Dinofelis (“terrible cat”) is a genus of Machairodontin saber-toothed cats belonging to the tribe Metailurini that lived approximately 5-1.5 million years ago. Dinofelis is known as a “false saber-tooth” cat because, instead of true saber-teeth, it had a cross between long, flat saber-teeth and the cone-shaped teeth of the modern-day felines. A Dinofelis was about the size of a Leopard or Jaguar.
Any pictures of these beasts are of course conjectural, as all we have is fossil evidence to go on. Some images show Dinofelis with tiger stripes, others with markings similar to a leopard.
The Deezee range of pre historic animals contains a model of a Dinofelis. Since I have retired, the DeeZee range is no longer available on line. However, there are plans to change this and the range should appear back on line in early 2025, all being well. In the meantime, my plan to personally paint each one of the 39 packs available in the range continues with DZ14, Dinofelis. Painting these miniatures gives me a pleasant break from my usual military subjects and a chance to indulge my imagination. There are two identical models in the pack but I chose to paint them in a slightly different colour scheme.
The first version that I painted, had a golden yellow coat with leopard spots. The main body was painted with Vallejo Gold Brown 70877, over brushed with the same colour lightened with Iraqi Sand 70819.I used Ivory 70918 for the underbelly and face, highlighting with off white 70820. The spots were painted on with German Cam. Black Brown 70822 which I thought was less harsh than using pure black. I did pick out his nose eyes and mouth with 70950 Black and finished the model with a light wash of Army painter soft tone.
Version two of the Dinofelis was painted in a lighter brown colour. This time I started with Cork brown 70843 overbrushed with German Cam. Beige 70821. The spots were painted with Chocolate brown 70872 and then the centre’s picked out with Beige Brown70875 to get a ‘rosette’ effect. As with version one, the underbelly was painted with Ivory, highlighted with Off white and the details picked out in black. Again, a light coat of soft tone was applied to bring everything together and give some shading.
So another pack of DeeZee can be crossed off of my list. It only took an evening to paint these models and as I have said, it was a nice break from my usual subjects. Indeed, painting the spots was quite therapeutic!
Happy Modelling!