: the Bellaphant - Skull

Finally in the building stage on the Bellaphant rather than the planning. It's really exciting to get my hands dirty. I'm realizing that a well planned project comes together really fast. Also, there is always some reworking that has to be done midstream. The picture below shows the frame we will build the head of the elephant on.
My hand is on the lever that controls the first section of the trunk from inside the skull. The second and third sections of the trunk will be articulated by levers coming off the main lever. The pipe above the trunk is where we will mount the eyes. It's a bit difficult to see in this shot, but there are also cross shaped connectors where we will attach the ears. The whole head will connect to the main frame of the body via the wooden dowels on the vertical sections in the rear. (The dowels are a bit thinner than the pipe, allowing me to form hinges.)

The trunk is six feet long. I'll be jointing it and adding all the mechanical bits to make it fully articulated tomorrow and Thomas and I will start building out the head on Tuesday. This is the most complicated part, so once the head is done, we'll fly through the rest of the body.

I can't wait.

Leave a comment, let me know you're out there.

-m