Animal Upgrades for Arks

3D Elephants

My typical style of animal is what I call a "flatty".  The animal shape is cut from 1 inch pine and painted with alot of detail to give it the illusion it's three dimensonal. When I started to  build my elephants a 1 inch flat elephant just looked ridiculous.  If I was going to glue two 1" pieces together then I thought I should make the legs in different positions so the finished elephant would look like it had 4 legs.  I further sanded the trunks and tusks with my Dremel so they had more shape.  Thus was born the 3D Animals.  The elephants were so loved that I started to work on the other animals and now have 3D Buffalos, Giraffes, Gorillas, pandas, buffalos, camels and kangaroos.

3D Camel

3D Gorilla

3D Giraffe

3D Panda

The kangaroos have one layer and their arms and legs are glued to each side.  I may rework this one as the way it's designed the arms could break off and be a choking hazard.  I'm still working on animals with big tails.  What do you think?

3D Kangaroo

My favorite right now is the Buffalos.  They have such big, shaggy heads so I added two more layers in the front and sanded them back to meet the body.

3D Buffalo

I also have been using the Dremel to give ears and horns a little more definition.  Paint is still what makes them look real and what I love to do,    I've got the moose almost ready and will be working on tigers next.  I've decided to keep the small animals one piece.  They "fit" in size and proportion.