papercraft weekend

I finally got round to a full papercraft upperjaw. (I colored it artificially just for fun, it's white.)

The horns are missing from the cheeks, but it gives an idea of the size of the head (57 cm)

Iand the material needed. I used 10 sheets of A4 paper to fold it. All in all it's not that much.

Can't wait how it turns out, because this morning I flipped it over and poured PUR foam in there.

It will probably bulge out of the eyes and nose, but I'll just cut the holes back in then..

Also probably the best way to make those big horns on the back I could do by pouring a little PUR in, let it harden, get the next stage, pour PUR in etc. Although I'm not a very patient guy.

If it turns out nice, I'll make the cheek-horns, ear flap and lowerjaw for a good idea.

Some details on the model need a little work and then it's texturing time.

But before that, I'll concentrate on the legs. I think it is very inspiring to have a complete head lying around, though. Also I saw a change in how people now talk about my plans.

The eye

Today we'll be making a dragon's eye. Ingredients: plastic sheets, margerine or butter, permanent markers, hobby glue, candles and matches, some yellow chalk..

I started by building half a globe out of a plastic sheet, using a dot, which radiates sphere parts.
I folded it to what -according to my children- resembles a custard cup.

I put a lot of margerine in the custard cup, to smooth out any folds and creases with my fingers. Also it'll make it easy to get the glue off, once it hardens.
On the layer of margerine, I poured glue and let it harden for a while. Then I made an Iris and a pupil on the same transparant plastic and dropped it in. (NOTE: next time, I'll not use a loose pupil, because it shifts when the glue hardens) On top of tap I sprinkled some yellowish crayon to give the eye some texture both unlit and lit. Then on top of that, a layer of wax from a couple of small candles (waxines).
I topped the wax with anoher layer of glue, because it crumbles at the edges and I wanted the glue to keep it together.

This is the result, after hardening a day (I'm not very patient). The glue was still a bit runny and my pupil shifted a lot before it could set. But I could already test it's translucency with a (weak) flashlight behind it.
The glue forms bubbles, as it sets, but I don't think it's bad. It just gives a little texture to the eye, so I don't really mind. It looks like the dragon has been in a few fights. The wax and glue are translucent and the wax and crayon-dust produce a very warm glow. Next time I'll make my iris a litte darker, because it hardly shows here. Finally, this globe-shape is only to allow the eye to rotate. In the model I want it to look something like this:

There you have it, a dragon's eye in a weekend. Oh, yeah, for credits, I ripped the skin for this last picture from flicker and changed it's color. Just type in dragon eye in google and it's the first one. I'll probably shape it a little differently, but I like the horned eyelids. Also the amber glow and the blue go well together.

back to work

Ok, so enough with Barcelona, back to work.
I was trying to create a model, I made with peppakura. I turned it inside out, so I have been stupid.

Now that I get pepakura better, I tried again, while texturing the model with a dragon skin. I like the result a lot.

It weighs only 2 grams for a length of about 20 cm.
But it is flimsy and will not keep it's shape. Also it will dent or rip at the slightest pressure.
So I build this model a few times and started to experiment with ways to reinforce it.
My plan is to first stick plastic onto the printed sheets, to make them water-proof.

I tried glue on the inside. This works. It grows a lot heavier, but it will no longer rip and became quite rigid. Although it will still flex a little. Excellent for the paws. It takes a lot of glue, and a lot of time to dry. The weight increase to 8 grams.

Next I tried PUR (polyurethane foam), the cheap kind. Bert warned me about this, so I came prepared.
I applied generously, once and the way it says on the package. (1/3 full)

The first went over the edge, pushing the paper out of shape, while it expanded. The second (the one that was 1/3 full) never made it to the edge, leaving holes I couldn't fill anymore.

Finally I took one, which I had filled to the brim, while it hardened and cut the extra foam of with a knive.
Then I peeled of the paper, because I thought I could shape it more organically with a knife. Now if you ever did this, you know the inner texture of PUR is that of swiss cheese. So I forgot that and went back to the paper+ PUR.

This proved VERY strong. I can even stand on it, without it breaking. Yet it weighs only 12 grams. It has the benefit of being textured. It has the disadvantage of blowing up the paper shape.
It does make it less geometric and more organic in the process. So I don't know if that is such a drawback.
Also I used 120 grams paper, I could go up to 200 grams.
I guess I can make the body, the head, neck and tail out of these

Also shaping PUR with the knive I finally know how to make the teeth (you don't want to fold in that kind of detail) or the horns (they should be subtly curved to get the right look). You can just cut them from a block of PUR (If you leave a hand-sized blob to harden for more than a day, it is dry on the inside as well.
This way I made the fake sharktooth, you see in the picture and at the back I made a Yoshi Egg just for fun.
It's strange material to work with, but it's something I can get used to.

So now I know how to make:

• The firebreathing (fireball shooter still in working order after many fireballs, I demonstrate it to people, because I'm a pyromaniac and because they seem to like it.)
• The smoke (our brilliant smoke machine (also I hear about a smoke-cookie))
• The 'flesh' and skin (paper shells and PUR, glued together
• bits of skin that need to be able to flex (paper, plastic and glue)
• Teeth and horns (PUR, cut)
• The kinematic-bones (wood and joints, rope and some PVC pipes)

All I have to figure out now, is how to make the eyes (I'm thinking of an electro motor in the head turning two amber marbles and at the same time opening the mouth) and the transmission (I want to break the body up in three parts, so it can take corners, but the wheels still have to be connected, I thought something up, but I'm not sure it will work in practice)

So progress at last...

dragon's everywhere

So, after a long dry spell, I have some free time (and energy) to blog again.

Barcelona proved great I was inspired by Casa Batllo (batljo) by Gaudi, also Barcelona is the city of dragons and the fantastic. I never saw so many dragons, maybe this is because of Gaudi's dragon at park Güell. I took the usual picture, but I hated it.. It's not a dragon at all. It's more like a squatting frog.

Casa batllo, however was great. It turns out to have a great big dinosaur inspired structure on the roof. The colors of casa batllo were very inspiring as was the tiling..

After this it was dragons everywhere from a statue of St Joris made out of chocolate!!! (We saw this in the museum of chocolate)

To the gargoyles on the main fountain in Park de la Ciutadella (small city)

I saw a beautifull plastic dragon in a toyshop (Imaginarium) and bought it, but I left it under my bed in the hotel.

Also we saw a dragon reputedly also by Gaudi, but a lot more like a dragon, than the one in parc Güell. We hopped of the hop-on-hop-off bus (Don't ever take this, it's hot, you don't see anything and it cost 21,- euro's a person, while the metro will get you anywhere for 1,25)

We jumped off, because we saw something like parc Guell en figured we ought to be in the neighbourhood. It was made out of bolts and screws and stuff and looked ok.
Walking back to the bus I saw another one on a gate.

The finally going back to the airport (over de C-31, avinguda de la gran via) we passed a huge dragon,climbing a billboard.

 

Now I did NOT look for dragons, this just happened. I guess it's like seeing pregnant women. (You don't unless you know someone close, who is pregnant)

Ok, so finally, the obligated picture. Just for fun I took the exact picture every Japanese tourist who ever went to Barcelona has.. (Not true of course, I talked to at least one, at the magic fountain, who I bet would bite of her own fingers rather than raise them in this misunderstood victory-sign. Thanks to her I now know it's kilei na mizu instead of kilei no mizu..)

Obligatory Gaudi dragon picture with Japanese handsign for zashin-no-heiwa.
(peace of pictures)