Incoming raptor photoshoot

The raptor trio figures are finished!

I ended up finishing the painting on Swiftdive and Treeclimber's tails sooner than expected, so they were already done by the time I started attaching them to the bases. Probably for the best.

I put a big blob of glue on the bases under the raptors' feet, then left that to dry for a day, so the raptors will stay mostly still while I work on the next step.

The glue holds them attached to the bases, but it's flexible, so to keep them standing up how I want them, I built epoxy putty under and around their feet. Like when drying the glue, I had them propped up on something at the right height by a hand or tail tip, and then carefully added bits of putty where they were needed. The putty is basically rock when it's cured, but while it's soft I needed to keep the raptors from leaning onto it and flattening it with their weight. The putty also acts as extra glue, since it attaches firmly to what it's applied to.

After letting the putty cure for another day, time for finishing touches! I painted the putty, and some of the clay around it to blend it. Then I attached some of the pebbles I'd made here and there, using both glue and blobs of paint to secure them - glue will be the primary adhesive, and the paint will make the pebble look more like it's sunken in the ground a bit. I also attached a couple more blades of grass in the holes I'd made with a sewing pin to the putty while it was soft.

I'm glad I painted the raptors before attaching them to the bases, I had a hard enough time getting the putty and ground paint around their feet with the plants in the way. I tried not to mind too much when I inevitably got some of the brown paint on their feet or onto the plants, though. Nature is messy.

Leader joined her wife and their husband for the last step, which was painting little shine dots on their eyes (except on Leader's left eye). I used a round-tipped darning needle as a dotting tool for that. I'm leaving them alone now to dry all of that for the rest of the day, and hopefully soon I'll get to have a photoshoot to properly show off the finished figures.

Phew, I did manage to finish them before the end of the year! :D