W.I.P SERIES: Jurassic Park Velociraptor Part I Introduction

2013 marks 20 years since Jurassic Park arrived in theaters and took the world by storm. Steven Spielberg's masterpiece was a trailblazer for it's time relying heavily on computer animation extensively for the first time in a feature film replacing the old time standard of clay puppets and stop motion techniques. Among the most memorable and crowd pleasing creatures aside from the Tyrannosaurus were the crafty and agile Velociraptors. Depicted as as a vicious pack hunter in the films about 6' in height capable of jumping over a car and advanced critical thinking, science has since debunked the films portrayal of these small carnivorous dinosaurs. In truth the Velociraptor was no more than 1.5' tall at the shoulder and 6' in length overall, weighed about 33lbs, was sparsely covered in primitive feathers, and fossil records show limited to no evidence of cooperative or "pack hunting" behavior. Rather than a true Velociraptor, the film's portrayal more closely resembles Dromaeosaurus or Utahraptor, both of which could reach heights of 6'-7' and may not have had feathers.
     Paleontology lesson aside, during the mad merchandise rush of 1993, Lindberg released a series of dinosaur kits based on the film including the major players such as T Rex, Velociraptor, and Triceratops along with some not so major species like hadrasaurus and others which didn't even make the final cut like stegosaurus (which did finally appear in JP2).
      In 1993 I was 7 years old, had never seen a model kit before, and like any young person that year got swept up in "dino-mania". My schoolyard friends and I would imitate the raptor attacks and run around like T-Rex on the playground at every recess (yes I realize it sound silly now but it was fun then).  For my birthday that year my grandparents thought it would be a good idea to buy me one of the above mentioned Lindberg kits, the Velociraptor.

 

 Knowing nothing about scale models, I smeared the provided tube of Testors non toxic cement all over the thing and had it together within an hour or so. It was painted with bright orange craft paint and had black striping, more like a tiger instead of a vicious dinosaur. In most cases these junior model builds end up blown up, broken, or otherwise demolished, however the little raptor was a survivor and maintained a spot on a shelf in my grandparents house until my grandmother passed away in 2009 when it mysteriously vanished while the house was being packed up for sale.
     20 years later and many more kits on my resume, a group build on the Finescale Modeler forums prompted the participants to rebuild the first kit they ever built, the "My First Time GB". Upon seeing this topic the first thing I did was check Ebay and to my surprise these kits are still fairly inexpensive ranging from $4.00 to $20.00 brand new. With my first kit obtained, construction could begin with a vastly different outlook since this go around I'm actually concerned with where the glue goes and the overall presentation of the finished product. Part II will cover construction through the primer and base coat followed by a hefty amount of artistic license and dry brushing techniques in part III to give this dinosaur it's skin.