"I want my dinosaur model to look as close as possible to the real thing." MeetaModelScientist
adapted from Owl Magazine
Garfield Minott has been making dinosaur models since he was seven years old. Back then, he made dinosaurs just for fun. Today, his passion for making models has turned into a cool and unusual dinosaur job.
When did you become interested in models?
I've been making models ever since I was a kid growing up in Jamaica. My mom used to bake a lot and whenever she did, she would teach me how to mould things out of flour. In those days, I was crazy about lizards so that's mostly the kind of models I made.
How do you make your models?
Once I've researched in books and bones, I make a rough drawing. Then, I make a skeleton of the body out of welded steel. Next, I start layering on the muscles, which are made out of clay. When that's done, I start on the skin. If the dinosaur had scales, then I make the scales and layer them on one at a time. This could take three to five weeks. I want my dinosaur models to look as close as possible to the real thing.
When did you get hooked on dinosaurs?
When I was seven years old, my family moved to Canada. Because I was in a new country, I became a pretty shy kid. One day my teacher asked me what kinds of animals I liked. Of course I said "lizards." She said, "Well, if you like lizards you must like dinosaurs." I had no idea what a dinosaur was. She took me to the library, pulled a book off the
shelf, and showed me my first dinosaur. I went totally bananas!
Did you ever imagine a career with dinosaurs?
When I was a kid, I had a kit that came with tiny models of dinosaurs. I used these models to play "dinosaurs" with friends. But, after a while I learned about more kinds of dinosaurs than I had in my kit-- so I made the ones I didn't have out of Plasticine. And, if my T. rex got hungry and ate a whole herd of models, I had to make new dinosaurs very quickly! I did this so often that I became good at building models in no time at all. That's how I became a model expert.