Tyrannosaurus Rex

I originally built this model in 2007, after I had an idea that a dinosaur painted like a standard Finnish Air Force fighter aircraft would be a fun project. Since then the model has gone various versions and improvements. Following the damage suffered by my model collection in March 2026, I decided to make some more minor changes as part of the repair process; let's call this the "final" version.

Construction Notes

The model was built more or less straight "out of the box" from the old Tamiya kit. I had to do some filling of the seams using liberal amounts of Mr.Surfacer 1200. For paints I mostly used Tamiya acrylics (black XF-1, khaki drab XF-51, and light blue XF-23; the yellow areas are Mr.Color RLM 04 (#113). I patched the underside a bit with Mr. Color RLM 76 (#117). The final finish was airbrushed with Alclad II Klear Kote Flat, with some details (such as eyes) brush-painted with Klear Kote Gloss.

The swastika decals came from some unrecognized decal sheet, and the decals for the "tail numbers" (literally!) I printed myself. Liberal applications of decal softener made the decals settle on the rough and uneven surface of the animal. I also made a small dinosaur template and painted "kill markings" (again, literally!) in red.