FlatFab Finale Model

 CONCEPT:

Like Godzilla, I love fantastic creatures, and I thought something with a great wingspan would look super cool in FlatFab. I also figured that it would be a mold that would be relatively "easy" to make look detailed and intense while not actually needing a lot of material. So I thought....wingspan, huh. I should make a Phoenix... One of my main drives was the location in which I wanted to take my finished model for photos, which was the Japanese gardens in Fort Worth.

Unfortunately, I did not get this cut before the shop shut down, but I have full intentions of making this bird. 

PROCESS:

I started in FlatFab playing around, like I do, getting used to drawing symmetrically and asymmetrically. I sketched out my general vision of what I wanted the Phoenix to look like and just attacked the beast head-on. I realized I would need to make sure it had good stability points, so I made the back tail feathers trail on the ground, which ultimately bulked up the Phoenix's luscious looks while serving a purpose.

I transferred the FlatFab into Adobe to get my printable file, and then into Rhino. I then imported the OBJ file and labeled each sublayer, and assigned a specific color and material. After placing my boundingbox, I was able to get my linear dimensions, and I made sure to drop my orthographics with the Make2d command.

I took my ghosted photos and then imported my finale model into KeyShot, where I tried to do this bird justice. The hardest part was getting 11 x 17 photos and not cropping off information. I made my model rather large because it would be lightweight, and I wanted it to be substantial in real space when I take it to the gardens for photographs. 

MATERIALS:

I originally was going to cut this out of the corrugated plastic up at the machine shop; however, when I want to email them about their holiday hours over Thanksgiving, there was an automatic reply that said they were closed. I will now have my friend use his CNC machine, and I will cut this and my box lamp from 1/8" red oak underlayment. I may also glue the Phoenix pieces together to be safe, as I will still be taking it to the Japanese gardens for photos. I will be priming it and then spray painting the wings and tail feathers with my gold and copper metallic paint. The main body I will paint in a satin gold solid color.