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...