount Makin'

So this is something a bit different. Still creative, but no sketches or CG for you today.

This does require a bit of a explanation though. At work, in order to make my space my-own, I decided to fill it with all things Zoology and Paleontology related. I went ahead and purchased a number of specimens for my desk, with the idea to slowly build a collection over the years, and eventually turn my area into a mini natural history museum of sorts.

So I went ahead and got a number of things, and also put up posters and diagrams and whatnot on my walls. There was one problem though. Decently sized to larger specimens are, for obvious reasons, expensive. I bought a number of cool smaller things to get the most bang for my buck, and give myself a decent heads start on the collection. The problem though, was that they are not easily visible in passing, and one would have to walk right up to my shelf to really see what's there:

See? Other than the two guys on the right, you really can't see what we got here. What's that? What are those two tiny things next to the Velociraptor skull you ask? (I'm asking for you since you can't see them)

Believe it or not, there is a little Archaeopteryx skull, and some odds and ends of a Parakeet. Clearly these guys needed to make themselves more visible! (Or...rather...I need to make them more visible. Since...you know. One's dead and the other's a model.) This is where I came up with the idea to build little custom mounts for them. And that's what this post is about.

 I did a test with a really simple mount for the Archaeopteryx skull, as a proof of concept to myself:

Turned out to be a bit easier than I expected. Just a wooden base, easily pliable wire, Wire cutters/pliers, super glue, and an xacto-knife. With this working, I decided to go a bit further and try to make a more complex mount for the parakeet. Same materials. Here's the mount by itself:

...and once all the pieces were locked in place*:

*I didn't bother mounting the lower jaw because of how fragile the skull is. Didn't want to break anything, so I just set it on the base...

Thought it worked fairly well for my first crack at this sort of thing, with the materials I had available. For future mounts I'd like to do a bit more planning, and to make the armatures less noticeable. This time around I had general concepts in mind and just went for it; testing and seeing how the materials would lend to my initial ideas. But at least my guys have a more pleasant home:

I would like to do more of this sort of thing pending new specimens.

Best,

  Evan