Cyborg Cicada/Copter

This is great stuff Curt, off the wall but great.

Love the organic skin and the compound eyes.

Those eyes are way cool. The screen really makes them look right no perfect.

Thanks everyone.

The screen was a bitch to put on, almost 30min per eye and that was just to get the screen to lay down. Dollar store CA glue does not work as fast as the Loctite brand.

Next I'll be constructing the pollen collecting swab, if you look at the last 2 pics you can see a piece of rod sitting under the body, it's part of it.

I'm also going to be adding a means of self defence and a pesticide delivery system for this little guy stay tuned,

I'm too tired to write much, the pics say tons. I'll redo the one wing, I did all 4 in about 2hrs, the one with missing film took me 30min just to get to that point. It should be ok once it's redone, I'll just re-dip it. This stuff will dry crystal clear.

The pics aren't a sequenced run. I had my wife Karen taking pics for about 10mins these are just pics I put in a kind of order to show what would happen. I'd get the wing almost completely out and the big voids would let got. I gave up after 30min.

I also did an embossed dry run, it looks pretty neat too, just more work and not sure if it would be the look I want.

That stuff looks perfect. Might be time consuming but it's perfect for the job.

Hi Mr PF,

So sorry I haven't commented on this before now, but for some reason this really freaks (no pun intended) me out, it just looks a bit too real...

Great work though Sir...

Andy...

No worries Andy, there are many great builds to look at and follow on this site. Doesn't matter to me who follows or doesn't, but I really do appreciate the interest expressed by anyone who finds my builds interesting enough to look at let alone make a comment and want to keep following the progress, it helps to keep me going.

Thanks for the kind comments, it is kinda creepy though eh?

I managed to get the last wing done this morning, I watered down the liquid and had to change up the technique just a bit.
Another thing I learned out about this stuff is that if it really doesn't turn out I can simply chuck it in Mr Clean or Windex and it'll just dissolve after a while.

More pics later.

Zbuckster wrote:That stuff looks perfect. Might be time consuming but it's perfect for the job.

Thanks, although there are a number of air bubbles it's still bang on stuff for the job!

A quick update.

You can see the dried wing film along with voids in the bad wing. The circled bit will be cut off later


The redipped wing.


You can see some texture in this pic. It really looks much better in real, actually pretty close to the real thing. The texture is a result of wetting the film and redoing it. I have done the same with the others, I ran them under hot water then applied more wing film liquid.


This pic is what the textured film looked like next to the clear dipped film. If the wings were flat I might have gone that rout, but being concave it made it difficult to achieve the textured look.


This is pretty neat and pretty tough stuff, it can be stretched pretty far before it breaks, if it doesn't break it returns to it original size.

Got ya now. That wings looks perfect from here.

I see you have crossed to the darkside too Curt!!!  

Nice work on the wings.

Thanks guys.

Too funny Al, I guess I have. To a degree part of me always has been. 

Me too Curt but remember the saying...'Variety is the spice of life'

You know it Al. I've actually got into sculpting too. I have a figure that I've been looking for a home for and I think I might tie it into this build some how.

Just having a little fun with this now.

Keep in mind that this back story and premise can change at any time, just as the plans during the construction/building process can. We won't know where this will end up until it's all together and posted in the finished forum.
 

Here's the face behind this crazy bio creation, Dr. Vog.


Dr. Vog is a bit of a kook and has gone a bit "MJ" on us and has permanently grafted an air filtering system to his face, along with some other obvious plastic surgery.  
He's a bit of a Kirk Douglas fan a'la the chin.  

(I drew this about 5yrs ago, long before Bain ever hit the big screen). I have a figure I started sculpting a couple years ago out of Sculpy, I never did the head. I'm thinking Dr. Vog might be fitting. I may add him into a some sort of dio with the drone.  

The wings before the final semi gloss clear coat.



In this image you can clearly see the texturing I added, I was also trying to add the embossing to the back side of the wings. In the end this didn't work out. But the texturing looks pretty damn close to the actual wings when dry.


Well that's it for today, I hope I haven't scared you guys off with my silly story line.

Thanks for following along.

Amazing!!! I am in awe! At any point this build looks like it could have turned into a disaster. So many un knowns, trying so many new things. My hats off to you. WOW so cool!!

Wings are looking good. I am really enjoying following this one.

Thanks gents glad to have you following along.

It's been a fun and at times very trying. My wife can't believe I have tossed it across the room. She's has seen me loose it many times while doing home renos and beat the crap out of an innocent piece of lumber.

Dr. Vog would be great in a dio, I'd like to see that done  

Those wings are looking great 001  Can't wait to see this finished

Thanks John.

I'll get this little bug/drone done then move onto Dr. Vog. I've got a couple ideas, one that includes the real Cicada. The problem is the scale of everything is all over the place.


I've made some more progress tonight, camera batteries are recharging, so pics tomorrow morn.

Ok here we go.

After some research I have come up with this "feasible" concept for pollen collection.

I cobbled together what I'm calling the PC/DU (Pollen Collection/Disbursment Unit) from tank track wheels simply layering them on top of each other. The red bit under the belly, are actually 2 parts off a 1/20 scale Ferrari F2000 engine cowl cover. It still needs some tweaking before I'm completely happy with it. I think it needs some little hairs all over it like a bee legs.

The PC/DU would have two (2) configuration: Configuration 1, would be rigid and used for flowers that have "hanging" flowers such as ones on a tomato plant. Configuration 2 would be flexible and used for flower such as roses and lowered into the flower.
The PC/DU would be deployed out from the docking station and extend into the flower, the drone will maneuver into position so the PC/DU will come in contact with the anther (location of pollen). The PC/DUsteins are driven off the tail rotor shaft and will rotate at a very very low rpm disturbing the pollen then being collected with the vacuum system, the intake is located with in the head of the PC/DU (which is why it has openings in it) and stored in the drone. It would then repeat this many times for a given type of flower flying from flower to flower as a bee would. Once the pollen is collected and holding containers full it would then start at the first flower and distribute the. The pollen would  be disbursed via the PC/DU head and simply revers the collection procedure and blown into the flower being directed at the stigma.

Anatomy of a tomato flower.


How's that for wacky thinking.







I update what the other "stuff" is later.

Thanks for looking in.

Loving it. Looking better with each update. Great Imageneering.

Way COOL !!!
001 

Thanks gents, it sure has been fun. I have finally settled on the paint scheme, I think. But you all know to well anything could change as most builds do.

Great work Curt, it's beginning to look evil!!