{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/zw18k7769g/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Eric Fincher"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/713/original/aviary_default_logo.png?1751992923","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Preferred Citation"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eFincher, Eric. Interview by Christina Hardman. \u003cem\u003ePaluxysaurus jonesi\u003c/em\u003e. June 12, 2025. Paleontological Oral History Program/Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Fort Worth, Texas.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Duration"]},"value":{"en":["00:30:53"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Fort Worth Museum of Science and History"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Eric Fincher (Interviewee)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2025-06-12 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAn exhibit fabricator with Rob Reid Studios and Azle Models. Fincher describes working for over a year to assemble and fabricate the fossil skeleton of Paluxysaurus jonesi for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The project involved significant challenges, such as recreating missing bones and vertebrae using 3D modeling and sculpting techniques. \u003c/p\u003e (abstract)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MP4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["FWMSHPOHEF001 (other)"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAn exhibit fabricator with Rob Reid Studios and Azle Models. Fincher describes working for over a year to assemble and fabricate the fossil skeleton of Paluxysaurus jonesi for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The project involved significant challenges, such as recreating missing bones and vertebrae using 3D modeling and sculpting techniques.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]},"provider":[{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Fort Worth Museum of Science and History"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Fort Worth Museum of Science and History"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/713/original/aviary_default_logo.png?1751992923","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/304/663/small/data?1773424908","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - FWMSH Paleontological Oral History Program: Eric Fincher"]},"duration":1853.0,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/304/663/small/data?1773424908","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egJZqFkRaFM","type":"Video","format":"video/youtube","duration":1853.0,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Eric Fincher [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"AVIARY TRANSCRIPT\r\n\r\nTRANSCRIPTION BEGINS","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=0.0,0.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Introduction: The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Fort Worth, Texas. An interview with Eric Fincher, June 12, 2025. Paleontological Oral History Program.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=0.0,8.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: So I'm Eric Fincher and I live in Decatur, Texas. And at the time we were working on the project, I was, we were working with Robert Reid Studios...in Springtown, and that's where we assembled everything and did all the work there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=8.0,27.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: What do you do now?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=27.0,36.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: I still do the same thing. I still exhibit work, a lot of just fabrication for trade show models, educational models, working exhibits, that kind of thing. But I do it from my home now in Decatur, so I moved my shop from Springtown to Decatur.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=36.0,56.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: How did you become involved in the articulation of Paluxysaurus jonesi?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=56.0,65.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: Well we...all of our work has basically come through Robert Reid. And so with Rob's relationship with the museum and the work that he does, fossil hunting and all that, he had a relationship with Jim Diffily here that was a curator before we started the project, who of course did the bulk of the digging of the project. So we did a lot of work for Robert through the years. And that's really how we got connected with it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=65.0,95.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Can you describe the project once you became involved?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=95.0,104.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: Yeah, it was a lot of work. Like so we worked on the project for over a year. We started probably in the fall of 2008 and finished it in December of 2009. When we first started the project it was just coming in as bits and pieces because we had real bone that's there and then we had to figure out how to make and manufacture the rest of the bone structure that was there. So that was a challenge. So we had to work a lot with Dale and Mike on figuring out how are we going to do this. We were really kind of lost in the beginning and it was a really slow go because we had to develop techniques of how we're going to make this look like real bone, what kind of processes we're going to use. And that's when we had the sculpt...Jay Richardson sculpting for us. He would come in and he worked the whole project with us trying to figure out ways to make things happen. Whenever...the biggest challenge was the leg bones and everything else, they weren't too difficult because we had a lot of those already. It's the vertebra, the caudal of the neck and the tail. So much of that stuff was missing. And the biggest part of it was the pelvis and the skull. And the pelvis was still in a block, I guess, at SMU being excavated. And it was years away from being processed all the way. So, with Mike Polcyn's help and his expertise, he was able to do a lot of 3D modeling of what a lot of the stuff looked like. So, like all the vertebrae, he would actually use a CNC machine and carve them out of foam. And so, we would take maybe one vertebra and we would kind of cheat it. We'd say, okay, this is L5. We're going to use it for L5, L6, and L7 until we have to get smaller or larger, until we get to the real bones that we had. The real bones were challenging too because they're so crushed and misshapen so you kind of had to blend, figure out how to make all that work and fit together. Gary Lovett...it was Gary Lovett, Myself, Jay Richardson, and Jim Diffily, and... Anyway, we worked on that project, I guess...yeah cause it was for a year, but those guys - super talented. Gary was kind of the guy that...real mechanical-minded. You give him a problem and he could figure out the simplest way to do it. So a simple solution to a complicated issue, Gary's your guy. And he started working on the armature to hold the whole thing up. So, while we were working on armature, Jay and Jim... Jim was doing a lot of the communication between Dale and Mike because he's the scientist. He dug the thing up. He knew so much about it. We couldn't have done it without him. Rob Reid is doing all the research on the topic of how can we cheat to make this thing quicker. In fact, we ended up buying a Kimmerosaur skeleton, full-scale, and using bits and pieces and modifying this Kimmerosaur to look like the Paluxysaur [sic]. So we wouldn't have so much structure to build from nothing, and so that was kind of cool. So we were doing all those processes all the time figuring out how to make bones look like bones from foam. So, we would take urethane resins, mix it together with calcium carbonate, make a powder, and thicken it all up. We would just brush it on, and the more powder we put on, the rougher textures we would get. And Rick Duwe, artist out of Greenwood would come in and he would paint and make them look real, do all the staining. And he actually did a little bit of sculpting for us too. There was always challenges with Mike and Dale trying to figure out, how is this articulated? You know, what's the latest, how do we articulate this when it's in pictures? Is this what it's supposed to look like? Or is it not what it supposed to like? And give us some input and feedback on that. And throughout that whole process, the year long, we managed to get it together.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=104.0,369.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Have you worked on any dinosaurs of that size since?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=369.0,379.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: No, no, no. That was it. [laughing] Yeah, we have all the, you know, we had to build armatures and structures to kind of hold things together. You can see in some of the build photos, just to kind of help position things and then it was...It was a lot of fun.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=379.0,400.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Can you talk about any particularly fun or exciting memories?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=400.0,409.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: Yeah, well, I was thinking we had two accidents the whole time the whole year where...Jay was working on something and, you know, with holding all that stuff together, you've got boards and nails and screws and...he was coming down off of a ladder and there was a screw head sticking out. Of course we had to have screw heads stick up to hold the bones in place or just something to capture the bones. And he was coming off the ladder and he hung his arm, middle of his forearm on one of the screws and just ripped it all the way to the muscle. It’s like, “Oh my gosh!” Had to haul him up, he had to get some stitches. You know, towards the end of the project, we were setting the thing up in the shop because it's so huge. We had two forklifts and we were holding the front end and the back end with like a T. And we were raising it up and getting it in position. Earlier that year, just a few weeks before, Gary had to have shoulder reconstruction surgery. And he'd been through physical therapy, but he just didn't have full range of motions. And the orthopedic surgeon said, “We need to put you to sleep and manipulate that thing so you can get your full range emotion.” And physical therapy was so rough. One of the reasons he said, “No, I'm not doing that. I'm happy with the way it is.” So that had gone on and while we're setting this thing up with the forklifts, the back end starts to slide off the end of the forks and we're all standing there and there's guys underneath there working it. And I'm on the phone talking to Rob about an issue with the dinosaur. I just look up and I say, “Hey guys, look out. It's fixing to fall.” About that time it fell and it was like a T-post, the center of it, not really a T-post, but the shape of a T. Gary grabbed it to cushion the blow. And as it...It’s just too heavy, he couldn't stop it. And as that hit the floor, everything was fine. But it tore everything loose in his shoulders turned black and blue. But then he had full range of motion in his shoulder after that. [laughing] So that was really...that was kind of one of the funny stories that kind of happened. Because Gary didn't go to the doctor, he just let the dinosaur manipulate his shoulder so he could get full range motion. And then it was fun installing it here. Because we had all the guys here and we were working like ants, putting the thing together and of course you see the time lapse video of it. It was a lot of fun. I think the Fort Worth Star-Telegram came out one day and did some, did a story on it and Rick Duwe is actually...there's a photo in the Star-telegram of him painting on the dinosaur.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=409.0,579.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: How were you able to deliver it to the museum once the structure and casts were completed?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=579.0,588.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: Well we had to label everything. You know, the armature was so big and the way we had to structure it, the whole structure, we had to be very careful. We had a moving van, we wrapped everything up in packing blankets and brought them all here. And had to lay everything out and get it all in order. And then bring in the base structure and the big structure, and everything just really bolted together. We designed it so that everything would just slide in on a pipe or just different clamps. Clamp it and bolt it together so that the real bones, you know, the real bones we had to be careful with and shape everything around it to hold it in place. Those were the challenging ones because they were so heavy. And, but yeah, we brought it in here and it took, I think, two or three days to get it all assembled.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=588.0,645.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Was the museum open to the public while you installed the fossils?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=645.0,654.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: No, it was while the construction and renovation was going on, so it was closed at the time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=654.0,660.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Were there any other big challenges to the project overll?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=660.0,668.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: Yeah well, at the beginning, it was very frustrating because we were... We just didn't know. You know, we're mechanical and artistic and everything else. We can make things, but we don't have any idea of what this thing is really supposed to look like. Like when Rob's idea was to bring this Kimmerosaur in to help us. And it did. We used bits and pieces of it, but it was a completely different animal. Nothing was the same. I mean, we could use the rib bones. But the vertebrae weren't...so, we were thinking we could use a whole lot more of it, but it's...no. And it wasn't even close, other than the size of it. So at the very beginning, we were struggling with mostly the spine and the neck’s...you know, the big structure of the skull. We didn't have a skull either. We had to come up with that. We modified the Kimmerosaur skull, which doesn't look anything like the Paluxysaur [sic]. But there's bits and pieces of it in there, just structure and teeth. But yeah, but Dale and Mike were a big help with that. Once we got them busy and helping, mostly, I guess, Mike making some parts to get us off a high center to get things moving, because we would build...Jay would sculpt one out, and it would take a while to sculpt one vertebra. We would make molds off of it and then start making others, but you could only go so far with your molds because the sizing was all wrong. So that's what was being so slow and it wasn't progressing very quick. And that's when Mike came in and said, “Well, I think I can help you guys by doing this.” And so he would bring stuff out and that's really what got us off of high center and got things moving. Plus he had to make the pelvis for us, cause like I said, the pelvis was just in a block, which got us, which got us moving. I think originally, Rob was wanting us to have an adjustable base to locate the feet, and we're just like, you know, this is just too big, too heavy. We can't have any room for adjustment in this thing. We've got to have it...we got to know where it's going to sit, where its feet are going to be located, and how they're going to be located because that's going hold the whole thing up. And so, we got that from Dale in the position of the feet. You know, just turning this three degrees this way or five degrees this way. Some of that was challenging because we'd have to take pictures of it and say, well, no, that's not quite right. Well, what do we need to do? And it's hard to communicate that kind of over the phone. So there's a lot of pictures being taken and we would take images of things and blow them up on the wall to give them full scale just so we could make adjustments to all the resources we could find. That's part of what Rob was doing. He was finding this resource after resource after resource, just bringing this stuff all the time. Saying, you know, if here's one, here's this, here's that, it's similar. And yeah, it was a long, arduous process. But, you know, very satisfying once it was all done. It was kind of exciting. It was like, yay, it’s a party.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=668.0,870.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Did you celebrate finishing the project?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=870.0,879.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: I think I told Rob and I told a few other people that on the top of the pelvis, where you can't see, we all signed our names to it, you know, that worked on it. So it's there, just nobody can see it, because it's way up there on the top, so.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=879.0,894.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: What did the path look like for you to be able to do this type of work?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=894.0,903.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: Well, I guess it's just, your life takes you the direction it needs to go, you know. I had a degree in art, but I worked in a lot of construction. And so when I started working for Gary, at the time, we were doing a lot of...a lot of the model and a lot the exhibit work. He was very mechanical, like a machinist engineer type, though he doesn't have the title of engineer. Like I said, he's very good at mechanically thinking and putting things together. My background going through construction and into this, I can kind of do a little bit of everything. So, you know, I can do some of the mechanical I can do, I can do artwork, machine work I can do, the fabrication I can do. Now I can do all that because of my background. And that's kind of how it led into this. So my thing is, Oh, I think I can do that, you know, so. But with, um, Jay, one of the best sculptors I know, he's very good at what he does. He can see things that...details that most people can't see and he's very gifted and talented. Rick, being the artist that he is, he paints murals and his whole house is full of paintings. And that's just his gifting. And Jim just knows everything, you know. He just, like his whole family calls him Mr. Google. So, Jim can do a lot of that stuff too. And so just a bunch of group of guys that we've just all known each other over the years, work real well together, and everybody took their own different part. Like Rick was doing the painting and some of the plastic coating, Jay would do the sculpting, plastic coating. You know working on struc...the armature, the structuring, trying to make sure it all fits together and works and is structurally safe and sound. That's kind of how we ended up dividing the work up where Jim was our liaison, Jim and Rob, to Dale and Mike on what the thing should look like. Yeah, I mean, we had no idea we'd be building a dinosaur. And we've done some other dinosaur work too at the time we were...We did have a triceratops skull. That we were working on, too, for a private collector. This is fun. You know, it's more organic than a lot of the stuff that we typically do. You know where it's like the straight lines and everything's got to fit the drawing, it's gotta be perfect. And that's where these guys, Jay and the artists type guys, that's were they thrive. You know organic, oh I love this, you know. No hard set rules, they wanna color outside of the lines. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=903.0,1085.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Did Paluxysaurus open up opportunities for similar projects in other places?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=1085.0,1094.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: Well, yeah, we've done some work for...and I don't know how it came in...it all goes through Rob, because of his connections, but from a way up to Montana, some Clovis points we've done for the Historical Society up there, done several of those. And even...everybody kind of works together. Karen Carr, we used her to help us with some groundwater conservation districts where we do mobile learning labs for them, and that kind of...everybody's kind of interconnected. You know, I'll call Jay and say, “Hey, I need some rock sculptures for this.” And you know it's a neat little small group, but everybody's got their own unique talents and it all just works so well together when we do get to work together.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=1094.0,1144.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: How has technology changed the way that you do this type of work?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=1144.0,1155.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: Oh, it’s changed a bunch. Yeah, we were...when we first started back in the mid-90s, we were building things off of paper prints, drawing it. Rob would draw something and say, “I need this made.” And Rob is still that way, to where when we started working with Mike, he's had a little 3D scanner, scanning a little bitty rock, and taking half a day to do it, to where he can just do it in minutes now. That's the first time I'd seen that. Whereas now we're doing... 3D scanning and 3D printing to help, where everything was before, everything was done strictly by hand. You still want to keep those skills in place because you can't do everything that way. But yeah, it's changed a lot with 3D modeling and CAD systems. It's come a long way and I think it's going to continue to grow now with AI coming in, who knows where the future's going to be for that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=1155.0,1208.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Are there AI applications that are helpful for what you do?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=1208.0,1218.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: For what I do? You know, I don't really...I have aspirations for AI, of course, the medical field, you know, for people with diseases and cures and all that. I think that's probably the best use of it, but no, I don't really know. I haven't really thought about it that much other than...I don’t know. I don't know as far as for what I do because most everything that we do, it gets brought to us, “We want this.” “So, well okay.” Some things have to be created and I know working with Rob, he's very old school and very traditional, but that's what makes some of the things that we did unique, you know, that it is that way. It's not all flash and all this and computer generated it’s actually something that's functioning and working.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=1218.0,1276.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: What was it like to visit the Jones Ranch site?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=1276.0,1286.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: It’s not what I expected. The creek bed...I just looked around and thought, really, there was a dinosaur here? Like I asked Jim, “How did you find this? I mean, how did you recognize it was there?” Then he started going into some of the history of it. I said, “Was there anything left at all?” He said, “Well, it's pretty much all picked over.” So... In fact, we had reproduced a dig site here at the museum when Jim was a curator in one exhibit. But it wasn't the actual Plauxysaur [sic]. There was bits and pieces of it in it, but yeah. But no, Bill and Decie were just as sweet as they could be. They, you know, just...I guess it's that Tolar,Texas. You know, the geography, you know Jim could explain more about that than I could. It was just...it just didn't seem like there would be anything there. Or how they found it in such a remote place. They're not like Jim, and Rob knows what to look for, too. They can look at the geology and see what the structure is and know if there could be something there or it couldn't be there when I'm just out there and looking at it and it’s just a dry creek bed. It's just the place for kids to go play. Yeah, there wasn't anything spectacular about it. Really? I think it's kind of cool.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=1286.0,1372.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: With Paluxysaurus on display, people see your work every single day. What impact do you feel that has?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=1372.0,5051.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: I mean, I think it's cool because, you know, some people don't believe that it's real. Well, you we've had our hands on it, we've looked at it and seen it, and it's just something that massive that was roaming around here however long ago it was is just incredible. It just kind of blows my mind. But you know a lot of it was, to me, the biggest part of it is just so many different people of different backgrounds coming together to make this thing happen. What's kind of special, you know, you've got these super...like Dale and Mike, really highly educated and intelligent people working with us. Guys...we just, our gift is in our hands. And when we all come together, we can make something happen. But it's good to see that, I guess, see people looking at it and say, I can't believe that thing is just so big. You know you see an elephant, but this thing is huge.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=5051.0,5041.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be able to do this kind of niche, creative work?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=5041.0,5050.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: It’s weird because it's...I don't know how you would...there's not really, I think, any education or training to do actually what we do. It's mostly just figuring out things that should go. I mean, just falling into the right place at the right time, but it's a lot of fun. It can be frustrating at times, but it’s...it’s being able to figure out how to create something or reproduce something out of nothing. And a lot people have that talent, but some people think they have that talent, but don't. We've had people come in and try to work with us that are supposed to be...”Well, I can really do this, I could do that” “No, dude, you don't see it, I'm sorry.” Yeah, you can do this really well, but this takes a different eye. And so, if you have that gifting, I don't even know where you would point someone to. I really don't. Because it's such a strange little niche. I think mostly just network with people that are doing something similar. But yeah, if that's your passion, you have to realize it's still work. You still have to make something. You can’t just...It's not just playing all day long. So you have to be disciplined in that and then make sure that you are getting stuff done when you have to get things done.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=5050.0,5150.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: What is your favorite memory of working on this project?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=5150.0,5159.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: I guess my favorite part of it was just the finale whenever we were...the three...I think it was two days. I think it was two long days, it may have been three by the time we got everything in there. Just finally assembling it all together because I don't think we never had it assembled completely ever. We had parts of it, but we never hadthe whole thing completely assembled ever. And that's just the kind of the way, the nature of the stuff that I do is I have lots of parts, but it's never together until it's completely time for final assembly, paint it, it's done. That's the first time you see it together. And so that's really, just the finale is just getting it here and getting the guys here and getting it all put together and say, “Ah, it really did work.” We had a plan. We thought we knew what we were doing and we did. And so, yeah, that was the best part, just seeing it done and finished because we had never seen it completed. Yeah, well we would have well, the leg structure, that all looks good. Okay, let's get that out of the way and get things where we can manage to work on it. Through the back section and the tail section, they all look good. They all seem to fit together. It was never completely together until we brought it here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=5159.0,5229.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Is there anything else that you would like people to know about the project?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=5229.0,5238.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: There’s no super secret. We did tease a little bit behind Dale and Mike's back a little bit. They might think this is funny. We always thought there was some kind of back-and-forth between Dale and Michael and how things should look and it was funny we thought well we ought to draw up a cartoon of them two in a little boxing match because they thought, well, Dale says this and Mike says this. Which do we do? And that's where Jim came in and Jim would say, “Well, we're gonna do this.” Like, good for you, Jim. [laughing] So, yeah, I think it was just, but maybe interpretation. You know, I don't know who was the expert or whatever. We just thought it was kind of funny because one guy would say one thing and then the other guy would something else. Well, which do we do on our perspective? So that's the only thing. We were kind of teasing them a little bit because they were back and forth. That was the biggest thing. And that's where Jim had to step in and say, “Well, this is the science today and it's probably gonna change, but we're going with what we know today.” And so Jim being Jim and his experience here, and he was very good at that. And of course he had a relationship with them so he can do that. So he was key to making it all happen. Whenever Rob talked to Jim, because he had just retired...I said, “You know, we really need some help with this.” And that's when Rob brought Jim on board to help us with the whole thing. And that’s really kind of when it started taking off better because we had our own resident expert because he dug the thing up, but he knew enough that he could help us. And he's fun, a great guy to work with. I didn't know Jim well until we started this project. No, we're good friends today. So the only, only other thing I can think of is that, you know, when we originally started the project, we had the real bone, we pulled a lot of molds and things off of it. You know, these things are so old and fragile. You've got to be very careful with them. And sometimes things would just happen and bits and pieces of it would break off and think, “What did I just...what just happened?” And you had to get to the point where, okay, we'll put back together what we can, but this thing is just, it's falling apart in places. And so there would be little tiny bits of bone fragment dust, you know, you couldn't do anything about. But that's just because of handling it and doing everything that we had to do to make it come together. So that was kind of nerve wracking at the very beginning, but we just kind of got used to it. Well, we've got to fix this, we got to fix that, it's just the way it is. Well, yeah, yeah. We would coat and we would coat it and we'd coat it with PLA, I think it's what it's called. And still, you'd have that happen. And there was a lot of superglue.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=5238.0,5428.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewer: Fossils are often more delicate than people realize.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=5428.0,5437.0"},{"id":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663/transcript/92304/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Eric Fincher: Well and they're so heavy and then you can't move them and they're already fractured and broken to begin with and so yeah just trying to keep it together. Other than that it was a lot of fun. \r\n\r\nTRANSCRIPTION ENDS","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://fortworthmuseumofscienceandhistory.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3545/collection_resources/167489/file/304663#t=5437.0,1853.0"}]}]}]}