The fauna of the Tibetan plateau at 1:20
Kiang, bharal and Przewalski’s gazelle: three animals from the roof of the world, and why they form a series of their own in the collection.
Every 1:20 replica in the collection passes through the same six stages, from a study of the animal to a hand-painted resin cast. The Process sets them out briefly. This note explains why each one exists, and what it means for the piece that arrives at your door.
Before any modelling begins, the species is studied: skeletal proportions, musculature, posture, and photographs and video of living animals where they exist. For extinct fauna the fossil record takes their place: skull shape, limb proportions, tooth wear and, where they survive, frozen carcasses and cave art.
That study is then fixed in a measured drawing, usually at 1:20. The drawing is the reference that stops the proportions drifting during modelling, which is easy to do over weeks of work on a small figure.
The original sculpture is modelled in heat-hardened clay over a wire armature. The armature carries the weight and holds the pose, which matters for long-legged animals and for anything with a raised head, a trunk or wide antlers. Surface detail, from hair and skin folds to the scutes of a tortoise shell, is worked directly into the clay.
Once the original is finished it is moulded in silicone. The mould is what makes a small run of copies possible without sculpting each one again from scratch, and it records the surface of the clay faithfully.
The copies are cast in polyurethane resin, a material that is light, rigid and stable. Larger pieces are cast hollow, which keeps the weight down and the wall thickness even.
Each casting is cleaned, and the seam lines left by the mould are removed by hand. Then it is painted in acrylics, layer by layer. This is the longest stage of all, and the reason no two copies are ever strictly identical: tones, transitions and small details vary from one piece to the next, as they would between two animals of the same species.
Nothing is kept in stock. Each piece is cast, finished and painted after the order is placed, which normally takes around fifteen days before it ships. Larger or more complex pieces can take longer, and you will be told before work begins.
The 1:35 range is produced differently. These figures are printed in resin and supplied unpainted and lightly sanded, for collectors who prefer to paint their own or want a smaller, more affordable version of a species from the 1:20 collection.
For a species that is not in the catalogue, see Commissions.
Kiang, bharal and Przewalski’s gazelle: three animals from the roof of the world, and why they form a series of their own in the collection.
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