Hummingbird Build

[Kevin WS]

This morning went for an eye check up and ended up having an operation!

Nothing natural. But no modelling tonight!

[Kevin WS]

Nothing serious I meant (not "natural" - I was using a phone with oner eye at the time!).

Much better today and have much better vision in the eye!

[Vermin_King]

Glad it wasn't serious

[Giftboxaddict]

How cool! It looks so realistic to me :O !
Thanks for including the link Kevin WS!!!!

[Kevin WS]

Well, last night I got home fairly late, but managed to do a little more on the bird.

Indeed, I had to, lest it least it ends up as another unfinished project!

Picture One - The first wing attached. These go on at a fairly steep angle - you can see the second wing attachment point near my thumb.

Pictue Two - Both wings on. Johan recommends that the head NOT be attached - so you can get tweezers in to hold the wings on properly while they are drying. Follow this advice, as the body is only made out of 809g paper and is easy to crush!

Picture Four - This shows the rear of the bird. The overlapping parts of the body here are quite "gappy" and I took this opportunity to glue them together - using the tweezers through the body again.

Picture Four - Toothpick for the beak. Too thick initially for the hole in the head, so I carved it down a bit. I now have to make up my mind whether to attach it before i attach the head, or after. I rather favor the latter approach as I think it should be easier to line the beak up properly with the head and body, if the head is already in place!

[JohnM]

Looking good Kev. With my wobbly hands, I haven't dared to attempt this one yet, but I WILL. I'm into my last month of chemo, so maybe soon.

I know Johan recommends using a toothpick for the bill, presumably to give it a bit of strength, but do you think it would be feasible to use a tapered card tube?

My thoughts being that a tube would be more suitable to insert a support wire that can be fed down through the flower to give an unsupported effect to the bird. Similar to the motorised one that Johan made way back.

[Kevin WS]

It could well be feasible to use a tube, though I am not certain how easy it would be. The toothpick is a piece of takkie!

I have been wondering how to display it and my thought was to use an artificial flower. Looked last weekend but could only find roses. Ugh. My hearts not in messing around making a paper one. Will keep looking.

I also thought of making the beak much longer and then simply plugging this in as the support.

My other idea is to make the beak the right size and then jimmy the flower by inserting a small piece of neoprene tubing, plugging the beak into this. This means it can easily be taken apart.

Last idea is some Piano wire attached to the body or one wing, to then pose it again some flowers.

But don't really know which way I'll go at this stage!

[Tapcho]

Originally Posted by Kevin WS

My other idea is to make the beak the right size and then jimmy the flower by inserting a small piece of neoprene tubing, plugging the beak into this. This means it can easily be taken apart.

This is what I did with my bird and it works well. Though the tube was made from paper too.

Tappi

[Kevin WS]

Thanks Tapcho.

Another idea I had was to use very fine piano wire and just stick it quite simply along the bottom of the toothpick beak. It's so fine it would not be noticeable.....

[Tapcho]

Yeah, why not. A groove on the underside of the toothpick beak and no one will notice it under the paint. I'd like to encourage you to try to make a paper flower too, it's not impossible and there are lots of patterns and tutorials around the net. Go for it.

Tappi