[Kevin WS]

So onto the next stage - head and legs.

While I was making the head and waiting for the parts to dry, I decided to, in parallel to the head, make the legs and claws – although there only a few claws, these are bit repetitive, so it was an easier task doing them in between the various head parts.

Picture 1 shows the 10 parts to the legs and toes.

It is important to note that each of the claws is actually different in shape! The reason for this is that they each sit at a different angle on the base and leg parts.

How they fit is shown in the instructions – each part has a letter to identify it.

The red arrows in Picture 1 shows the location of the letters – they run from C to J.

Starting with the legs (before folding the tab parts), roll the legs into a tube. When this is nice and tight, open the tube up and then fold the tabs on either side inwards (a “mountain” fold). The printed sides of the tabs that have been folded in are then glued to each other. Use a pair of fine long tweezers to hold the tabs together inside the tube while the glue sets.

When glueing these parts (and the claws as well), a slow setting glue with some “grab” is a good idea – I used a Pritt Glue Stick – I simple scraped some glue off the top of the stick with a knife blade and then applied it to the tabs before holding them together.

Check the legs against the holes in the body to see they fit when you are making them.

And that is the legs done!

Picture 2 shows the two legs made up and the claws being rolled up and shaped.

The claws are made in the same way as the legs to start off with. Shape, fold tabs and then glue.
The only difference is that the tips of the claws then need to be then joined.

Simply pinch the two claw tips together and run some glue down the inside, and that’s a claw done.

Picture 3 shows the finished items.

In the next post I will cover building the head - the interesting part of the bird!