The Tricera War Machine. ( Work in Progress)

[meevis]

My previous project was the Dragonfly Fighter which took 900 hours to complete.

It was a commision from the Jurassic Insect community in their war against the Dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs are still fighting back, but basically the insects won, because there are no more Dino’s around,except for that silly fish off the Madagascar coast.

So much to my surprise, when a representative of the underground Dino community approached me to build another fighting machine, I was amazed.
Turns out there are plenty of Dinos still around, they just not keen to talk to us humans.
I know where they are but he told me not to tell anyone, so there.

We start from their technical drawings.

Basic idea.

Soldered together.

I make my own silver solder.

30 grams fine silver.
9.2 grams copper.
6.9 grams zinc.

Makes for a nice medium solder.

Anyway, they didn’t like the first horn so I cut it off.

Then I hot forged a stainless steel on according to Dino specs.

And then I mounted it on as they wished. ( Tyrannosaurus Rex’s are experts in unarmed combat, so you don’t want to piss them off, trust me on this one.)

Then I made the eyes, which I will make a separate tutorial of next week.

The canines are stainless steel teeth set in silver, so they also capable of killing vampires, which is what the Dinos wanted, because Vampires just LOVE feasting on Dino blood…

After various discussions, here we are now.

There is still a long road ahead and lots of armour to be added to the head.

I’ll add to this thread as I go along.

[2audrita]

You are delightfully crazy !

[Atwater_Mary]

Hans,

You have amazing talents and abilities. DaVinci would have enjoyed exchanging artistic ideas with you.

If this is your “work”, what do you for fun and relaxation? Thank you for sharing, especially the
sketches and work in progress. Where did you train / attend art school?

Best, MA

[DonMeixner]

Gorgeous work Hans. What are the general dimensions? Something for a size reference.

Don Meixner

[Kavitha_Balakrishnan]

Awesome.

Thanks for sharing.

[wldlzrd1]

Hi Hans!

Amazing! as always!

(I was just thinking about you! Did you ever post final photos of the dragonfly ship?..with the glass dome cockpit…? I was thinking about it the other day…!..I just popped over to your website, but did not see the “blog”…?)

Julie

[bobdemarcki]

Hans,

Fantastic as usual! Thank you for posting.

[IsisRising08]

Damn! I just love your stuff and where your imagination and skills take you. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Da here in the US, I’ll be thinking of you and your wonderful wife when I think of my friends over the years.

[AlyssaKay]

OMG I cannot like this enough! I need me some more hearts! <3 <3 <3 <3 That is so totally radcore awesomesauce to the Nth degree! Cannot wait to see the finished result!

[jwalker]

Tricera cross breeding with unicorns (they still exist too, at least in my world) and deep sea angler fish … oh how I love your flights of fancy Hans. And your story telling.

[mrscottwkelley]

There are so many questions. Love your humor. So the cold connections, brass? Your metalology and connections with a brilliant imagination. AWESOME ART!!

[meevis]

I put it up on FB – be warned, there are nearly 200 pictures.
https://www.facebook.com/hans.meevis/media_set?set=a.1074157412617770.1073741841.100000705639580&type=3

[meevis]

Unfinished as yet, but the whole piece will be about 500 mm in length. The head ia about 150 mm in length including the spike.

[rdemartinphotodesign]

Crazy making in the best way…your skills are phenomenal!

[meevis]

Well, the Dino specs for the body finally came through.

Seems the Dino War Rep had an assassination attempt against him, and he had to park off at home while he grew a new tail.

Then I got tired of balancing everything as I work, so I made myself a rotating table that I can pick up and move around.
What a revelation, it works so frickin’ well that I can kick myself for not doing it ten years before.

Anyway, I’m adding more body armour.

The legs, just playing around with plasticine and various body parts I made for previous projects.

Then I carved a front leg blank and cast them in Delft clay.

Then I carved some delicate feet and I solder then on in situ on my bench.–the powers of a rotating display!

Claws, the Dinos are big on claws and these are some claws made to their specifications out of stainless steel.

I file them to a point and then heat bend them into shape before they get soldered on to the foot

Three on each front foot, no less.

Then the rear feet made using the Delft clay method again.

I had to make a model of the rear claw and show it to the Rep again.

These were duly soldered on.

If you going to solder on stainless steel to brass, forget goldsmithing solders. One must use an industrial flux that is more aggressive…

Then came a big fight.

The Dino’s wanted copper amour plating and I said no, I am not doing it like that.

I nearly lost the contract, but luckily sanity prevailed and I actually received a medal for being such a forth right and honest person. ( Hey, it’s my story, and I can write what I like)

The Dino’s were very chuffed at my new body design, because the rider of the War Machine will sit easier in it’s saddle.

The tail, carved out of Matt carving wax.

Then cut apart and cast in Delft.

And here we are… I had to make some knife blades on the tail but essentially this is the basic exoskeleton of the machine.

But unlike human skeletons, where compassion and empathy can be hung on, this skeleton will only have anger and destruction hanging on it. This is the way of war.

Also, the Dino’s want a lot of snakes on this model.

Check on the shoulder there, is a aluminium snake that I carved for them as a sample and when they saw it they immediately wanted a larger more detailed on, so I am busy with that.

And, because I am in their good books, what with the medal and all, they allowed me to show you all an unique picture on a Dino War Machine stem cell.

This cell was extracted from Dino bone marrow and can grow into anything it wishes.

[Atwater_Mary]

Hans,
It is amazing to watch this creation in step by step detail. I am in awe of your skill which is
beyond my ability to describe. How do you describe the technical level of work this requires?
At what degree F do you use your torch? Will the finished produce have a statement of
work for this piece that you can share ? If I am in Germany/Amsterdam late Spring 2017, do
you accept requests for visits of Orchid members ?

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing. MA

[Judy_in_Kansas]

Hans!!! Your imagination is… I have no words to describe. Awesome is inadequate. Are you a biologist in hiding?? Stem cells, indeed. BTW have you ever seen a horned lizard (commonly called a horny toad)? Pretty amazing creatures - they defend themselves by projecting blood from their eyes. Not to mention their spiky body armor. Google for a picture.

Thanks for sharing your creations and the step-by-step process. You ROCK!
Judy in Kansas, who used to catch horny toads when she was a kid on the farm.

[meevis]

Hi Judy,
As it is, I just downloaded pictures of Horned Lizards to use them as source pictures for duplicating their skin structure! Very Dino looking animals.Thank you for the kind words.

[meevis]

Hi Mary,

The technical level of this work in actually quite low. All it really is, is just goldsmithing on a larger scale.

I use a little torch with No 4/5/6 tips and one rosebud tip for propane. And then a big ass torch for Delft casting .Pretty much what any workshop would have.

I live in southern NL now and you or anybody is more than welcome to visit.

Cheers, Hans

[meevis]

I added front plate armor and some snakes I made out of aliminium.

The tail pretty much finished.

I made a copper seat for the rider. It still has to get all the bells and whistles.
Lots more.

The rear spines out of brass and copper all held together with temp placer screws.

Some very unfinished snakes that will eventually connect to the stirrups of the rider.

And here are we today.

Soon comes my most favorite part of sculpture, and that is sculpting the rider of this beast.

I am going to use Matt purple wax and depending on the detail either cast it with my spin caster, of delft.