3-D Tinfoil Toothless DIY

Hey everybody! For the past few weeks I've been working on a project – the title sort of tells all, but I made a 3-dimensional Toothless! Toothless is a Night Fury breed of dragon of the movie How to Train Your Dragon, probably my favorite animated movie in the history of ever.

His core skeletal structure is made out of wire (his wing is a different piece of wire, secured to the main body with a mess of glue and tightly-wound thinner wire) and the rest of his body is built up using tinfoil. Masking tape covers his main body. His front paws, back legs, tail fins, and face nubbins are not covered in masking tape, as you can see below.

There are no pictures during the actual construction because it was a very frustrating process for me and frankly,  I couldn't be bothered taking pictures.

And, for any eagle-eyed HTTYD fans, yes, I know I left out his hip wing fins. I realized there was no good way to secure them to the main body without additional frustration.

Wibbly-wobbly taily-finny.

 And the painting begins! I'll admit, this part was a bit of a nightmare... as you can see, the masking tape on his wing was sticking up and the brush couldn't reach every nook and cranny from every angle. The bare tinfoil had the same problem.

I live. I learn. I'll never attempt a project like this again! xD

Aaand, here's the [somewhat] finished project! I still need to find some black tissue paper for his wing membrane. If anyone can think of a better membrane-like material I should use, please let me know in the comments.

Ta-da! Yeah, my little Toothless is pretty wonky looking and the proportions aren't exact and he's missing a pair of wings, but I love him anyway. :)

I'm planning to put him in a frame (glass removed of course!) against a parchment paper background and hang it up somewhere in my room. He will flaunt his tiny mighty power!

'Til next time,

~Ze Embers