Giant Pandas

The giant panda of central China is a member of the family Ursidae, its closest relative being the spectacled bear of South America. It has the curious distinction of being part of the order Carnivora, but having an almost exclusively herbivorous diet.

The pandas of Sichuan province have the typical black and white coloration we are familiar with.

Pandas of the Qingling Mountains in Shaanxi province however, can have brown and white coloration.

I've been on the lookout for 1/72 pandas for a while now, so when I saw a panda figure in a package of Safari Ltd. "Good Luck Minis" today, I went ahead and bought the set.

The average length from snout to rump of an adult panda is about 5', but they can reach up to 6'. The figure is over an inch long, so it represents a very large panda.

If anyone is interested, here's a link to the Panda Cam at my local zoo (unfortunately, they don't give any indication of when the camera is turned on).

You're gonna need a bigger boat...

Sharks belong to the superorder Selachimorpha, and have a fossil record that goes back to the Carboniferous Period. It is often said that they have gone unchanged in form for over 350 million years, but this statement couldn't be any further from the truth.

The fact is that sharks have evolved over time. One only needs to look at some of the early sharks represented in the Safari Ltd. Prehistoric Sharks Toob to see how different they are compared to modern sharks.

Of the 10 sharks in the set, four can be considered to be approximately 1/72 scale.

Cretoxyrhina

Edestus

Sarcoprion

Helicoprion

Cretoxyrhina, Edestus, and Sarcoprion are all thought to have been around 6.1m in length, while Helicoprion could be as long as 7.5m (although the typical specimen may have only been 3-4m long).

For Sarcoprion and Helicoprion (which I believe have been reclassified as Chimaeriformes), I used a knife to cut notches in the spiral tooth whorl of their lower jaws to make the individual teeth more pronounced.

The most famous of prehistoric sharks is Carcharocles megalodon [or Carcharodon megalodon]. Due to its presumed physical resemblance to the Great White Shark, any >8" Great White could probably be used to represent the Megalodon. Purists however may prefer the Safari Ltd. Megalodon (Wild Safari 303329).

Size estimates for this shark range from 15-30m, but I prefer the more conservative size estimate. While I would certainly be impressed by a 30m shark, I have doubts that every specimen of Megalodon was really that big. That being said, I'd say the model scales out very closely to 1/72 scale if we're talking about a 15m shark.

Luckily for us, Megalodon is now extinct... or is it?

Swamp Stalker

There are several candidates that vie for the title of being the largest pterosaur, all belonging to the family Azhdarchidae. The most well known of these creatures is Quetzalcoatlus, which is represented in 1/72 scale by a model available from Shapeways.

Since I had two of the Shapeways Quetzalcoatlus models, I decided to modify one of them to copy the pose of a 1/40 scale CollectA model.

The first thing I did was to cut off the head of the model. It was filled with powder that was left over from the 3D printing process.

After removing the head, I split the beak open, and mounted the head back onto the body. J-B Weld (which is turning into one of my favorite tools) was used to smooth out the beak and crest, and emphasize details that should have been otherwise on the model. Some Elmer's-Tack was used to mask off areas that should have been depressions in the sides of the beak.

Kneadatite was used to make a tongue and build up the missing areas of the neck.

The small Apatosaurus being eaten for lunch is a "good luck" toy made by Safari Ltd.

One other model that can be used for a 1/72 Quetzalcoatlus is made by Colorata, available in their The Practical Guide of Dinosaurs Vol. 1 box set.

The Colorata version is in a flying pose, and has a different style of crest compared to the 3D printed model. Other differences include a smaller body and a shorter neck. The head however, is the same size, and the wingspan scales out to about 33', so corresponds well with the estimated wingspan of Quetzalcoatlus.

I haven't seen the Colorata model being sold by itself, so it always comes with 7 other bonus dinosaurs, of which only one other is approximately 1/72 scale.

In the belly of the Whale

Tales of fearsome and deadly whales abound in literature. The white whale of Melville's novel Moby Dick was inspired in part by accounts of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick, who earned a reputation for fighting back against whaling vessels that tried to attack him.

However, I doubt that the typical modern gamer views the whale as something they would fight in an encounter even though general stats for whales were included in published D&D material.

For my part, whale miniatures (or toys rather) are interesting for purposes of visualizing relative size.

The most commonly encountered toys are those produced by Safari Ltd. The toys are made of solid PVC, and are fairly heavy. The three that I own include a sperm whale, humpback whale, and killer whale.

The sperm whale is about 8" long, which scales out to 48' in length, and can represent a juvenile male, or a large adult female.

The humpback whale is about 7" long, which scales out to about 42' in length, which is about mid-range for this type of whale.

The killer whale is actually a calf, but it can pass for a small female in 1/72 scale.

The other toy whales that I own are made by Larami Corp. These toys are made of vinyl, and are hollow with a very obvious weld line along the midsection of the whale.

These toys are all fairly close to 1/72 scale. I'm not sure how many other whales are in this set, but there is at least a fin whale, which I do not own.

The blue whale is 13½" long, which scales out to 81' in length, and is on the far low end of size for adult males.

What I really would like to find is a model representing a large adult female (closer to 100' in length), but have had no luck so far.

The sperm whale is about 11" long, which scales out to 66' in length, which is the size of a fairly large male.

If I had another one of these, I'd probably paint it white, but since these Larami whales don't seem to be too common, I hesitate to do any modification of them.

The bowhead whale is 10⅜" long, which scales out to 62¼' in length, representing a specimen toward the upper range in size.

The humpback whale is 9¼" long, scaling out to 55½' in length, which is somewhat over the maximum recorded length for this type of whale.

The gray whale is 8¼" long, scaling out to 49½' in length, which is the maximum recorded length for this type of whale.

Size comparison shots of the various whales.

Larami whales

Larami and Safari Ltd. whales

Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!