mbmcfarland
Sr Member
Awesome!
Disneyland Tiki Bird Replica
- Thread starter Lord Hater
- Start date
Lord Hater
Active Member
Slight progress!
Fritz, Jose, Pierre, Michael and the Orange Barker Bird all have their heads firmly attached (epoxied) to their shoulders!
Sorry to say I'm not planning on doing a run because there was 0 thought put into engineering these. The heads don't fit the bodies well, drilling out the holes for the leg pegs is really difficult, and the wings are just sort of glued into place by eye. And speaking of eyes, I didn't account for shrinkage when carving the heads, so the eye sockets all have to be dremmeled out before placing the eyes. Very frustrating!
Also my casting skills are amateurish, so there are huge gross bubbles ALL over these castings. Luckily most of them are hidden by fur and feathers - but it's really not the kind of thing I could charge money for and feel good about myself.
Fritz, Jose, Pierre, Michael and the Orange Barker Bird all have their heads firmly attached (epoxied) to their shoulders!
Sorry to say I'm not planning on doing a run because there was 0 thought put into engineering these. The heads don't fit the bodies well, drilling out the holes for the leg pegs is really difficult, and the wings are just sort of glued into place by eye. And speaking of eyes, I didn't account for shrinkage when carving the heads, so the eye sockets all have to be dremmeled out before placing the eyes. Very frustrating!
Also my casting skills are amateurish, so there are huge gross bubbles ALL over these castings. Luckily most of them are hidden by fur and feathers - but it's really not the kind of thing I could charge money for and feel good about myself.
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Lord Hater
Active Member
Jose, Pierre and Fritz received feathers over the long weekend.
An interesting thing happened while I was researching for my birds - Disney was in the process of making new birds too, so as I called suppliers in Los Angeles, they would tell me that Disney had just called or ordered. That helped tremendously in figuring out what feathers were needed!
Here's what was used:
The original birds used goose feathers on the wings, but ...
Back in the day feather suppliers would rip the feathers off of young geese, resulting in smaller feathers.
They don't do that in 2017. Now they use "fallen feathers", resulting in a much larger feather.
Duck cochettes are substituted instead.
Before you apply the feather, they have to be trimmed and sorted by left and right side.
Consider the "More feather" part of the feather the top when gluing it to the wing.
At the top of the wing, the "shoulder," you find a fluffy feather with a fan shaped tip. This is called "Turkey T Base" plumage. The fluff transitions nicely from the fur to the feathers.
The tails are made of "Turkey rounds." A few birds. like Jose, also have long pheasant feathers, and are further decorated with cochettes, goose feathers and T-base plumage.
The original feather supplier was Hollywood Fancy Feathers - but they closed shop and retired. Disney bought out their stock just before I got there. I bought out the scraps, and learned a ton.
The new supplier is "Mother Plucker" in Los Angeles. I **** you not - I just happened to be in there talking about my tiki bird project when Disney called them to place an order for their Tiki Bird feathers.
BUT - they are expensive and a little difficult to deal with if you're not a huge company, so I ordered my feathers from Moonlight Feather Company:
https://www.moonlightfeather.com/
I can't recommend them highly enough.
An interesting thing happened while I was researching for my birds - Disney was in the process of making new birds too, so as I called suppliers in Los Angeles, they would tell me that Disney had just called or ordered. That helped tremendously in figuring out what feathers were needed!
Here's what was used:
The original birds used goose feathers on the wings, but ...
Back in the day feather suppliers would rip the feathers off of young geese, resulting in smaller feathers.
They don't do that in 2017. Now they use "fallen feathers", resulting in a much larger feather.
Duck cochettes are substituted instead.
Before you apply the feather, they have to be trimmed and sorted by left and right side.
Consider the "More feather" part of the feather the top when gluing it to the wing.
At the top of the wing, the "shoulder," you find a fluffy feather with a fan shaped tip. This is called "Turkey T Base" plumage. The fluff transitions nicely from the fur to the feathers.
The tails are made of "Turkey rounds." A few birds. like Jose, also have long pheasant feathers, and are further decorated with cochettes, goose feathers and T-base plumage.
The original feather supplier was Hollywood Fancy Feathers - but they closed shop and retired. Disney bought out their stock just before I got there. I bought out the scraps, and learned a ton.
The new supplier is "Mother Plucker" in Los Angeles. I **** you not - I just happened to be in there talking about my tiki bird project when Disney called them to place an order for their Tiki Bird feathers.
BUT - they are expensive and a little difficult to deal with if you're not a huge company, so I ordered my feathers from Moonlight Feather Company:
https://www.moonlightfeather.com/
I can't recommend them highly enough.
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Lord Hater
Active Member
Progress! Feathers have been applied to Michael's wings.
Next up tail feathers, then fur get applied!
Quick tip about working with feathers:
There is a tremendous amount of waste generated.
The grocery bag you see is filled with the discarded and unusable feathers from six birds.
Being a natural material there is a lot of variety in the size, shape and condition of the feathers.
I would estimate 30% waste - but I am being very choosy about the feathers used.
Next up tail feathers, then fur get applied!
Quick tip about working with feathers:
There is a tremendous amount of waste generated.
The grocery bag you see is filled with the discarded and unusable feathers from six birds.
Being a natural material there is a lot of variety in the size, shape and condition of the feathers.
I would estimate 30% waste - but I am being very choosy about the feathers used.
PotionMistress
Sr Member
That's looking excellent, but I see a lot of beautiful feathers in that bag. You might be being TOO picky.
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Lord Hater
Active Member
IMPOSSIBLE!
...Well, okay yeah...Probably.
...Well, okay yeah...Probably.
Lord Hater
Active Member
Ach tu lieber! I almost fell out of mein upper perch!
I finished Fritz over the weekend. Still need to make the final perch before I attach the feet.
First a few in natural light..then show lighting!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I finished Fritz over the weekend. Still need to make the final perch before I attach the feet.
First a few in natural light..then show lighting!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
dcpesses
New Member
Mein goodness, that's outstanding!
Believe it or not, you inspired me to create the "Barker Bird" parrot from Pirates of the Caribbean for my Halloween costume, and I've been referencing your build process as I go. (I'm not going to post any pics here because I don't want to derail this thread, but for those interested, I plan to start a new thread when I have time.)
Believe it or not, you inspired me to create the "Barker Bird" parrot from Pirates of the Caribbean for my Halloween costume, and I've been referencing your build process as I go. (I'm not going to post any pics here because I don't want to derail this thread, but for those interested, I plan to start a new thread when I have time.)
RockitScience
Active Member
What a special build. You've literally been chasing Imagineers at the suppliers! Love the birds, keep up the good work.
Lord Hater
Active Member
...But my profile eez out of zees world!
Made good progress on Pierre over the weekend, and the ensemble is really starting to come together!
Next up: everybody’s favorite, Michael! ... remember him? The Irish one who sings like Pearl Bailey? Trust me he’s awesome.
Until then, stop talking while I’m interrupting, and enjoy Pierre!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Made good progress on Pierre over the weekend, and the ensemble is really starting to come together!
Next up: everybody’s favorite, Michael! ... remember him? The Irish one who sings like Pearl Bailey? Trust me he’s awesome.
Until then, stop talking while I’m interrupting, and enjoy Pierre!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Lord Hater
Active Member
More progress! More birds! Perches, feet and name shells for the first five.
Did you know there was an Orange Barker Bird? There was - and is name was Juan!
I don't have favorites, (but he's my favorite.)
Did you know there was an Orange Barker Bird? There was - and is name was Juan!
I don't have favorites, (but he's my favorite.)
Lord Hater
Active Member
I love the Pirate Parrot too!
How did your costume turn out?
The sculpture is very different from these birds - but I'm going to take a swing at sculpting one when I finish up with these guys.
Excellent birds..., but I am also interested in seeing more if your home. I love the period decor you have going on there. :thumbsup
Very clean, retro , with a cool vibe!
Very clean, retro , with a cool vibe!
dcpesses
New Member
Thanks for asking! All things considered, mine turned out pretty well:
I ran out of time building and debugging some of the animatronics, but the parts I already had hooked up worked really well! I'm hoping I'll have time this weekend to finish the last bits, and then next weekend I can post my build process.
Lord Hater
Active Member
Ha! That’s amazing!
Please post about the animatronics! I feel like a fool for not doing mine!
