Rhamphorhynchus muensteri skull
My recast version of the Wiccart skull model
I had long-wanted a copy of the Wiccart Rhamphorhynchus but, being high-grade unobtanium I was resigned to never seeing an original model. Nevertheless, I made contact with Frank Galef and he came to the rescue! Frank also has a website dedicated to dinosaurian interests. In fact he owns a great collection of original Wiccart models, including an original and unbuilt Wiccart Rhamphorhynchus skull model.
Frank very kindly offered to send me his original model so I could recast it. This was a great project and I'm very grateful for Frank's trust and the effort he went to to send his treasured model to me from the other side of the world.
Steve Harvey, the original sculptor, made two versions of the skull. This is the later improved version with a fully-hollow skull.
I recast
the model in a pure white resin (4PU) using PinkySil under about 40 PSI
in a pressure pot. I made one-piece silicon molds, opened using a jewlers cut. This ensured I captured all the fine detail with
minimal air bubble and flash artifacts. Nevertheless, the one-piece maxilla and palate were challenging to reproduce.
More views of my recast version. It really is a remarkable model and, holding it in your hand it feels so very birdlike and delicate. I have not modified the model yet, but will correct details of the palate and the back of the skull in time.
Original Wiccart Skull Kit
ABOVE: Full kit shown above. Many parts were in separate hand-labeled zip-lock bags. There were three pages of assembly instructions with the kit (not shown).
The original skull was cast in a yellowish resin, fragile, and extremely delicate in form. Before I recast it I cleaned parts of flash and some minor repairs were made (Wiccart kits were a little rough around the edges).
RIGHT: close-up views.
