Creative Beast Studio reveals WIP paint job for BotM Triceratops 2.0
Chris Brennan’s WIP Triceratops 2.0 turns the BotM herbivore into a lesson in skin texture, contrast and color zoning, building on the June 5 design reveal.
Creative Beast Studio’s June 10 WIP paintwork reveal for the 1/18th scale Beasts of the Mesozoic Triceratops horridus 2.0 is more than a preview. With Chris Brennan of St. Archangel Customs on the brush, the figure reads like a practical study in how to make a big dinosaur miniature feel like a living animal instead of a flat display piece.
That matters because the Triceratops 2.0 already arrived with a strong design story behind it. Creative Beast Studio first showed the color direction on June 5, calling the ceratopsian the nemesis of the 1/18th T. rex 2.0 and saying the scheme was inspired by the company’s sub-adult Triceratops. The new WIP takes that idea and pushes it into finish work, where believable prehistoric skin depends on breaking up a huge surface into readable zones, not drowning the model in one undifferentiated coat.
The updated head sculpt by Jake Baardse gives painters even more to work with. Creative Beast Studio said new evidence points to Triceratops having a fully scaled head crest, which turns the face into a natural focal point for texture and contrast. On a piece this large, that kind of sculpt detail is exactly where the eye lands first, and Brennan’s paintwork appears built to capitalize on it.
There is also a lesson here for anyone painting monsters, dinosaurs or big display creatures: start with a real animal reference, then translate it into a creature design that still feels grounded. Creative Beast Studio leaned on its own sub-adult Triceratops for the color design, and that choice keeps the scheme rooted in age, biology and mass instead of fantasy camouflage. It is the same kind of decision that makes a figure look convincing at arm’s length and still interesting up close.
Brennan’s involvement also shows why he keeps getting tapped for these showcases. He handled painted prototype reveals for Ceratosaurus dentisulcatus in April 2026 and Ceratosaurus in March 2026, adding Triceratops 2.0 to a run of major BotM and Beasts of the Cenozoic work. Creative Beast Studio, which marked 10 years of Beasts of the Mesozoic after launching its first Kickstarter on April 27, 2016, described the new Triceratops as another addition to its Mesozoic herbivores.
The appeal of this WIP is simple: it takes the earlier color reveal and shows how the idea survives contact with paint, texture and scale. That is where a good dinosaur miniature stops looking planned and starts looking real.
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