Lindberg

Velociraptor

Kit Number: 70277

Reviewed by  Paul Bradley, IPMS# 35554, and daughter Robin

MSRP: $10.95 Here's something different! Lindberg are back, and that includes the full range of dinosaur models. As my daughter Robin is 6 and just starting out on her modeling adventure, I decided that we should take a look at a couple of these. The Velociraptor has become well known as the "brainiac" carnivore of Jurassic Park movie fame, and this kit is a good representation of that incarnation. Of course, Spielberg took huge liberties for the movie, and consequently the model looks nothing like the real Velociraptor; it is more like a Deinonychus or Utahraptor. But never mind about that; that's another build(!). This one was built by Robin, aged 6, and a thoroughly enjoyable time was had in the process. We started by removing all the parts from their sprues; a relatively simple process as there are few parts, and the plastic is quite soft. She gave each part a good going over with a sanding stick, then she started gluing together the subassemblies. The legs, arms and body went together with sizeable seams, and these were only partly addressed; they really don't matter too much to six-year-olds… I did introduce her to filler though when it came to assembling the whole, as there are large gaps between the legs and body, and the tail to body seam as well. She did a pretty good job and it looks far better than it would have had we not used any filler. Perhaps the hardest thing for a 6 year old is the waiting, so we did the filler last thing at night before bed. The next day, we finished up the assembly with the head and spur claws. The head is quite nicely detailed, though the teeth are a bit peg-like and not very sharp! The spur claws are supposed to represent the large sickle claws that were a feature of ancient raptors, but these ones are incorrectly placed and not very large. Movie features again I guess! Still, once again this matters not to the average 6-year old! The next step was to break out that sanding stick again to reduce the filler somewhat, then the model was ready for painting. Of course, no-one really knows what colors dinosaurs were, so I gave her free rein to sort through my stock of acrylics. She chose British Light Armour Sand as the overall body color, with RLM 24 Hellblau stripes. Quite fetching really. I showed her a "professional" technique by lightening the sand a bit and with this she painted the undersides, for a little contrast. The mouth was painted a reddish-purple and the teeth were picked out in white. She also painted the eyes bright yellow with a black pupil - very effective!

The dino was mounted to the stand that Lindberg helpfully provide - this model is not free standing without some help. The base was given a light coat of filler, then dino was glued to the base. A coat of muddy brown and a light sprinkle of railway grass completed the build. We enjoyed this build. The kit is simple and is eye-catching when complete. While this isn't really an "accurate" model, Robin is very pleased with it, and the best part is that, although supervised, she did all the work by herself. Watch out lads…! My sincere thanks to Ernie Petit at Hawk for supplying the review sample! Lindberg models are now available from WalMart, leading hobby stores and at their website, www.lindberg-models.com/.

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