#replica skulls

[audley-and-cherry]

I'm still avoiding that Annihilator, so I did a paint test in the airbrush:

Not super happy with the GreenStuff World airbrush paint. It was really thin, so yeah, it slid through the airbrush beautifully, but it was really difficult to get an even layer down. It's a FANTASTIC color tho, so I dunno. I'm sure I'll use up the bottle.

It also had a really weird odor that I could smell through my N95 and I'm kiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnda worried about that.

All primed in Vallejo primer. The bone white skull is going to be a "natural" look, the chrome is a test piece, and the pink for my blacklight display.

I'll finish these guys up tomorrow.

[i-m-snek]

These guys are now up on my store front!

[wolfforce58205deads]

I went to Animal Save yesterday (Reno, NV). They had these display cases. It was awesome!

Sorry the pics aren’t better; bright sunlight+glass=shine =/

[shadyufo]

i'd REALLY like to get into vulture culture buT I don't really?? feel comfortable messing around with animal remains at all, it'd feel like i'd be being extremely disrespectful by just having them around the house haha,, do you know of any places where i can buy Fake animal bones that still look pretty real?

Everyone has their own beliefs and feelings about what they consider the correct way to collect (or not collect) animal remains. Personally I feel that I show these remains respect by taking care of them (salvaging them in the first place then cleaning them up and repairing them), sharing them with others if possible (which I do by sharing photos here on my blog, by using my skulls as teaching tools, or passing them on to someone else who will enjoy them through my Etsy shop), and obeying the laws. There have been a few remains I've encountered that have had very definitive and undeniable "leave me alone" vibes and I left them where I found them but I think others are fine to collect, display, and make art with. But that’s just my two cents! 

That being said, it is your collection and you certainly don't have to collect anything you don't feel comfortable collecting! There are a lot of high quality replica skulls available these days for you to choose from!

The outrageously awesome @parliamentrook here on tumblr has a website and an Etsy shop where she sells gorgeous casts she makes by hand. She has natural bone-colored ones as well as special limited edition skulls in a variety of colors and designs too!

Schrecken on ebay has some really pretty-looking casts of some huge predator skulls for sale. Liger, lion, siberian tiger, Kodiak bear, etc. I’ve never bought any of their replicas but I have bought some real skulls and bones from them before and they are great to do business with.

SkullsUnlimited.com has natural bone specimens as well as replica skulls of hundreds of different species of animals to check out too.

Hope that helps get you started, Anon! Best of luck and happy collecting!

[snakesandkittens]

Finally got my own @parliamentrook (Skullery) replica skull - a glittery purple African gray parrot.

[audley-and-cherry]

Worked on the Horrible Bard's base a little.

I didn't take pictures of the paints, but I used Citadel's Standard Mechanicus grey, Morghast bone, and Pro Acryl copper.

Copper coins because he's a Horrible bard and no one's giving him a ton of cash.

Should make shading and highlighting easier.

And because I like the Pro Acryl copper so much, I banged out another skull for the hell of it.

(White primer, Pro Acryl bronze base coat, copper top coat, and light bronze highlighting. Pro Acryl bright gold for the tooth.)

[audley-and-cherry]

I have energy today (we stopped one of my chemo treatments– oxaliplatin– and I'm on a "maintenance" dose of my others and I feel a ton better) but, man. My Stormcast Annihilator just isn't doing it for me right now.

I decided to dick around with some replica skulls and my airbrush instead.

I've done some work for a sculptor on Etsy, painting resin tchotches (mostly replica animal skulls). These were a handful of paint failures that I did some quick cleanup on and held back as test pieces.

Finished pieces generally look something like this:

The actually educated professional painters I know recommended brushed on Liquitex as the primer and that's just a finicky bitch that takes forever to dry and pulls up as often as not. I figured I'd use my test pieces to see how well they play with airbrush paints.

If I was going to paint this like actual bone, I'll need an off white or grey. But since I decided to use my fluorescents, bright white it is!

And here's where we're at, folks. If you look at the blue skull's beak, you can see where the primer pulled up where it stuck to my glove. It doesn't help that my basement is humid as hell, even in the dead of winter and I swear to god that nothing wants to stick to this resin.

I'll let those cure overnight. Tomorrow I'll touch up with brush on primer and maybe another layer of color. Then once that's dry, I'll highlight in three silver tones (for the blue and green) and three golds (pink and orange) and finish the beaks and teeth.

[audley-and-cherry]

We got some finished skulls!