The Red Bakkie

 Have acquired a new vehicle to mount the puppet on - bright red and very old school.

Puppet Car - Real Scale Prototype

 It's been a busy festive season for me but I got a lot of building done on the Mutant vehicle project.

I have been building a first version of the torso of the puppet (that will be seated on the back of the truck facing backwards as if leaning against the cab). 

I currently have a working shoulder (both rotating and lifting from the upper arm) which is working quite nicely. Also a head and neck piece which can both shake and nod the head. Here's a little demonstration video.

The Puppet Car - A Mutant vehicle for Africa Burn 2024

 As me and mine are attending Africa Burn next year again I am keen to build another mutant vehicle.

Although still at an early design stage the idea is to build a giant working puppet sitting on the back of a bakkie. I have a few fellow fools who are keen to help me, I have a plan (kind of) - I currently need a vehicle and a place to build in.

These are my first paper models - this one to give scale (BIG):

 

And this first image of my internal workings of the torso - the basic plan to operate the head, neck, shoulders and elbows.

Flying Carpet Car in Disarray

A rather contrasty photo from when we had just taken the roof off the car in a blaze of angle grinders

Flying Carpet - Soft Stripped Car

So I've stripped the plastic and glass out of the frame of the car, ready to start cuttin'!

 All the internal bits piled in the back of the car - off to the dump tomorrow (again!)

Flying Carpet - The Car...

I took the base car on it's final road-worthy drive back to my house yesterday - here it is, the last photo of it more or less intact.

Flying Carpet Tricks - Some Dry Ice Experiments

I bought some dry ice to experiment with a bit for special effects on the carpet car, here you see the classic stage smoke trick in action - essentially what you see is cooled water vapour in the air - literally fog.

Mixing some soap in with the water gives you smoke filled soap bubbles which are kinda fun; here you can see dodger investigating.

As you break the bubbles a little bit of ice cold water vapour pours out...

The Tiny One: Decorated

I made some little bits and pieces to get a better feel for what my flying carpet might look like more 'decorated'.

The Tiniest Carpet with Mirrors

Have added the 'invisible car' trick to the model using a tin foil baking tray - the actual acrylic mirror I hope to use on the large version has much better optical properties (i.e. is more mirror-like).

The idea is pick up the colour of the ground in the angled mirrors to enhance the illusion of the floating carpet - in these photos I think it is working pretty well.

The Tiny Carpet - with Carpet!

I used a printer and now have tiny Persian carpet of about the right size for my car;
 in this photo the car would be facing leftwards.

The Flying Carpet Starts Here

I'm getting very serious about my Afrika Burns mutant vehicle project for 2016. So I built the car from foam rubber already and have some materials on hand to do the rest :)