Offcut Heron

[badersbus]

I have been looking for a new project to keep me away from the telly , and decided our garden needed a new focus , following on from the fish i have made.
I managed to get hold of some off cuts from a friend who makes all kinds of cold chisels etc in his forge , and decided that they were an interesting shape , like feathers when laid over each other. One thing led to another and here we go. The pieces are carbon steel , so don,t weld to good , but more than adequate to hold together. I am now in two minds how to finish it.
Do i Ammonium Sal the body and legs , and then have the head chrome plated , or just let the lot rust ??. Suggestions anyone.
I did not want to have to paint it every year , so what you lads and lasses think ?
Kirk

Started with a whole lot of these

rebar legs and feet

 

[chunkolini]

Nice work, the body is fantastic, I would not like t have it fall on me though.
Let it go rusty. Sal Ammoniac and it will be done it three days.

Chunko'.

 

[Sparkey]

Awesome work!!
and i agree with chunko, it will look great when it's rusty!

 

[candygt]

Looks great, whatever you do post the finished pics :P

 

[gerrymoore]

Fantastic...how did you make the head??

 

[Wozzaaah]

Very nice Kirk, I like that a lot!

 

[Shox Dr]

Very well thought out, can we have an idea of scale

 

[wyn]

Lovely bit of work

Does it have a frame inside or do the feathers support themselves ?

 

[badersbus]

Hi Guys
Thanks for the kind words,
Yeah chunko , you could say it is quite heavy , i reckon about 20 - 30lb , not weighed it.

The head gerrymore was made with just plain old 20 guage in two halves. I shaped them around a 1.5 inch steel bar i have , a bit at a time into a cone shape and then welded them together on top and underneath , eyes are two washers with a couple of allen headed bolts from the bit box , took a couple of hours.

It stands about 42 inches high shox Dr.

It is completely hollow Wyn , i thought about how i could get the body shape and came up with the idea of making it in two halves and joining it down the centre. I thought about welding it around an old hard hat for the shape , but thought i would melt it LOL , so i made it over half of an old cleaned out motorcycle fuel tank. I wanted to get it with no welds visible , but it was really tricky to get the carbon steel to accept just a tack so i could seam weld it inside , it did fall apart a few times LOL .It was also a bit tricky getting the halves to match , so a bit of free hand was needed , the neck was all freehand as well.
It has two towbar bolts welded under the feet and bolted through the half flag you can see , I will bury the flag just under the surface , and hopefully the plants etc will grow over it to hide it
All the best

 

[LastNewt]

That my friend is a bleedin brilliant sculpture!!!

Newton

 

[ytre]

Absolutely brilliant, well done. really looks the part

 

[Andy from Workshopshed]

Love the use of the rebar for the legs, very organic looking. I think it looks good with a slate coloured body and shiny head but the legs would look good rusty colour

 

[Chipper]

Brill!
I like the dk.grey colour too. But v.difficult to preserve that I guess.

 

[badersbus]

Hi All.
Finished the piece now, Decided to go with the rusty look and shiny head theme . Head is nickel plated , may not last too long , but is removable so can replate at any time

It is yet to be installed in the correct place , the bird bath behind in the picture will be relocated , and the base covered with gravel / soil etc , you get the idea.

 

[Andy from Workshopshed]

Rust?

Very nice, how did you rust it so quickly?
Will you put a clear varnish over it?

How did you nickel plate it?

 

[chunkolini]

Thats great.
Why do peopla spoil this kind of stuff by painting it.
Time to be putting stuff in exhibitions. And making your hobby pay for itself.
Pm sent

Chunko'.

 

[badersbus]

Very nice, how did you rust it so quickly?
Will you put a clear varnish over it?

How did you nickel plate it?

Hi Andy.
Chunkolini put me onto the rusting process , real easy to do. Buy some Ammonium Sal , best place is ebay. I mix it to a runny consistency with water and simply brush it on. The finish you see there is after about 5 days , just quickly rebrushing it over with the solution every other day . It looks pretty horrific when done , but a quick wire brush leaves it as what you can see in the picture. Like chunko i have then finished it with a coat of yacht varnish in the past , but i think that tends to dull it down to a darker colour, i thought on this one i would leave it bare as is. My thinking was that if it then dulls back at a later date , i can then just wire brush it again.

I am lucky with the plating , as my brother in law has a plating business , so nickel , silver , gold is no problem. I am trying to twist his arm to set a copper tank up for future stuff LOL.
If you need any plating done , i can speak to him about mates rates for people on the forum
Kirk

 

[syborg]

oi!!!

whos nicked my rebar handlebars????

lol

lovely work mate

i tip my hat to you.

peace

syborg