No. 5 The Fodiator Bow.
This project is a bit of a cross with flying fish and sword fish and an angler fish and an archer fish.
At least, visually, that is what I had in mind.

The name Fodiater comes from one of the genera of flying fish.
With this project, I wanted the bow to have an automatic bow string grab and tensioner, so that all that had to be done was to move the angler lever back, which pulls the bow string and hooks it behind the trigger,
Then when the angler lever is returned to its resting position, the bow is cocked and all that has to be done was to fit the bolt and shoot it.

Hand made out of silver brass and copper.
Set with amethyst garnet peridot and topaz gemstones
450 hours build time
300 separate pieces
Display case Length 440 mm x Height 390 mm x Width 280 mm.

Here is a link to a video of the Fodiater bow.

To see a rotating video of it click here.
To see it shoot a baloon, click here.

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This is the cross bow body from the top.
I soldered the sides and front together so that it is one unit without further screws holding it together.

Here is a picture from the bottom.

And these are all the components that fit inside the body.

Here I was designing the lever that pulls the bow string back and locks it behind the trigger lip.
I wanted it to have and Angler fish look.

All a bunch of temporary bolts and brackets as I refine the levers that pull the bow string back.

Since I had the basic bow working already, I could start fitting it into the Fodiater's body.

So I cut some slots in the body and the check out the levelness and filed and fiddled until it was straight.

Making the brackets that will eventually hold the body panels together.

Front view.

Here the bow is at rest.

As soon as the angler lever is pulled back the bow string is hooked .

As the hooks pass over the trigger wheel, they allow the bow string to hook into it.

When the angler lever is returned to it's resting position, the bow string remains behind on the trigger wheel.

This is the completed bow unit, as it is fitted into the Fodiater bow body.

Side view.

So at the point where I had the bow's outer dimensions pretty much down, I started with 1 mm brass sheeting, that I cut out in a fish shape.

I got to give the two fish sides a bow to fit the bow.

Cutting the body so that the cross bow does not touch anything that it is not supposed to touch.

Forming the mouth.

The top body formers were cut out of 1 mm brass sheet..

The formers are bent to fit and some copper formers were also made and fitted on top.

Now I started on the front of the wings.
It had been my intention that the cross bow arms would be hidden under the wings.

The inside view from the from to the fodiator.

These are the two top parts of the wings that will be riveted to the wing later.

Here is a bottom view of one wing.

The wings are then affixed to the body.

The top view.

Then I designed and made the rear wings.

I fitted them with temporary placer screws.

To give the impression of 'ribs' I cut out a graduated set of copper strips and then melted the sides of the strips.
This gives a rough looking finish.

Making the tail.

Then I made the spikes, ( which are actually screws) for the copper ribs.
There are lots of screw spikes on any of my art projects.
That is because I like to make my projects so that they can be completely disassembled, for cleaning and servicing.

Making the bottom fins.
Because this project does not have any legs to stand on, I decided that the bottom fins would have effectively six layers of sheeting that supports the whole model.

Like this.

The jaw can be opened and closed.  I wanted an forward jutting 'angler fish' kind of look.
So I carve a front tooth out of purple wax first

And then I sand cast it into sterling silver.

Fitted.  One thing that is always difficult on any sculpture are the eyes.
OK, so even though I have unlimited license to do as I please, I nevertheless made nine different models for the eyes before I was reasonably happy. (I am never completely happy with anything I do)

I also made the bottom set of teeth out of silver.
Then I made the eye out of convex aluminium, convex brass and a placer screw.

This would be later changed later to a smaller diameter concave brass with an aluminium background.

An amethyst set in a tapered tube that becomes a threaded screw holds everything in place.

A technique that I developed before is to engrave the sides of the tube and then to blacken the engraving. This gives for some interesting reflections in the concave brass..

I added some fused and melted silver strips for the forehead and also two tendrils at the bottom of the chin.

I carved two halves of the bottom stand out of wax and then as the silver tooth, I sand cast them.

Here is the rough proto type .

The bottom fin structure being fitted to the central post.

The central post will be fitted to a base of steel.
I had two pieces of steel cut at my local Bauhaus in Dusseldorf.

I like the look of two plates with a gap in between them.
Sort of got an industrial look.

Then I made some spikes for the base.
These also hold the two plates together and end in small legs so the base won't scratch any surface it stands on.

Once the base was powder coated, the Fodiator Bow was taken apart, finished off and re assembled.

Boo-teek pictures..

On the base.

Boutique picture.

The base stand is held in place with a peridot gem nut.

Close up of the conical tube set with a amethyst that I specially cut for the eyes.
Check the black engraving on the sides.

In the hand made display box.
Hand made out of silver brass and copper.
Set with amethyst garnet peridot and topaz gemstones
450 hours build time
300 separate pieces
Display case Length 440 mm x Height 390 mm x Width 280 mm.

Below is my contact email and other websites.

hansmeevis@gmail.com http://meevis.com/jewelry-catalog.htm https://www.jewelry-tutorials.com/ https://www.drill-straight-tools.com/