I had heard that a tender was out for the manufacture of a whole new permanent exhibit at the Natural History Museum. I fondly recall visiting this museum often as a kid so the potential for being able to contribute new models here myself was very exciting.
This museum had previous traditional exhibits half a century old portraying dinosaurs in a very traditional manner.
For my rushed tender presentation I included images from the Jurassic Park films to illustrate that the expectation of a contemporary visitor would likely be much more influenced by a cinematic character driven representation of dinosaurs. I proposed that this aesthetic alongside painstaking paleontological accuracy would be my goal if awarded the contract.
When I did eventually get the project it kept me and a small team of fabricators busy for nearly a year.
Dr Rodger Smith was my science advisor and responsible for keeping my flights of fancy in check.
I had the great privilege of handling some of the original fossils from storage in order to produce some precise skull sculptures and armature dimentions.
Heterodontosaur actual fossil skull alongside my reconstruction:
I sculpted 1:6th scale maquettes of all the displays:
The full sized sculptures in progress, each dinosaur took around three months to detail in wax based clay.
All the molds we made to cast the four sculptures in resin:
Figuring out the color scheme was tricky. I took some liberty to liven up their tones, being careful to make the males brighter and more striking in keeping with trends in modern birds.
Transporting everyone for instillation at the museum:
Final Syntarsus (now Coelophysis):
Final Massospondylus:
The two Heterodontosaurs on a termite hill:
I loved the project so much I didnt want to leave so I made a nest of Massospondylus hatchlings that was added to the exhibit last minute.
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