Homemade 1:40 scale whale models.

[callmejoe3]

Since last week, I've begun trying my first hand at doing homemade models for whale species that companies have yet to release, atleast at my desired scales. 1:40 scale was the most optimal in my collection, so that's where I aimed. I found a tutorial online where someone made a nice humpback whale using paper mache, so that's where I started.

I started with cardboard armatures. I used illustrations from my field guide to get the contours and proportions right. Without the flukes, the sperm whale was 40cm and the fin whale was about 65cm.





I think wrapped the armatures with bubble wrap and masking tape.


Afterward, I added paper strips with paste. I gave it the night to dry, then I added the clay. The steps called for homemade paper clay, but I didn't have the patience. I decided to instead use air-dry crayola natural clay that I added water to so it can be spread with a butter knife. It worked well enough, however, I ran into an issue with cracks. I managed to get most of it, but some were left behind, especially on the sperm whale, but the models themselves are still stable, with no peeling. Both models are kinda rough in their own way, but I'm satisfied given my lack of sculpting experience.

Here are the finished products.



The fin whale is 67.5cm when measuring from fluke to snout. This represents the maximum-sized 27-meter individuals of the Antarctic subspecies. This corresponds well with the Kaiyodo MSA Blue whale, which represents an exceptional 31.2-meter Antarctic blue whale. The fin whale is probably too robust for my tastes, but I guess it's not too bad.



For the paint job, I made sure to observe the fin whale's characteristic asymmetrical coloration on top of the head, with a white blaze on the right side of the jaw. I also made sure to depict the chevron. It's hard to tell in this lighting, but I sculpted little divets for the eyes.





Sculpt-wise, one of the bigger missteps was the stalk looking pretty rough around the fluke.


One thing I made sure to capture was the throat pleats. Fin whales have between 50-100 of these. I didn't count how many I sculpted, but I'm willing to bet I was close.



Due to the size of this fin whale, I decided to make sure it was female by adding the mammary slits, as this sex remains the record-holders across all mysticetes. A male would probably max out between 24-26 meters.



Here's the sperm whale. The lighting from the flash, unfortunately, exacerbates the cracks in the model.



Unlike my nautical model, I made sure the blowhole was accurate.


I think the jaw looks quite nice.


I made a little notch below the white stripe for the genital slit.


This how the sperm whale compares to the MBA female and calf. The male is 44cm, corresponding to a 17.6-meter male. I was trying to go a more average animal of 16-meters, but this is still less of an outlier compared to the 19.4-meter nautical sculpture I have. For reference, the largest sperm whale believed to have been accurately recorded was a 20.7-meter male caught off the Kuril Islands. Museum specimens of sperm whale jaws surpassing 5 meters, provide physical evidence supporting the existence of individuals of similar size.



I think it looks very nice from the top view.

[sirenia]

Good work mate, great start on homemade figures. Any more on the horizon?

[callmejoe3]

Good work mate, great start on homemade figures. Any more on the horizon?

I've burned through most of my materials for these two models. Though once I'm in a better spot, I plan on using the proper paper clay DIY recipe rather than moisten air-dry clay.

Gonna go for a Balaenid, either a right whale or bowhead whale. I may also end up re-doing the figures I've done here, I feel by slimming down the armatures to account for the clay build-up, the figures will look significantly better. And after getting a better handle on the fin whale, I will likely begin the smaller rorquals like the Sei, Bryde's, and Omura's whales.

It's a bit boring to stick with whales, but until I become a more competent sculptor, it's probably best to build practice with animals whose anatomy I have a good grip on.

[Loon]

Great work @callmejoe3. I did not expect these to rival the Kaiyodo Blue Whale when I clicked on ths link, but dang, they're impressive. I'd love to see more from you, as you clearly have a talent. That, and huge whale figures are very much "my thing."

[callmejoe3]

Great work @callmejoe3. I did not expect these to rival the Kaiyodo Blue Whale when I clicked on ths link, but dang, they're impressive. I'd love to see more from you, as you clearly have a talent. That, and huge whale figures are very much "my thing."

Thanks.

[callmejoe3]

So now that I have some free time, I decided to re-do the fin whale and sperm whale from last time, and it was worth it! After applying the lessons learned from the first batch, the end result were leaner, more realistic-looking models than last time!






What I did this time was account for how the armature was gonna be lengthed by the end of the process. The original was 55cm, now it is 59.5cm. That scales to a 23.8m/78ft fin whale. I specifically modeled this one after the Southern subspecies, B.p.quoyi.


Overall, I made a lot of improvements to alleviate the deficiencies of the original model. I owe all of this to the use of the proper homemade clay and better measurement-taking for the armatures. You should also notice how the coloration pops so much more.




I also adhered to details like the asymmetrical coloration, the mammary slits, and how I did the throat pleats with the serrated edge of a butter knife, which yielded a great outcome!





My goal for a  fin whale model was for fitting in with my Mega Sofubi Advance Blue whale and Monterey Bay Aquarium 1:40 scale whales, and it certainly succeeds there. Much better than the one I made in February.





Now here's the sperm whale:






Looks great with the MBA female sperm whale and calf!
[

[Isidro]

Infinitely better now! You've improved a lot on both models, especially the much thinner caudal peduncle and the skin texture now without cracks.

[callmejoe3]

Infinitely better now! You've improved a lot on both models, especially the much thinner caudal peduncle and the skin texture now without cracks.

Thank you.

[callmejoe3]

Next in our lineup is the Pygmy right whale (Caperea marginata), the smallest extant mysticete and possible cetotheriid. The model measures 15.5cm, which corresponds to 6.2 meters at the 1:40 scale









I think it's alright. The rostrum could've been narrower and I probably should've gone the extra step and used the drywall joint compound to smooth out the skin like I did on the larger whales instead of just using a sanding sponge. Either way, I'm satisfied with it for now.

[callmejoe3]

I chose to update the color scheme. It was initially quite difficult to settle on one because there are individuals with complex colorations and some with simple countershading. I initially tried depicting a complex variant, but it didn't pan out correctly, so I settled for a simpler look. However, that look didn't work for me either. I think it was because I still chose to keep that gray band by the flipper, so looked like I couldn't settle on a complex or simple look. I went back and took another shot at a more complex color scheme and I think it works now.

[Isidro]

What's that bowhead whale in the background? It looks like much larger than the CollectA one that I have!

[callmejoe3]

What's that bowhead whale in the background? It looks like much larger than the CollectA one that I have!

That's the Safari one that I red-did the eyes one. Don't let the forced perspective fool you, it's the same size as the CollectA figure. However, I am working on a giant 1:40 scale model of an 18-meter bowhead right now.

[Isidro]

Ahh, great job with the eye repaint

[callmejoe3]

New models already! Balaenids! This time I was just gonna do the bowhead whale and move on to the right whale briefly after. However, since Amazon messed up on the shipping of the joint compound I needed for the clay, things got delayed, and I decided to use my spare time to get the right whale done as well.















And here are the finished models. I'm really glad I got to do both in the end. While I prefer the bowhead whale as a species, it would feel weird not to have the right whale as it's honestly more iconic. I personally think they may be my best models so far. Not necessarily because of the practice I got from the previous 5, but also because I took special attention to get the species-specific traits correct. It's tempting to just make the two balaenids share the same base and simply add callosities to the right whale. However, that didn't sit right with me. I wanted to make the sculpts as species-specific as possible, as there are notable differences in the head/face anatomy.




The bowhead is 45.4cm long, which corresponds to an exceptional female of 18.16 meters. A whale that large would likely exceed 100 metric tons. The right whale is 41.3cm long, scaling to 16.52 meters and at about 67 metric tons. The right whale is specifically modeled after the North Pacific subspecies, Eubalaena japonica.




I took very careful measures for the anatomy, such as minding the more prominent notch on the bowhead, the right whale's narrower rostrum, and the differences in the mouthline. It's rectangular on the right whale while the bowhead's is semicircular.





I wanted to add traits to evoke E.japonica in the right whale, but all three species overlap very much morphologically. The only things are that the E.japonica's rostral callosities are more continuous and it usually lacks callosities along the lips of their lower jaw, like below.



This was a late-in-process addition to the sculpt of the bowhead. While this species lacks dorsal fins, they do possess a hump on the caudal end of their tailstocks. Didn't notice it until I used the reference illustrations from my field guides.



I sculpted just a genital slit for the male right whale and the mammaries for the female bowhead. While both whales are similarly corpulent, the bowhead has a longer body, and thus more mass. That was intentional as the bowhead is the larger species.

[callmejoe3]

Okay, this time I finished of the sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) and Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera edeni/brydei)... twice. What happened was that the fIRST pair of models felt mediocre to me after having done such a good job on the Balaenids. So I went back to the drawing board and took better care with the next models.

Here's the comparison. For side-shots, the old figure is always on top.

Sei whale




Old is on right, new is on left.


Bryde's whale




New is on top.


The Sei whale is 43.9cm long, which scales to 17.56 meters in length at the 1:40 scale. Bryde's whale is 35.6 cm/ 14.24 meters. Of the Bryde's whales, only the offshore variant (B.brydei) can achieve such a length. Here's a photo with my other 1:40 Balaenoptera.


Since these are the last models I'll be making for the time being, here's what my 1:40 collection looks like right now. The dolphins are technically slightly too large for 1:40, but I keep them because they're too small to stick out at all.

[callmejoe3]

Used some joint compound to give the Bryde's and Sei whale some facial reconstruction to smooth out some rough edges

Byde's
New


Old


Sei



I also had to smooth out the sides of the body and retouch some of the paintjob on the Bryde's whale. I took the opportunity to give the whale a more convincing diffused boundary between the top and bottom. It looks much more convincing.

New


Old