All the materials were less than $10, but the real cost was this guy's sanity 😅 Seriously though, amazing work!

I'm not a paleontologist...but I'm a professional sculptor and I can say that you have done a great job. Also that the problems you have had are an absolutely normal part of the profession. Each project is totally different. Congratulations and cordial greetings from Spain.

"dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good" life changing quote right there this turned out incredible! definitely considering doing this now :)

A few tips which I hope are helpful: You can use Gorilla glue to stick the foam together. I have used that for making wargames terrain with foam (at least the stuff you stick in the caulk gun), it has a super strong bond. You can also water down the wall filler, or at least I know you can do this with a product like Polyfilla. You could also try using a product like Sculptamold, which is plaster powder mixed with paper fibers. 14:06 You could try mixing paint with matte Modpodge and brushing it on, again another terrain making trick. That provides a hard surface which protects the foam underneath if you want to spray it afterwards! Also this is awesome and would love to try making one myself!

This is unironically one of the best foam prop tutorials on the platform. Great job! Also this process can definitely be used to make a whole skeleton... ideas

I like how the topcoat actually added to the weathered effect by melting the foam.

Honestly? I would pay you to make a utahraptor skull for me. I don't have the time to be crafty like this. Your allosaurus skull came out amazing!

That's pretty impressive even compared to museum quality replicas. It would be cool to see a lower jaw or a fully articulated skeleton! Great video though! I look forward to seeing what comes next

Underrated work! Keep up the work man!

i love how honest this video is

This popped into my feed randomly, and I'm subscribing! I love your voice // voiceovers and the way you take all the downsides in stride, a true "trust the process"

In some cases it's actually the solvent mediums in aerosol spray products that is melting the foam, so you can try spraying from much farther away which gives the solvents time to evaporate before landing. I've done it with spray paint before and it worked pretty well.

I absolutely love this video. It’s so inspiring to see a total amateur doing something like this and actually showing how painful and complicated things can get but still just keep doing and learning and eventually achieving something amazing 😍

This was great, I am inspired.

you just awakened my inner child

My favorite "glue" is Great Stuff expanding foam. Pin your pieces together so the foam doesnt expand and push your parts apart, but you can also re-fill holes and gaps with the great stuff, and razor off any flashing.

End results speak for itself! One thing i would have done, as some cosplayers do, would have been to print the templates of your cut outs in the scale that you wanted, cut, and then just transfer that onto the foam; opposed to the printed screen shots and grid lining. lol as far as glueing foam goes, its best to glue foam with foam. Spray foam, and lay your part over. That way there will be no hinder in sanding. Halloween industry for large prop making and car custom bodies do this way.

It’s been such a long time since the last time I just sat down and watched a video, start to finish focused on only doing that. I take that as an indicator that I really like watching you do whatever you do. So please keep doing stuff!

It only took 10$.....and a week of labor.... and a ton of specialized expertise honed to perfection!

barge cement is made for shoe construction and repair, but cosplayers use it for foam armor all of the time. it sands pretty well, but no adhesive will be perfect.

So you physically did what an MRI scan does . Cool idea ! The result looks great. Thanks for the share. :O)

This is a great project! Foam clay (cosplayers use it a lot) is great for detail work like the teeth, because it air dries, and with something light like your foam skull, it might match the weight and feel a bit better. Plus, you can stick it to many surfaces before it dries, and it stays in place really well.

"When your only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail" - I didn't think I'd ever take life advice from a youtube video but I'm gonna live by that from now on. Great work on the skull! The wonderful about organic, especially old organic materials is they can be wobbly and bumpy and weird, because that's what nature looks like. Anything that goes wrong is just character!

I really LOVE the use of an existing 3D file without a printer and the fact that it works for larger 3D objects is actually a bonus. Great project with a hack that I will use on puppet builds for sure. Thanks!

As an actual fossil technician whose main job it was to clean and repair dinosaur teeth, yours are surprisingly accurate but for all the wrong reasons XD A lot of dino teeth have breaks in them as they can be pretty fragile and where the outer layer of the tooth cracks you get chips and scratches like your "dino battle damage". Actual wear of the teeth would come in the form of very smooth flat spots just where one tooth was rubbing against the other and the general surface texture is a lot like our fingernails - smooth but with ridges!

I did a vaguely similar project a few years back. I do fairly elaborate Halloween displays and one year I did Jurassic Yard. One of my features was a 13 ft. Tyrannosaurus skeleton. I spent most of the winter before carving that thing out of insulation foam in my garage. Not anywhere as detailed as your skull. I bought a T-Rex model and used the individual pieces for reference. Your video brought back memories, some good some bad! Great job!

So you effectively did manually what a 3D printer does on a larger scale, interesting. For adhesive I would suggest foam-safe super glue (normal super glue will melt the foam). It's a bit pricey but from what I've heard it doesn't inhibit carving much.

Brother I've got three words for you Foam Safe Superglue. Also is you add the smallest amount of dish soap to your washes it helps break the surface tension of the water and the wash flows into the details a lot better. Awesome build man, the end product is stellar.

My red flag is thinking I could do something this impressive so easily. Also it is insanely impress that this is one of your first videos, because it has the exact same feel as the Blacktail Studio table guy. Amazing work

through watching this video i was so surprised when it got to the bit you said it was your first video! the editing, narration, and touches of humor gave the impression that this was made by a long time creator who already had their audience. i came here from the kitty chair video and got the same impression!

Dude! Been chipping away at an eva foam T- Rex replica after seeing one at a museum. My brother in adult childhood. Keep it up!

A top tip for getting rid of the stringy hot glue strands. Use a heat gun and they’ll evaporate into thin air

That came out nice! Any time you make something new, it is an adventure. You might do it differently next time, but that is because you did it this way this time. Thanks for sharing.

I really should thank the KZfaq algorithm for bestowing upon me this great channel haha 😆 I saw the cat counter video you made and enjoyed it so much I clicked on your channel to see more, and I was honestly so surprised when there was only three videos! I was convinced that you would have a channel full of great videos like that one. I really like the easy going feel of your videos, the subtle humor and the fact that you really show the trial and error process that goes into making this stuff. I really hope to see more of your videos in the future!

Love this! I was terrified when you didn't mention sealing the foam when so many products can melt and evaporate it, but glad it all worked out. It looks good, especially for a first try!

A little tip use some more colours than tan and browns to give it that extra depth. I made a sheep horn replica and used alot of deep purples, bright yellows and some reds underneath the browns and tans to create more depth and variance. But yeah great work it looks realy nice.

Your video was so good I created an account on KZfaq to let you know. I found it very wholesome to watch someone work on something they are passionate it about. Looking forward to more videos!

I saw the "rocking around" joke coming from a mile away but it still got a chuckle out of me 😅

What a painful process but good on you for persevering because the final product looks amazing! Well done!!

Love this - mostly because this clearly makes you happy and you managed to put in the hours to complete it. We should all prioritise this sort of productivity. Looks so good as well.

Randomly finding this in my recommended is pretty damn neat and to think feels so real when its not its pretty incredible :d

I did basically the same thing. I wanted to make a large model but didn't want to pay the 3d print price. I cut the stl into 24 blocks then ran every piece through a slicer designed to make models out of corrugated cardboard. I then printed these out onto paper and cut them out and traced them to cardboard. It would have been a lot easier if I had a laser cutter but I didn't 🤷🏼‍♂️. I then hand cut all the cardboard pieces and stuck them with liquid silicone and then using a glue gun to stick the 24 pieces together. I've plastered the model and I'm currently at the stage of sanding and replastering until I get the finish I want. Great video and great job, I think I'll try foam sheets next time like you did.

man this was awesome! can't believe its your first big video, the editing felt so natural. hope to see more vids from you!!

omg, this makes me so excited! I need a hobby that isn't drawing this year and almost all modelling vids I've seen require so much equipment and cash, this is so innovative and encouraging, thank you! If I do get to try this I think I will use pine wood instead to give it a cool look and be a little sturdier (plus I already have enough wood)

"Every tool is a hammer" sounds like a book title oh wait it is by Adam Savage. What a brilliant project, looking forward to more, it's so cool.

if im honest, i love dinosaurs. my favorite dinosaur is a spinodaurus, and seeing a skull of it would be awesome

Your sense of humor gives me hope for humanity. Well done, sir. Great project.

Dude, when I clicked I could've sworn you had at least 100k subs, super video, super interesting, can't wait for more! Great job!!

This is my goal. I've done smaller simpler projects, fossils, neolithic tools and weapons With similar results. But I started a sabortooth cat skull and didn't get very far due to my lack of carving skills. My tech skills fall quite short to create a computer model. So the skull sits on my "wait" shelf. But your museum quality is absolutely fantastic! I dream of attaining that level of craftmanship in the not to distant future...

You're amazing!! I'm so glad you started filming this, it was an absolute joy to watch. Thank you!

It's important to note that there's different weights of this foam with different density and strengths. A higher weight foam will sand smoother.

broooo a kintsugi style would be dope. you know, the japanese concept of adding gold to the cracks to fix an item. anyways amazing job and would love to see a spinosaur next time

I did similar with a CNC machine and a T-Rex skull. It took nearly a year to do and required a massive amount of hand finishing - I ended up only doing half the skull and mounting it on a mirror on the wall so that the mirror would give it a "depth" feeling. Great job dude - sometimes we can only get the things we love by doing the long yards!

Wooow that's amazing 👏 😍 Using this technique I can build a whole museum 🤩

In my experience normal PVA glue can hold foam sheets together just fine. It does take a while to dry, so there's that. There's also a special glue (which smells like chalk, and looks like drywall filler paste) for attaching foam decorative elements to the ceiling (forgot what it's called), which should work even better

10:00 get you some gloves. Then hold the teeth by the sockets, and paint them individually. An airbrush is not a rattlecan. But after 66m years in the ground, you can brush-paint the teeth.

Damn thats awesome! You should turn it in to a business, I'm sure people will pay plenty for a skull like that!

Great Work! In my world I would try a glue that isn't elastic. Since I'm from Germany, my selection of products is probably a little different. I would try the following glue... - Ponal Express Holzleim (apply it on both sides and press both sides together with a higher contact pressure, wait 5 min) - Holzleim is working with Styrostuff and you can sand it. There could be two problems: 1) the smooth surfaces of the styrostuff are too smooth for the glue. The adhesive surface could be not very resilient, particularly if you apply pressure to it. 2) water-based color can have problems with adhesion, but other colors usually have no problems.

hey, I love your video! Until you said it, I didn't realize you weren't a professional youtuber. Great content, excellent work and very good filming/editing. Keep up the good work!

as someone who loves these kinds of projects but has no idea where to get started, this is really cool to see. (also i love dinosaurs) So thanks for filming and for showing us it's okay to make mistakes!

---> *_Good job._* *_Here's some tips/info:_* *_The scale of how much detail you can get out of XPS foam is the following; from least to most:_* •Pink •Blue •Green.

when i used to use an airbrush, sometimes i'd turn up the PSI on purpose, like 60 or even 75. Sometimes it just looks better or works better for your project

man your channel is going to blow up for sure. very good stage presence haha.

That is so damn cool, and I love how realistic it looks. That is so easily recognizable as an Allosaurus skull, and if I ever get the chance, I am 100% making one of these. Very very well done. Also with the first time video, I would never have guessed that if you hadn't told me that.

Man this video rocks! Hilarious narration i loved the ups and downs and super informative, the project turned out amazing man 👌

Please continue to make videos about whatever you feel like doing. This is a really cool idea, but the little jokes you sprinkled in had me laughing so hard I ended up enjoying your humor more than I was really interested in the idea in the first place.

This build came out really well! I can see some short cuts I would take, to save a little time. Printing the layer references to scale and just tracing them. And maybe for the exterior layer, instead of plaster, maybe wood/plastic putty. Can be less brittle, and more flexible and just as sand-able. So you wouldn't have to struggle with cracks and breakage. Though it can get a bit more expensive than plaster. Also found that exterior wood glue is a great sealer for stuff too, and it can also be sanded.

Saw your cat counter video and now I need more content😭! No but for real, I really enjoy your video style and humor!

You can seal the foam before gluing it can help to stop the foam from dissolving while gluing and painting you can use pva glue or plasti dip as it is a spray

Absolutely love it. Thank you for sharing the fails. You must be a very patient person

4:10 I feel so validated, the skull looked really wide to me!

Damn you are so charming and inspiring!! Thank you for sharing not only the ups but also the downs of such a project! Definetly keep putting out videos, you're such a precious add-on for the whole crafty community on youtube 😊

Killer, I always wanted a life-size dino skull. the model is doable, I wouldn't have the patience to make the pattern. I'd buy a pattern in a heartbeat though. Fantastic work!

This is incredible work! The amount of trial and error and just problem solving made the piece even more worthwhile in the end. It was great to see the process and the final result is literally jaw dropping. Allo's are my favorite dinosaur so I may also be biased. The whole video is so well done, thanks for taking us along for the journey!

bro hit me with the golden eye reference and then basting a turkey within seconds

I love this project. I have always wanted to make a foam dinosaur skull, this method seems so much easier than anything I have considered. To eliminate the hot glue spider webs, hit it with a hair dryer.

I really enjoyed the narration I’ve done a fair amount of the processes in this for tabletop terrain for gaming but the fusion 360 slicing was something I would have never thought of before.

Great video. I like how at the end you give some suggestions on personalizing the skull. How-to videos are always better when they show the maker's mistakes and how they got fixed. I've watched your entire channel now, and really looking forward to seeing your feature content. Keep up the momentum!

Did the same with papier mache and plaster. 70 cm long skull. Love your version. Like that paintjob on it.

Best glue for foam is expanding foam, its what we use in the construction industry

Oh man - thats a lot of work. Thank you for finishing and bringing the video to us!

dude i hope you keep making videos, you have a great personality for youtube and this was a great video

dude i vcant believe youre not like a professional youtuber this is great keep at it

This was an awesome project and a great documentation. You may have a promising KZfaq future! Bravo

I feel lucky to have been recommended this. Good video!

I've been telling myself for years that someday I'll try and make one of those, and thanks to your experience I think I will soon :) thanks for the inspiration !

Looks pretty good to me! I love some of your humorous descriptions.

I don't know how I found your channel, but I'm so very glad I did! 😊 I've just watched each of your videos and I loved them all. Great projects, great videos.... And I love your honesty and humor. Keep posting! I'm happy to be a new subscriber. Cheers and love ❤️

What you can use to glue the foam together is gorilla glue, you just need to take extra care to weigh the 2 layers together, like place heavy flat things on top of the 2 foam layers so that they're pressed together as the gorilla glue cures. The gorilla glue expands, so it'll force the pieces apart if not pressed together. And I recommend duct taping the pieces together on the sides as well to decrease risk of it shifting sideways. Because if there's weight on top, but it tries to expand, it'll possibly push the pieces sideways, because it's similar to air hockey where the only way the forces can move to cause sideways movement. It takes like 40 minutes to cure for the most part, but you can also just leave it like an hour and a half to be extra sure. That glue doesn't destroy foam, I had to use it for one of the most sensitive foams there is for a project. And it'll sort of sand off since it becomes hard and not rubbery. I would advise to scuff up the surfaces first though, maybe add some mini slices/scratches into the 2 surfaces before gluing, just to ensure it has EVEN BETTER grip than just on flat.

Well, this definitely made its way on to my "to do"-list. Great job with the video, I enjoyed it a lot.

Awesome method! PS, I have worked on several actual museum exhibits. Usually the mounts "cradle" the artifact rather than poke into it, just for your reference. And if you really want to make it seem authentic, use a fine sharpie and neatly write a three to five digit number in small print somewhere visible, but unobtrusive. I hope you get a feeling of satisfaction when you look at your finished work. Good job.

That's impressive, dedication is incredible

Damn! It's the exact same process I used to make my dragon skull for the dnd room. I did print the horns and teeth though,I don't think I got the patience in me to work the teeth out like you did. Amazing work!

That's fantastic. It'll come in handy, as i have to help my nephew make some jurrasic park stuff.

Well I'll say... seeing the skull at the beginning of the video you really had me fooled, I thought you knew what you were doing! Honestly it was great and I'm glad you showed most of the whole process, the video was entertaining and you had me enthralled from the beginning. Didn't even realize this video was 20 minutes long, I watched the whole thing and genuinely enjoyed it. I would love to see what else you come up with in the future, so I'm subscribed along for the ride... Hopefully it has to do with more large carnivorous animals. Also dragons, dragons are cool too. ;)

This is so cool. My suggestions would be: 1. Replace the foam board with balsa wood. 2. Replace the hand-drawn cutouts with paper cut on a cricut. 3. Use a dremel to make the initial cuts and the bonification bumps.

This is freaking great! You had better be ready to make some more videos like this and be commissioned to do some others. I’m sure we all would love to see another. Maybe how you would tackle doing a lower jaw.

Dude if This is your first time filming your self damn good job. Looks fantastic and the comments are som funny hope to see more from you 👍🏻🔥

Awesome video. I would definitely watch more. ❤ Great script and your editing pacing turned out really great. I enjoyed hearing about all your failures (that sounds meaner than I meant it.) I think all those happy accidents turned out great.

That looks so cool! I love seeing the whole process. I bought a miniature t rex skelaton once that was made out of pvc. It was kinda white with a bit of green and a paint job made all the difference. A full sized skull would be so much cooler. I really like your approach with the 3d model and cutting it out of foam. This is a project for on my wishlist