[1/35] Tamiya Stegosaurus

This Stegosaurus stenops kit from Tamyia is a bit retro — the dinosaur is posed in the original sluggish looking stance that is no longer considered correct.  You can read more about the kit here.  The stegosaurus is well known for being the dinosaur with a brain the size of a walnut.  A large cluster of nerves in the back might have controlled the spiked tail when needed for defense.  After the famous “Far Side” comic, paleontologists always refer to the tail armament as “Thagomizer Spikes”.

There are not a lot of parts, easy to assemble.  The trick is going to be filling the seams — you can get away with some seams on aircraft, but not on animals.

After assembling the body and legs, I filled and filed down the seams and then painted them with light grey paint to check to see if I could detect any seams.

Painted the plates with a brush and Vallejo Naranja Orange.  The plates may have been used to help regulate temperature, so they would have had a lot of blood vessels giving them a reddish-orange color.  Maybe.  We really don’t know.

Filling and sanding the joints after putting the critter together.  Testing again with grey paint.

Used some old Testors Model Master chrome yellow acrylic and Tamiya dark grey.  Airbrushed on the colors for a natural look.  Mixed a bit of the yellow with flat white for the under belly color.

Added the bony plates, once again filling the gaps using super glue and a bit of putty.

Did some coloring of the plates with the diluted dark grey from the airbrushing session.  Added the thagomizer spikes to the tail, painting them flat white with a hint of yellow.

Created a little diorama from a take-out container lid and that sand that is used to secure interlock brick.  When you wet it, it solidifies.  I added some rocks, tree bark and a little branch segment.  Used a Sharpie for the eye.

Paints

Tamiya Acrylic

XF-2  Flat White
XF-24 Dark Grey

Vallejo
71.083 Naranja Orange

Model Master
FS13638 Chrome Yellow