Stegosaurus Sculpture

I've always liked the stop motion dinosaur puppets from King Kong (1933). They may not be scientifically accurate by today's standards. But they had a look and charm that I find lacking in many of the modern day CGI movie monsters. Recently I thought it might be fun to sculpt an old school type of dinosaur. For my subject I chose a stegosaurus. After deciding on the size I fashioned an aluminum wire armature and carved a balsa wood skull. The body was roughed out in paper mache. In this photo I've added the skull and bent the neck wire into the position I wanted.

While the neck area was drying I began making the plates that would adorn the stegosaurs back. I cut basswood slightly smaller then the actual size that the completed plate would be. Over the basswood I applied a veneer of Apoxie clay which I textured to appear aged.The tail spikes were formed of Super Sculpey added over sections of brass rod and wooden dowels.