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.

Dance Recital?

A few weeks ago when my son's school schedule came out for the month, we noticed a dance recital was planned for the end of January. What could that be we wondered? Not once did Pete ever mention he was dancing.

The day came and Deb and I go off to school where we met up with a number of other parents. The teachers move us into the gym, where we see the kids.

The show begins by them doing a number of exercises to limber up. Okay I thought this is going to be a glorified PT class set to music. But nope. Once they finish stretching they line up ala chorus line and the music begins. But before that the dance instructor lets us know that this is a dance routine from Christmas that the kids did for the rest f the school. Rather than coming up with a new routine, she felt it easier for them to dance the Christmas dance.

They do 3 routines and each time a new line takes the front so I guess all the parents have a good shot of their kid in the front row. Finally once the dancing was over they all went thru a gymnastics routine where they bounce on a trampoline then a few tumbles, and finally a gallop around the gym. It all ends up with them saying goodbye to us and then lining up and back to the classroom. All in all it was pretty cute. enjoy the pics -

My Band Dayz and Project 19 Benefit

Hi,

It was prolly more than 20 years ago when a bunch of guys (me included) from the neighborhood started goofing around in the rock/heavy metal band scene. From there is became sorta serious for some and very serious for others. Other guys from New Dorp High School band classes also formed bands. During it's heyday in the late 70's -early 80's there was prolly 12-15 bands playing around city. We were all friends and even when the lineups changed we all had a good time.

Fast forward to last year (2007) when former band mate Steve Line had the idea of getting everyone, or as many of the guys as he could track down, together for a reunion. He did a tremendous job and managed to get about 25 of us to meet up at Coles Dockside restaurant. It was a very nice place with good food. But it wasn't about the food, but the guys that many of us - me included - hadn't seen each other in years. I got to see everyone again including Tommy Papanier who was a very good friend while we were kids. Towards the end of my "career" playing music we were in different bands and we slowly lost contact with each other. Thanks to Steve we found out that we live only a few dozen blocks from each other.

I was also surprised (I don't know why) to learn that I was pretty much the only guy who had given up music. Everyone was either still playing or was in some other aspect of the music industry - one guy had a few albums under his belt! During the evening Steve unveiled another idea he had. This was to put everyone together on one stage for one big benefit concert. Plans quickly progressed. Since I hadn't played in all that time I had to decline the invitation to play in the benefit (tho I would have loved to do it!). Ever since the reunion I've been thinking of buying another guitar and amp and having some fun. Who knows... maybe I'll be asked again somewhere down the line.

Forward again to early this year (2008). Steve, true to his word, has gotten the guys together in Project 19 for a benefit concert. They will be performing at the College of Staten Island, Concert Hall, 2800 Victory Blvd., Staten Island NY. The monies from the benefit concert will go towards Nalitt Institute for Cancer and Blood Related Diseases. Call 718-982-2787 for tickets.

I urge anyone in the NY/NJ metro area to make the call and get tickets.

If you are not local but would still like to donate - checks should be made payable to Staten Island University Hospital Systems Inc. (Memo section on check: Nalitt Fundraiser 2008) 256-C Mason Ave., Staten Island, NY 10305-3498.

This is my first posting so I'll start off by saying hi, while I fgure out how all this works.