The KC Rep... interesting.  I have just been helping them with their versions of Audrey II. They decided to take a different approach... go figure.  Three and Four can be a real challenge mechanical wise.  I did not design the ones for the Rep but Grace Hudson did a good job of figuring out the mechanics.  Three is pretty easy to use but four is a bit of a monster. Takes a strong puppeteer to manipulate.

So where the Audry II plants in the pictures your builds?  I could have sworn they where the originals.

The KC Rep... interesting.  I have just been helping them with their versions of Audrey II. They decided to take a different approach... go figure.  Three and Four can be a real challenge mechanical wise.  I did not design the ones for the Rep but Grace Hudson did a good job of figuring out the mechanics.  Three is pretty easy to use but four is a bit of a monster. Takes a strong puppeteer to manipulate.

And that's exactly why I made the frame out of carbon fiber. While I've used polypropylene foam in previous versions, by the time you're done with that, it's already 50lbs, and you still have the skin and other items to add. The carbon fiber frame for Pod 4 weighed less than 15lbs and was hinged with two aircraft-grade removable pin joints, embedded in the epoxy of the fiber. My problems were: I couldn't afford large quantities of the thick reticulated foam so I had to use crap upholstery foam rubber; and I used fleece rather than rip-stop nylon or something REALLY light. All the weight I saved in the frame got eaten up in the skin and padding.

Pod was 45 pounds when complete... not bad, mind you, but not what I was going for. I also wanted to find a way to have articulated gums so it could smile and mouth "EE" better, but that never happened.

So where the Audry II plants in the pictures your builds?  I could have sworn they where the originals.

For the set pics you saw of LSOH, that was my set design (scenic, not puppets), but they rented the MTI puppets (Marty Robinson's designs), so yes, they were the "original" designs.

Also, I just completed a design and build of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She was basically a big marionette, manipulated by ropes on the stage floor. Here's a video showing some of her more fun features...

Chitty Promo Video

I used the same carbon fiber over styrofoam framing process that I did for Audrey II to make the car body. All said and done, the car was only 120lbs, but it could support over 1000lbs in passenger weight.

- Sean

Hey Sean...i'm a scenic designer up here in NYC and your stuff is great!  Nice work!  Isn't it fun when your "grown-up job" is just one big arts and crafts project?  Yeah, being a designer is stressful and yes, I'm might be turning gray a little prematurely, but geez, I love my job!

Hey Sean...i'm a scenic designer up here in NYC and your stuff is great!  Nice work!  Isn't it fun when your "grown-up job" is just one big arts and crafts project?  Yeah, being a designer is stressful and yes, I'm might be turning gray a little prematurely, but geez, I love my job!

Get out of my head!

My day job is still the main source of income (and insurance, etc.), but fortunately it's with a great organization. And they love to see the design work I show them from my "hobby".

- Sean

Really nice work on Chitty!  I think you hit almost all the car animations used on the Broadway version except maybe the actual lift into the air. Impressive!

Carbon fiber was a big favorite of the puppeteers on "Lion King".  Never had a chance to play with it yet. 

The frame on the Rep's Audrey was aluminum which was great but like your by the time all the other stuff was added four ended up about the weight of yours. 

Over the aluminum frame they used Fosshape over the frame which is pretty light but I think maybe reticulated might have been even lighter.

Another product they used was Wonderflex which is pretty cool. Was used to make teeth.

Really nice work on Chitty!  I think you hit almost all the car animations used on the Broadway version except maybe the actual lift into the air. Impressive!

Carbon fiber was a big favorite of the puppeteers on "Lion King".  Never had a chance to play with it yet.  

The frame on the Rep's Audrey was aluminum which was great but like your by the time all the other stuff was added four ended up about the weight of yours.  

Over the aluminum frame they used Fosshape over the frame which is pretty light but I think maybe reticulated might have been even lighter.

Another product they used was Wonderflex which is pretty cool. Was used to make teeth.

We found a lift that would have worked perfectly on Chitty, but it would have added about 1000lbs to the weight. It worked on 110v, could lift the car up about 3', and was fairly quiet, but the weight and extra unknowns we would have encountered were not worth the risk. Sadly, Chitty is currently restricted for licensing through MTI, but we were able to rent her once before the restriction went into effect.

I've often toyed with the idea of trying my hand with aluminum and aluminum welding, but the costs have always been prohibitive (welding equipment, raw materials, etc.). With the carbon fiber, I found an epoxy and carbon fiber cloth supplier in Florida, and got the rest of the items (large sheets of styro, etc.) locally at either Lowe's or HD. The technique I used was creating 1-1/4" wire loops out of 12 gauge grounding wire, and inserting them into inexpensive soldering irons to create a smaller, more efficient hot wire loop. All of the "tubes" were lain out flat, then cut and rotated into final shape using a cheap bread knife, expansion foam (as glue), and packing tape to hold in place. We then mixed up the epoxy, cut the CF cloth into 2" strips (~16" long), dipped them, squeezed them off between our fingers (gloves & other protective gear), wrapped two layers (in opposing directions), and then used vinyl electrical tape (adhesive facing out) to compress the CF/Epoxy into laminated layers. The electrical tape came off easily before adding outer layers, but it was a painful, splinter-laden process. We did at least four layers on each section, and joints or other important areas got six or more layers.

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Fosshape and Wonderflex look like great products! I can't wait to find a project to use them on!

So not to hijack your thread I added a new one about Fosshape and Wonderflex http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php/topic,7313.msg65744.html

Yes aluminum is costly and hard to weld. The welding was actually done by one of the Rep carpenters that had more experience. We also used it to make the frames for giant leaves and in that case we used cable sleeves to connect the aluminum tube. http://www.lexcocable.com/sleeves.html

Hey thanks for uploading images to your album here of some of your stuff! Click on the photo icon folks if you have not seen them yet.   Cool stuff!