Hey folks, I'm a long-term airplane modeler, but now I'm working on dinosaur with my grandson. I'll let him loose with acrylic paints on it. But any suggestions other than battleship gray for colors?

Look at the birds in your backyard, chickens, geese, frogs, lizards, snakes, reptiles, predatory mammals and their prey. Evolution would suggest patterns that are successful today would have been succesful 70 million years ago.

Google National Geographic dinosaurs and here's link with tons of pics. Basically, you are free to choose any color scheme and pattern that makes reasonable sense since there is virtually no evidence of color patterns.

Since dinosaurs did not last, evolution would prove that modern patterns would not have been present in the jurassic period. However, we don't really know what color(s) dinosaurs were. Let your/his imagination run wild.

Some of the recent research suggests that dinosaurs were very colourful and so other than lurid colours you should be good to go. I would suggest thinking about their enviroment as woodland creatures would most likely be coloured to blend in, where as the very large and water based animals seem to have been far more garish.

Can't beat a Dinosaur to get them started. The key is imagination, then cry havoc and let rip with the airbrush!!

I'm not sure what you mean by dinosaurs didn't last. They were around for 180 million years, long enough to develop camo schemes to fit their environment. Modern animals began to replace the environmental niches held by the dinosaurs only 65 million years ago.

Since this is your grandsons build let him paint it ANY colours he wants.
NOBODY will be able to prove him wrong!

I would check with Gaston before you start painting!



If you look at modern reptiles there is no limit to the colours and patterns to be found. As previously stated, it's all about the joy of the build, so just fire it up!

Cheers, D

Thanks folks. Sorry for the late reply, been out in the wilds of Texas where the internet don't grow. Looks like I can let him loose with a paint brush and any acrylic paints (no Purple!) I've got in the stash.