Lindberg

Triceratops

Kit Number: 70279

Reviewed by  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $10 Thanks to Lindberg for providing this review kit. The Dinosaur No one has found a complete fossilized skeleton of a triceratops, but enough partials have been discovered for CSI to make a number of estimates. The "average" triceratops grew to about 26 feet long, and about 10 feet high. Since the model is 7 inches long, this works out to about 1/20.5 scale. Triceratops lived in North America, during the Late Cretaceous Period, 65 to 68 million years ago. Current thinking about the horns is that they were used less for defense against the Tyrannosaurs, which lived at the same time, and more for mating displays and dominance fights, much as elk and deer use their antlers. The Kit The box contains a single LARGE sprue with all the parts. Because it's so large, it was folded while still warm enough to work, in order to fit the box. There are 14 parts and an instruction sheet. No clear, no resin, no photoetch, no decals. A perfect starter model. Assembly This is a pretty straightforward kit, but the instructions are very specific about how things fit, with photographic representation of the parts. There aren't a lot of parts, (I've seen more parts on one suspension bogie from a recent tank kit review!) but the instructions are clear and easy to follow.

The fit of parts is good to excellent. The leg halves, and body halves went together with no gaps. The head had a gap at the beak and another at the top of the frill which covers the neck. The locating pins made for unambiguous assembly. I used a little Mr Surfacer 500 to cover the gaps in the head parts. I let everything set up for a day, then tackled final assembly. I cleaned up the places where I put filler on the head. The body and legs had definite seam lines, but they smoothed out pretty well with just scraping with a #11 blade. I then started to put the legs on. The legs didn't fit to the body as cleanly as the halves mated, and there were gaps between the legs and the body. Here is where an application of new technology came in very handy. After test fitting a leg, I put a bead of Mr Surfacer on the flat spot on the leg where each mated to the body. I put a drop of super glue in each of the mating holes on the body part, and carefully mated the leg to the body. The first two were very easy, as the large holes made it easy to see what I was doing. After the parts were mated, I used accelerator to set the super glue. I then used a cotton swab dipped in Mr Color Thinner to clean up the joint around the leg. This method worked very well. I was more than happy with it. The head assembly went on with no fuss. I left the horns off until I painted the model. Painting and Final Finish Since no one has seen a live triceratops, or even a recently dead one, color could be a matter of speculation. I decided on the "cretaceous brown" camouflage scheme. I painted the top and sides of the body using Testors Model Master ® USAF aircraft brown 30219, with the undersides Tamiya Acrylic Panzer gelb. I added stripes of Tamiya Acrylic Panzer red-brown. I wanted to try out the "fine" tip on my Aztek airbrush using an acrylic paint. I painted the three horns 36440 grey. While they were drying, I painted the eyes. The two large horns were super-glued in place.

Overall Assessment This might be a good kit for someone who wants to leave the AMS behind. No rivets to count, no worry about a color scheme, zero fiddly bits to contend with, and it can be built in 2 fairly short sessions. But the real target market is the beginning modeler. The parts are large, but fit fairly well. It would accept applications of large amounts of tube glue, and still look acceptable. The other big lesson this one tries to teach is there on the final step of the instructions. A great model for the "just past beginner" modelers. It's not pre-painted, it's not a snap kit, but "I can build it myself!". Afterword I finished this model the night before our chapter meeting. We were having a contest for "April Fools", humor in modeling. My "Barney" diorama won. Thanks to John Noack and Lindberg for a stress-free modeling experience.

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