guardian-dragon

No.1 The Gaurdian Dragon Started 15/09/2018
I got tired showing a pointless step by step, so here is a link to the completed sculpture.
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The idea is to make a stylistic dragon from which a diorama of a maybe futuristic city, maybe a surrealistic town, maybe a building that hangs from the dragon's mouth on chains.

The main focus of this project is the Diorama, but to get to that I need to make a dragon first.

The dragon will be attached to the wall on an arch of guardian snakes made out of brass and copper.

Depending on the final design, the diorama will have led lights in it.

I have long wanted to incorporate them into a project of mine.

But first, the Guardian Dragon.

This project has been halted temporarily because I got interested in other stuff.

Start Sketch.

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Cutting out the design,
This is just a lot of band saw cutting and then filing for the wings and body.

Once they are cut out, they are files on the edges and sanded.

The wings are mirror images.
The wings are also get bent later and the copper part will get 'cooked' in a fire outside along with some meat and a beer.

I color them with red so I can see them easier.
First I first put some 1 mm holding wire on all the ends of the wing ribs, as I call them.

Both are done. Now I drill all the 1 mm holes using my Drill Straight and that drill holder that is also on my first page. (No shill, I do actually use them)

Cut them out on the band saw. Now I make some more ribs, but on the other side and I also make the the same shape on the outside, but not the inside of the wing.

The bottom of the body. I use iron wire to hold everything together and I solder with a 6 hole rose bud tip for the little Torch.
I make my own silver solder:@
30 grams fine silver
9.2 grams Copper.
6.9 grams Zinc.

Here is the top part being soldered together.

First I solder two bars across to hold the affair together and to determine the width.

I decided to make the body out of two parts, because if there is a mistake ( and there are many, always) I don't have to start over, and soldering something 300 mm high is a drag.

The bottom of the body is red because if iron contamination and because I am to slap gat lazy to change it for new solution.

Just getting a feel of the balance and weight.

And then translating that into real terms, ala clamps.

With a project like this, I like to keep everything at an equal level of finish-ed.
So I don't want the head to lag behind the level, so I drew out some real life templates out of cardboard. The inside ribs of the wings are lying next to the clamps, waiting to be filed and fitted.

Then I cut out the basic shapes on my mighty band saw.
I have had that band saw for for about 38 years and I have replaced just about every bearings and fixture and now we are Bro's for life.

And here I am now Just posing the head.
Next is to solder the sides and stuff on.

The wings have to have a second mirror image of brass lining on the other side so here is the larger exterior facing wing and the internal facing wing.

Just finished cutting and riveting them on.

So now I positioned the wings and drilled and tapped two holes so it is easier to fit them. Also that is the final position of the wings.

So I was at the stage where I could actually hang the second stage of this project from the dragon.Just to see where I am going with this, and everything looks OK.
I like the balance and the concept.

Started with the cheek flaps, like that lizard that walks on its hind legs, known as the frilled-necked lizard. Scary number, that.

Making the first set of horns. I turn down some iron rod and then I file and carve it into shape. I like working in iron because it blacken to a nice gray finish with heat.
Then I cover it with a protective layer of lacquer.

So I use placer screws just to hold the horns in. I am going to make a second set as well.

Now I am working on the eyes. Always very difficult to get right and also very important.
Nothing like ruining a piece with the eyes—ask Picasso.

I used perspex to mess around with the idea and shape. It's much easier to file plastic and see where you go.

I think I might leave the eyes made out of acrylic.
There is so much less experimentation to get a nice result. Or maybe make them out of glass at the very end of the project. I still want to use a lot of LED lighting in this model.

First just cooking the wings on cold Friday afternoon.
Europe can really screw up the “I am going to have a couple of beers and get creative in the sun” bit. It was 8 C° and raining-ish

Anyway, I got to the red I wanted except it changes as soon as you spray clear lacquer over it. ( interference color) But I knew that, so this was just for fun.

OK, so know I am working out the neck design. Lots of filing in my future.

There is still going to be a lot of filing on this piece, I want to file this effect over the whole body.

Now I have to make the shoulder thingi's.

I made some shoulder curves to start the transition from body to wing.
There still is doing to be a center thingi made in between them

A second slightly shorter pair of horns out of blackened and engraved iron.

This is the brass plate for the fins on top of the head.

Rough finish with copper sandwiched in between.

Saturday morning snack at the bench from the local farmers market up the road.

I decided to put claw like spines on the back of the neck.

So I made a bunch of them and soldered 3 mm threaded bar on.
I was going to drill and tap holes in the top of the neck. But I didn't like the look at all, so I set them aside. Maybe I'll use them later.

So drew out a new design.

And then I cut them out of 1 mm thick material.
I first file then half round on the inside and finish it up to 1200 grit.

Then I sandwiched them over 0.7 mm copper sheet. It's placer wire that is holding them together. I won't leave the copper that colour.

I needed a something to hide the joint between the top and bottom parts of the body.
I also needed some front facing fins.

So I tentatively made these out of aluminium.
I wanted to see what the silver colour does and I am a bit underwhelmed.

The backing plate that covers the neck joint must also be prettied up.

I don't like the silver colour. I think I am going to try my hand at anodizing and anodize the front spines dark blue or black.
I have long wanted to anodize aluminium different colors to introduce into a sculpture.

Another thing that I have slowly introducing into a sculpture is light.
So I ordered some different colours of the tiniest led's I ever did see.

Superbly small and the work on about 6 volts with the resistor included.

This perspex model of the eye lights up at the frosted sides.
So if I cut some glass the same shape and frosted the sides, this will give the same effect and the perspex does. The led would be inside the head, behind the eye.
Maybe, I'm not sure yet if I go the light route.

I changed my mind and I discarded the aluminium affair I had made and made a laminated fin for the front of the dragon.

I mounted it on the belly. So now I need some detail on the tail.

So I cut and rolled out some titanium.
I forge it under red heat.

I made some long tapering shapes out of titanium.
This is quite a difficult metal to work, a lot like stainless steel.

Anyway, I got to this shape.

I heat blued it just to see what it would look like.

It's OK, I suppose. Once the background is cleaned and finished off, the yellow should offset the blue colour better, I think.

So I basically decided to make three dragon eggs, one that has already cracked open to expose a baby dragon.
The baby dragon will be made out of precious metals and gemstones and will be a pendant, but I am not sure what exactly, because all my precious materiel's were stolen, so my options are a bit limited at this time.

Anyway, to make an egg, go thee to the chicken and follow her ways.

I make a master shape. (This is part of an upcoming tutorial)

Then I dome them each.

I need nine domed sections to make one egg.

I solder the sections together.

Then I pierce out 'cracked' lines with a very thin saw.

I changed my mind and I discarded the aluminium affair I had made and made a laminated fin for the front of the dragon.

The basic dragon egg. I still need to work on the slits, make then more dramatic.
The reason I cut them into the eggs is because I want to mess around with light, as I mentioned before.

I made another egg that has already hatched.
This will be the home of the dragon jewellery pendant, because this sculpture like many of my previous sculptures are interactive. i.e the jewellery is meant to be worn.

There is quite a lot of surrounding stuff I want to make for the Dragon nest, so once all the various components are completed, I will see how the light works, or not.
I quite like how the light shines through the slits in the metal.

So now I am sort of also making various side elements in the dragon egg nest.

He could be a helper or an attacker.

Anyway, I started making a base.

This is the bottom and it is 20 mm deep and about 200 mm wide.

I made a battery box.
When the front screws are screwed in, they tighten the batteries up and connection is made. When they unscrewed, the batteries lie loose and unconnected.
The out put are the two tabs on the sides.
The led's can take 12 volts, and at 6 volts they about the light intensity I think I might like.

Then the battery box will be screwed underneath and the two screws can be screwed into the battery box from the outside to switch it on or off.

I am making a torn off dragon wing as part of the under story.

I make the crystal light box with both repoussé and fabricated parts.

I sort of sink the fabricated parts into the center.
The fabricated part will have holes drilled in each crystal box where the led will fit in.

I also make and try out other attachments.

Most don't make the grade.

Here I am cutting the light box feet.

Some more repoussé side thingi's

Playing with the led's and crystals.
This is at about 6 volts.

Some more under story work I am busy with.

I got tired blah blahing on step by step so here is a link to the final finished product..