This is a quick explanation of what we were doing during our three days of involvement.

It should be noted that by the time Cari and I came onto the scene, two years of work had already been completed and the crew were in the home stretch. Steve Sekulic, a mutual friend, had directed us Brian's way in response to an open call for able bodies.

On the day we arrived, the main form of the dino was already complete and sheets of precast skin texture had been tacked into place. The sheets varied in size from several square feet to strips a few inches wide.

We were among the group tasked with "chasing" the seams. This process involved filling the gaps between the sheets of skin texture with warm squishy blobs of plasticene and sculpting the plasticene into a transitional texture. In this way the gaps are filled and conflicting textures are smoothed into one another.

Roll your mouse over the image below to see how this example might be chased. Comparing the "before" and "after" images, you can easily see where new texture was formed over old.

The finished results actually looked two-tone like that. The colours were not an issue since the dino is used to form a mould from which is cast a new fiberglass dino. It is the fiberglass dino which is painted up and delivered to the customer.

So what happens to the original plasticene dino after the casting process? Believe it or not, it is dismantled and most of the several hundred pounds of plasticene are reclaimed for the next project!