More Gator Shots

My good friend Steve Berkheimer sent me some more great photos of alligators and they show him in the reeds and lilly pads. Excellent!

If you have some good swamp photos, would you share them with me?

On The Road Again!

I'm off to Enid, Oklahoma for a three day trip this morning. To keep me out of bars and away from wild women in the evenings, I've included a current issue of Model Railroader and about 50 photos of alligators to study. During the trip I'll draw and sketch 12 gator models that I'll build in clay and cast.

We'll need lots of these critters in all sizes!

I used to carry modeling tools with me, but they really confuse the rocket scientist that work for Homeland Security. They either won't check my bag or steal them.

So I do my design work when I'm on the road.

Close Up Pictures of an Alligator

On my trip to Birmingham we stopped for a visit to the Birmingham Zoo, which is quite nice. They had a "swamp" there and a big old fat American Alligator. He obliged me by sitting very still and only stretching once in a while as he baked in the sun. I shot several hundred detail photos of this fellow.


The swamp was covered in duck week, a green moss that completely blankets the top of the water.
Just under the surface are small turtles and frogs....and....

Alligators! This bull gator was about eight feet long and probably weighed around 900 lbs.


This fellow is one of two that I could see. He was basking in the sun and the duck weed was stuck all over his body. A nice bit of camouflage.

This is as close as the zoo would let me get to the alligator. Actually, I wouldn't have even gotten that close except that it is a good ways down to his pen and lots of steel wire separates us.

I have GREAT respect for alligators as I once watched a buddy of mine become a snack for one about the same size as this gator. If you want the story, post a comment saying so and I'll write it down.

Sculpting Alligators

In the 1920's Okefenokee Swamp, the alligators still reigned supreme. While the average gator was about 8 feet long, specimens in excess of 13 feet were common and reports of gators around 16 feet were not unheard of.

In order to model the swamp I think I'll need about 12 alligator masters to make about 40 models. The gators available as parts in 0 scale stink, so I'll have to carve my own. I took a stab at it today and my first effort was really good, but I got the head dimensions wrong. So, let's start studying alligators and taking pictures.

Information on Alligators

American Alligators

Gator Pictures

Computer Model of Alligator