Hi,


once I made three birds for a schoolplay. They are easy to make. If you want to know how let me know. Here a tape of them in action.

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=0hY5j4kH6ww


Johan

Johan I did not know you had a you tube account. I subscribed to your videos and you are now in my Favs.

Billy D.

Hi Billy,

there is still a lot you don't know about me... 

Johan

Years ago I frequented special effects make up and mask making bulletin boards. If you're wanting a realistic falcon, I'd suggest making it using some of those sort of techniques.
If you can afford it, I'd recommend making the body out of latex or foam latex with the beak possibly out of super sculpey or some other harder material which could be made to resemble the texture of a beak. The same can be done with the feet. Then you could cover it with real feathers if you want more realism.
As for how to make it work, I'd suggest possibly looking into cable controlled movement. Bicycle cables are cheap and you could run them up the sleeve of your costume and hide them under a glove.
I went to a Ren Faire years ago that had some griffins using a single bicycle cable. Their head movement was amazing.

Hope this helps some.

Mr. Johan! You did those? Great! Could you tell me or teach me how to do one of them!, Please.

The place where I go to meet as church, will do a puppet drama (Actually more than one), and will need one of that character (Will do pilgrim's progress).

Thanks again

Miguel!

Hi Miguel,

sure I could tell you how I did it: first of all I made the head out of clay. Then I made a plaster casting so the clay is in it. When the plaster is dry (takes about 20 minutes) I took all the clay out of the plaster mold.
Make sure all the clay is removed and surely try not to carve into the plaster.
Then I filled the mold totaly with latex. Then let it rest for 2 hours. After 2 hours pour al the latex out of the mold.
What remains in the mold of latex let it dry for 24 hours. The next day I could remove the dry latex out of the mold and there it was... the head of my bird.
If there are some imperfections you can take some gauze bandage and brush some latex on top of it. Mind that you have to put some detergent on your brush or you can throw it away.

If there are more questions... fire away.

Sincerely Johan

Miguel,

Here some pictures in close-up. Hope they can help you out.

Johan

Nice!, Thanks Mr. Johan. Of course will help me a lot.

BTW: You have any pics from how to start doing somthing like that?

Thanks again

Miguel!