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Automating the Foam Dragon

I have been having a lot of fun with the foam dragon and he has made his way into a few videos. But I thought that it might be even more fun to add some special effects to him. Yup, so I went ahead and did it.

I added three things to the dragon, an opening and closing jaw, smoke that comes out of his mouth, and lights to his eyes.

Here I show you how I did it.

If you are not familiar with the dragon I have pictures and more about it and how it was made right here.

This picture gives you a little bit of a peek at the three special efffect. The eye , near the top has a red plastic cover over a light bulb. The jaw has a servo that moves it open and closed. And there is a green hose in the mouth that shoots out smoke.

This picture shows the battery operated servo. The white wheel turns and pulls on the blue wire. That pulls the jaw up. When the servo direction is reversed the weight of the jaw allows it to come back down. That is a servo and servo controller from an RC Airplane. I have used these before to automate projects like in the Wall Diorama Drawbridge

The jaw is an added part to the dragon. I carved it out of foamular foam. And it hinges on a dowel that passes through the dragon near the cheeks.

Here is a look at the jaw in place. It looks good. And it pivots nicely on a dowel. It is painted a base coat of black paint. It just needs green paint and some teeth.

Let's take a look at the smoke generator. It forces smoke out the dragon's mouth. It is a typical fog generator and the hose is a garden hose.

You can see how the hose goes up along the neck of the dragon then curves into the mouth.

This whole thing is pretty cool but wow it generates a lot of smoke and it was not a good idea to do this in the house. Next time it goes outside before I set off the smoke. LOL

Let's continue with the automation of the dragon.

How to Make Chainmail: This is a tutorial that shows you step-by-step how to make chain mail. I show you which wire to use, how to create the rings and how to weave the actual mail. How to make chainmail. I will also be doing a tutorial on how to make a piece of chainmail armor.

Make a Light Box

A light box is a wonderful little thing. You can use it for tracing, drawing, and even reading x-rays. But they are very expensive to purchase. I have a nice tutorial here that shows you how to make a great one very cheap. It uses a string of LED's as the light source. How to make a light box

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