As any fule kno, the most dangerous animals are not carnivores, but large herbivores with horns and a bad attitude. Hippos are more dangerous than crocs, and buffalo and rhinos more dangerous than lions. Which neatly brings me to horned dinosaurs. These little beauties were probably very dangerous. I have seen film of a rhino wrecking a landrover by charging it head on. Imagine what one of these could do? We don't know exactly what it massed, no complete skeleton has been found, but it was probably about ten times the mass of a Rhino.
The head and back architecture on dinos was probably largely connected with courtship rituals - these are essenially big birds - so paint them in bright colours.
The miniatures are old 1950s British Museum dino models.
John
The weight estimate for the Triceratops is 6 1/2 to 7 tons as I recall. I'm painting one too, however it is a museum piece. Haven't posted any WIP pix since the initial start as, well a pile of (resin-cast) bones, just looks like a pile of bones.
ReplyDeleteThis link has a photo of me painting the skull which was the star of the project http://dlwdg.blogspot.com/2010/04/some-more-random-stuff.html Since then is has been a never ending procession of ribs & vertebrae.
I have seen 9-12 ton estimates. It is notoriously difficult to estimate mass from fossils. That is why you get all those arguments about how fast these beasts could move. You need to know stride (no problem) and mass (ah?).
ReplyDeleteWhatever the true figure was, they were big. :)
J
It's been nice seeing all these dinos that you have recently featured, John. I bought some of the 10mm scale dinosaurs offered by Magister Militum last summer but have not yet gotten around to painting them. You tempt me to go searching for them, though. My plan was to use the dinosaurs, along with some WWI figures representing the mandatory well-armed adventurers, for Pulp-era "lost world" gaming. I'll get back to that project at some point, or so I like to tell myself.
ReplyDelete@ Masta Cheef - I had wondered how you're 1:1 scale painting project was coming along.... Thanks for the update and good luck with all those bones!
Oops! That should be "your" instead of "you're," of course. Apologies to you, John, for besmirching your blog with such a slip-up. I thought an author such as yourself might take offense... ; )
ReplyDeleteDear Papa
ReplyDeleteI have bought some pulprules that include lost world stuff. PS, don't worry about the spelling. I am near illitterate myself, as a quick look through this blog will confirm. :)
J.