How To: Make cheap moving dragon wings controlled by the body

Check out this video tutorial on how to make cheap dragon wings, controlled by body posture. You can do this project for $18 if you use plastic garbage bags and Scotch tape for the membranes. You'll see how to make very light and strong costume wings. How strong? That strong.

Supplies! This sums up that the wing is made of a PVC skeleton, controlled by wire, and then fleshed out with a wing membrane and hundreds of scales. The membrane may be your cheapest part—if you use black trash bags or dollar store shower curtains-- or your most expensive part if you use fabric or specialty vinyl.

So first, design your wing and choose what material you want for the membrane. I decided on fabric when I saw this shimmery stuff, so I bought it off the bolt at the JoAnn Fabric store.

Spread out your membrane material, that's what will limit the size and shape of your wing. Then, cut the high temp PVC pipe into two pieces to match your design, it'll be the long, moving part of the wing. The reason I'm using high temp pipe is that it's thin and springy, it's no wider that a Euro cent (Props to my EU viewers, yo!) I cut it at an angle so it would look cooler. It can be cut with a hand saw or a cable saw (which is wire cable with handles.)

Now you cut the one inch PVC pipe into four pieces to make the lower wing and upper wing pieces. Next we have to cut a notch into the two upper wing pieces.

Start by making a shallow saw cut into the one inch PVC. Then, make two cuts that intersect with the shallow saw cut. The finished notch should be one inch deep on one side, and one and half inches deep on the other. The notch determines how tightly the wing closes and how wide it opens, so plan before you cut, or make a practice notch with scrap to experiment with, your measurements don't have to be the same as mine.

For the full written instructions, visit:

http://gryphern.googlepages.com/dragonwingstranscript.rtf