Pages

Friday 29 January 2010

Vulture Puppet build part 1

And here is part 1 of the Vulture puppet build...again, i'll try to explain it as clearly as possible and will follow up with more pictures soon.
Firstly the head which is a block of polystyrene with a milk carton making the beak - they really are useful things for making, i've found...

Alongside the dog head.
A piece of dowel for operating and hosepipe for the neck...

Meanwhile the body and wings. I thought I might do some sort of flapping wing mechanism, But ended up feeling I would have to make a full set of wings from scratch if it was to look right. It proved to be one of the most technically rewarding builds I have tried. I began by tearing apart an old umbrella to see how the folding arms worked, and basically attempting to recreate this on a larger scale. I used aluminium U section as it is light and easy to cut and drill.

I Cut the U section and made laid it out to make sure they would all fit together...

Here they are with the remainder of that length of sign post I found...

Next I had to round off all corners and drill holes so each piece would not grind against the other

With the pieces cut I could begin assembling each wing

One wing assembled, without the last piece of dowel which will be the larger span of the arm. This section does the basic movement, and can be as big or as small as you like, depending on purpose.

Ready to mount on the body. You may notice the channel cut in the back of the post which will allow the dowel to slide back and forth without being in the way

Now you can see my ugly mug demonstrating the wings in action:



Now all we have to do is to make the frame for the body...
And we are ready for covering! The next step for Dog and Vulture will be posted soon.

No comments:

Post a Comment