Triceratops
| Kit: | Tamiya, 1/35; model finished on 2026-03-30. |
|---|---|
| Aircraft: | "3", hypothetical Soviet Air Force specimen. |
Continuing on my theme of dinosaurs in whimsical colors, I took an old Tamiya kit assembled and painted by one of my daughters when she was about 6 years old. This one will make a nice pair for my earlier Finnish Air Force T-Rex.
Construction notes
The dinosaur was already constructed, but I spent some effort making the gaps between parts disappear. I mostly used Mr.Surfacer 1200 for this, and then sprayed the whole animal with a flat white primer. For colors, I chose an early 1940s scheme inspired by [2]; color information came from [3]. I airbrushed the three main colors, then did some touch-up with a brush. I used Mr.Color lacquers: Russian Green (#135), Light Blue (#323 + some white mixed in), and Red (#128). The tusks I first painted white, and then airbrushed lightly with a light brown filter (Mr. Color #527), similar technique I used with the ballerina skeleton.
For markings, I settled on simple red stars and a white tactical number. I added the text "Юрский" ("Jurassic"), mimicking the style seen on many Soviet aircraft during WW2. I created artwork for all of these and then cut masking tape using a Cricut cutter.
I painted the eyes by hand, then covered the eyeballs with UV-curable clear resin.
References
These books came in handy while completing this model:- Building and Painting Model Dinosaurs (Rimell); Kalmbach Books 1998
- Soviet Aces of World War 2 (Morgan); Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 15; Osprey 1997
- Soviet Air Force Fighter Colours 1941-1945 (Pilawskii); Classic Colours; Classic Publications 2003