Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) |
Thylacine: Approximately 1/10 scale, one piece cast. Included is a rectangular resin base for display. The model comes unpainted easy to assemble with a minimum amount of preparatory cleanup before being ready to paint. All Thylacine models are hand cast with Por-A-Kast resin at The Alchemy Works.
Thylacine Now available through The Alchemy Works |
| #0060 |
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Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephaplus)
The Thylacine (also know as the Tasmanian wolf, or Tasmanian Tiger)
were large marsupial predators that formerly ranged over all of mainland
Australia as well as Tasmania. Their distribution became refined to Tasmania
after they disappeared from mainland Australia around 3,000 years ago.
The Thylacine was similar to a large dog in build with a head like a possum
and had a tail most similar to that of a kangaroo. They had 13-21 stripes
that started on the back and ran the length of the tail. Like all Marsupials,
Thylacines had a pouch in which they carried their young. Their pouch
opened backwards and would hold as many as 4 pups. Tasmanian 
Thylacines flourished until 1802 when European
settlers arrived and introduce large herds of sheep to the island. The
abundance of slow, easy to kill sheep became an irresistible food source
for the Thylacine. As a result, the Thylacine was perceived as a threat
and should be exterminated. Their fate was sealed in 1888 when the Tasmanian
government placed a bounty on them paying £1 for an adult and 10
shillings per pup. Between 1888 and 1908, over 2,200 were killed as well
as many of which no bounty was claimed. Human hunting along with a changing
habitat was too much to endure. The last reported Thylacine to be shot
in the wild was in 1932, only four years before the last one in captivity
died in 1936. Supposed Thylacine sightings have persisted over the last
64 years but no conclusive evidence has been found confirming their continued
existence.
Giant Moa (Dinornis giganteus) |
Moa: Approx. 1/15 scale, one piece cast. The model comes unpainted with no assembly needed with a minimum amount of preparatory cleanup before being ready to paint. All Moa models are hand cast with Por-A-Kast resin at The Alchemy Works.
Moa Now available through The Alchemy Works |
| #0061 |
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Moa (Dinornis giganteus)
Moa is the common name that is used to describe any number of
large wingless ratite birds that once inhabited the forests of New Zealand.
There are believed to have been as many as 11 different species ranging
in sizes from a large turkey (Euryapteryx curtis) to a massive
2 metres at the shoulder (Dinornis giganteus) but most averaging
about the same size as a modern day 
emu.
Most Moas are depicted, either through illustration or mounted skeleton,
as standing upright with their neck stretched high in the air, but recent
studies have suggested that their neck was naturally positioned in a S-shape
with their heads held level with their bodies. Moas are believed to have
become extinct as a result of the first humans, the Maori, who settled
in New Zealand approximately 1,000 years ago. Introduced species such
as rats and domestic dogs aided in their down fall but the blunt end of
the damage is attributed to over exploitation as an easy food source by
native human populations. This theory is supported by evidence depicting
numerous butchering and cooking sites that has been uncovered by archaeologists.
The different species of moa probably became extinct at different times.
Exactly when the Moa became extinct is uncertain but it is unlikely that
any of the species survived into the time of the first contact with Europeans,
in 1770.