Velociraptor claw on an Isla Nublar rock display (tutorial)

red4

Sr Member
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Painted up various ways
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Nice work. I'm really enjoying all of the tutorials on here of late, it's always fun to look at how other makers approach a build.
 
Yes, very creative, love the way the stand supports the claw.
Many thanks for posting such an excellent tutorial
 
I filled the claw mold with plaster-of-paris. The plaster shrinks a tiny bit, causing visible damage, which I will have to find a way to correct without further ruining the plaster. What I learned from making the rock display base is that when new plaster makes contact with cured plaster, it solidifies instantaneously. It's extremely weird. It doesn't solidify to a rock-like hardness like fully cured plaster; but it solidifies to the consistency of a cookie. The only way to stifle this reaction is to add extra water to the new mix of plaster before introducing it to the cured plaster. Another idea I might try is to apply plaster powder to the claw's blemishes, and then spray water onto that. The recommended mix ratio (2 parts plaster, to 1 part water) will be thrown way off, but it's worth a try. Anyway, the plaster casting only needs minor corrections.

The reason I made a plaster casting is because I am now going to make a heavily weathered and fossilized version of the claw. What you've seen up to this point is what I like to refer to as a poached claw - a claw that has been taken from a recently dead raptor. Plaster accepts cracks and scratches very easily, and with its mineral properties the artfully applied weathering will closely resemble a real fossil. I am going to scuff it up, add hundreds of pores, and I am actually going to break it in several places, round-over the edges of the fractures, and then glue the claw back together to create authentic cracks, but which won't affect the integrity of the final resin castings. So that also means I'm going to mold the plaster claw.

Here's the plaster claw without any of the aforementioned work done to it yet.
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Here's a projection of how and where I intend to add weathering to the claw.
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There is science to the blemishes.
Yellow = This section was covered in a keratin sheath while the animal was alive. This is also the part that dries up first after death. Cracks form along the natural growth lines of the bone, which is why the yellow lines follow a somewhat uniform path.

Red = The denser part of the red is where the flesh of the toe meets the keratin of the claw. Everything in the red area and behind it was covered in flesh while the animal was alive. This means it was also soaked in fluids, and attracts the most bacteria. The bacteria eats into this section of the bone, leaving a lot of deep pits.

Blue = These areas are called tendon anchoring points. Tendons attached into large pores in these areas. The pores become larger as the bone dries, and as bacteria finds its way inside.

Green = A large cartilage pad used to be on this part. Cartilage is a soft, moist tissue which attracts bacteria, so this area will also be heavily pitted.

Purple = A rough idea of what the cracks might look like.

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Side note: I will also be making a poached claw that has a keratin sheath. I made one a few years ago, but it wasn't as accurate as I would like.
 
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I've done about 85% of the weathering on the plaster claw. Still need to fracture it, and patch up some unintended blemishes that detract from the look rather than complementing it.
Since plaster is perpetually dusty, I've stabilized the surface with acrylic paint.
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The weathering process was interesting. I started by using a sharp needle to carve the grooves and scratches into the claw, but it was too slow, and jumped too much. So I resorted to a dull x-acto knife. Dull because it creates wider grooves than a razor-sharp blade. If I had used a razor-sharp blade, the paint would have probably filled the details in.
Once all the grooves and scratches were in, I brushed the whole surface with a paint brush to soften the details, but I overdid it slightly. So I applied a coat of paint to fill the grooves slightly, then sanded the top level of the paint off. I had to be very careful with the sandpaper, as it was eating the plaster away very easily, and I really only wanted to remove the paint. After this was done, I applied another layer of paint, and it created exactly the look I wanted.

When I was taking the x-acto to it, a 0.5 inch sliver of plaster came off near the tip (highlighted in yellow). There are also a few large bubbles I want to fill in (one is highlighted in yellow. Most of the other pits in this photo are either not bubbles, or they are bubbles that are small enough that they don't detract from the look). I'm going to patch up the errors with Aves Fixit Sculpt, and then it's on to molding.
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This is an excellent tutorial, thanks for sharing. The detail and weathering are coming along great, where did you learn so much about fossilised raptor claws? :eek:

I went searching for it. There are surprisingly few, high-quality photos of fossilized raptor killing claws. I've had to partially rely on photos of fossils from birds and other theropods. I've also consulted the help of one of the most well-known paleo artists by the name of Scott Hartman. I hate saying he's not a paleontologist, because he really is in all the ways that matter. He works side-by-side with PhD paleontologists studying, analyzing, and measuring fossils. He makes highly scientific artwork for museums and paleontology publications. And he's privy to many as-yet unpublished paleontological discoveries. He was behind the curtain with the other scientists as it was discovered that spinosaurus was actually highly aquatic, had tiny hind legs, and walked on its knuckles like a gorilla. It often takes nearly a decade for a study to be completed and published, and Scott Hartman is one of the few people who knows about all the awesome new discoveries years before the public finds out.
 
I'm now molding the fossilized claw. I did something different with the clay to make it easier to embed the claw. I used a needle to trace the silhouette of the claw into the clay. Then I carved out a shallow cavity in the shape of the claw. This allowed me to simply place the claw into the clay, instead of pressing it in like before. If I had pressed the plaster claw into the clay, it would have broken apart. Then I carefully pushed the clay towards the edges of the claw to create a seal.

The clay I'm using is apparently low quality. It doesn't affect the molding process, but: As I was taking the clay out of the tupperware I store it in, I noticed a lot of beads of yellow liquid had built up under the surface of the clay. It seems to have been nothing more than the clay's oil, because I was able to knead the liquid back into the clay. Some of the oil got on my fingers, and dabbing it with chunks of clay cleaned it up very easily. I've never seen clay do any of this before.
 
The only reason I painted the plaster was to seal it. The paint is the seal.

OK, thanks. Sorry, I thought maybe you painted it to get a better idea of how the texture would look on the finished claw. I've read that plaster is tricky to finish because it so readily absorbs any liquid you put on it.

Loving the work by they way :thumbsup

Rob
 
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