Rader Studios Baryonyx OOB review

A white box was waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday, and when I saw the return label was from Jon Rader Studios, my heart sank. For even tho Jon had marked the box "fragile" in a number of spots the USPS put this box thru the grinder. Almost every edge showed signs of being crushed and one seam had actually split open. But after I opened it, enuff peanuts had remained inside and with the ample amounts of bubble wrap all the pieces were intact! Whew!

The Baryonyx comes in 7 pieces of white odorless resin. The detail is terrific. The pour stumps have mostly been removed, and there is no evidence of their being any flash. Only it's hands, the very end of it's tail, and one leg show faint seam lines. The spines on his back are all there and only the tip one claw on one hand and the tip one claw on one foot was missing. No big deal replacing those with a tiny bit of Aves. Cleanup is going to take only a few quick minutes and once pinned, the joints are only going to need a tiny bit of putty to make them disappear. (Image is from Rader Studios)

Baryonyx (pronounced BAYR-ee-ON-iks) is an early Cretaceous theropod that roamed the Alluvial plains and river deltas of what is now England. It was about 20 feet (6.1 metres) long and probably weighed over 2 tons. Baryonyx had a long crocodilian shaped head and is known to have eaten fish as a fossilized meal containing fish remains was found in its stomach - and was for a long time the only known fish-eating dinosaur. It was found with a huge (1 ft.) claw. It is not certain if this claw was attached to the front or rear feet. It is possible that Baryonyx used this claw to hook fish out of water, while hunting on riverbanks. In any case, Baryonyx was named for this claw, Baryonyx means "heavy claw".

My final verdict is definitely two thumbs up for this kit. I too wasn't too jazzed about the meat hanging from his mouth. But once I saw the whole kit in person it's not obtrusive, and adds some "story" to the kit. Also, it's small so depending on how you paint it you could make it almost disppear if you wanted to. I'll say Baryonyx it's a must for dinosaur fans hobby bench. My only problem will be should I paint it a subdued or a Luis Rey style color.

Barking Mad Bust OOB Review

My Barking Mad bust arrived yesterday from Charlie Dunton and Mad Dog Resin. Wow what a kit. It comes in white, non odorous resin. The kit has 6 pieces - the head/torso, two arms and two hands. The base makes the 6th piece.
I couldn't find one bubble nor one obvious seam line. The only pour stubs visible on the bottom of the torso have been reduced to two small raised areas that are easily sanded off with a fine sanding stick.. The skulls on the base has tiny "bumps" on them that look like they should be there - dirt or moss. But could easily be sanded off if you want them smooth. The rest of the kit is imaculate. The detail of the face and hands are great and dry fitting the parts - arms to shoulders and hands to arms will fit with the tiniest piece of putty to hide the seam.
Overall I recommend this kit to any werewolf/ wolfman fans and even if your not, this is a good one to have to start your howling facination!

Thoughts on Recasting

In the scale model world, Recasting is taking someone elses work, making a cheap, inferior copy, passing it off and selling it as your own - which is just wrong. In certain modeling genres recasting is rampant.

There's not a week goes by over at The Clubhouse - a mostly garage kit figure forum - that there isn't an announcement that someones work has been copied and the recaster is selling it as his own.
Today, you can hardly trust any figure kits you see on Ebay anymore, especially if they originate from SE Asia (but it is certainly not limited to that region). Some recasters even have the nerve to say in the auction text that it is a recast. Even if it's not mentioned, you need to do a little homework before buying. Ask questiuons in places like The Clubhouse. Look around on the net; If other places are selling the kit for $100 then the guy selling on ebay for $25 is most likely a recaster.

It's also detrimental to the hobby as it kills the producers incentive to make new kits. There are quite a few garage kit producers that havequit the business because they just can't compete with their own kit. They need to charge $100 for it, and some guy sitting it Thailand (which seems like the recasting capital) is selling a bogus copy of the kit for $25.

We have to stand firm and not give in to buying recasts of kits we just can't afford or are out of production. If you can't afford it - you can't afford it. Is it right to buy something out of the back of a truck just beause you can afford to buy it in the store? No.
If it's out of production there's always a chance that they will reintroduce it. Talk to the producer, if there's enough interest he may bring it back. Being out of production doesn't give a recaster the right to make an unauthorized copy and sell it.
We can't say we won't support recasters, unless they have something really want. That just doesn't work.

In my Links column, there is a link to a Recasters FAQ. Everyone needs to read it and stand firm against these thieves.