Gorby 17,213 Posted February 27 Report Share Posted February 27 I’m fascinated by creatures from our distant past, particularly the Cambrian Explosion and that was a loooooooooooong time ago. When I say it was a loooooooooooooong time ago, I don’t mean before breakfast last Thursday, no I mean waaaaaaaaay old. Now, we all know that dinosaurs are way old..... I have a lovely ammonite fossil which is even way older than dinosaurs. The time I’m talking about is even waaaaaay older than that! The Cambrian Explosion was between 541 to 530 million years ago at a time when evolution was experimenting with life. In the early days of aviation, most aircraft looked downright weird because we hadn’t really twigged what aircraft should look like. It was the same with life. The early stuff didn’t realise what constitute a rational looking creature. It’s almost as if they didn’t care what they looked like on Instagram. Googling ‘Cambrian creatures’ will give you a glimpse into the weirdness. The poser child of the strangeness is one of my favourites, Hallucigenia: When the first fossil of it was discovered in 1911 it was wrongly classified as an annelid. That was overturned when it was re-examined in 1977 and that was when it was renamed Hallucigenia because of its bizarre, dream like quality. Mind you the fossil was a bit confusing so originally they thought the creature walked on rigid stilt like legs and had a single row of tentacles down it’s back. They also thought it must have picked up food from it’s bum end, then passed it from tentacle to tentacle to the mouth end. It wasn’t for another thirty years they found another row of ‘tentacles’ and eyes on it’s bum and realised they’d been looking at the creature upside-down and back to front. As Hallucigenia was quite small I’m going large – twice the size of the largest fossil found to date - although that'll still end up quite a small model. All of this is new to me so there may be some swearing involved and a few wrong turns. 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hutch6390 2,153 Posted February 27 Report Share Posted February 27 You're well off the beaten track with this one, @Gorby, good luck, mate! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tolvcat 3,529 Posted February 27 Report Share Posted February 27 That is a very cool topic indeed - looking forward to the finishd model. Andy 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RWG686 33,100 Posted February 27 Report Share Posted February 27 This should be good. It looks something that Featherstone - Kite would have designed. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dixieflyer 4,388 Posted February 27 Report Share Posted February 27 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lost Cosmonauts 4,947 Posted February 27 Report Share Posted February 27 Interesting, I enjoyed reading Stephen J Gould’s Wonderful Life about the Burgess Shale when I got it as a prize at school some 33 years ago 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steelpillow 702 Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 (edited) Are you going to paint it in psychedelic colours, like something out of Yellow Submarine? 21 hours ago, Gorby said: In the early days of aviation, most aircraft looked downright weird because we hadn’t really twigged what aircraft should look like. A propos of which, there is a lovely story from those days. Dick Fairey, later to become a famous planemaker, in 1913 worked for the Blair Atholl Aeroplane Syndicate, making the remarkable and robust tailless-swept-wing machines of JW Dunne, the world's first certified stable aeroplanes. Dunne's biplane had once been described by a reporter as looking "like the corner of a shop counter that has been hit by a tornado." So one day, another reporter is standing beside Fairey watching the latest one fly. Fairey asked him what he thought of it. The reporter replied, "I should like it better if it looked more like an aeroplane". Fairey shot back, "My dear Sir, this is what an aeroplane looks like!" Edited February 28 by steelpillow 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 17,213 Posted February 28 Author Report Share Posted February 28 3 hours ago, steelpillow said: Are you going to paint it in psychedelic colours, like something out of Yellow Submarine? More on that at a later date. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RWG686 33,100 Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 5 hours ago, steelpillow said: Dick Fairey, That was Charles Richard Fairey's son and not the man who formed the company although he eventually became vice chairman of Fairey Aviation Company Ltd. Sir Charles Richard Fairey, as he became, was known as Richard but never to my knowledge 'Dick' 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steelpillow 702 Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 26 minutes ago, RWG686 said: That was Charles Richard Fairey's son and not the man who formed the company although he eventually became vice chairman of Fairey Aviation Company Ltd. Sir Charles as he became, was known as Richard but never to my knowledge 'Dick' Sorry mate, you are well off target there. He was indeed THE Sir Richard Fairey to be, no messin'. I refer you for example to H.A. Taylor; Fairey Aircraft since 1915 in the well-known Putnam series. Or, more visibly from it title, the short piece "Dunne to Delta" published in Flight (23 March 1951 pp.348-9) following the first flight of the Fairey F.D.1 delta jet. Fewer sources record his youthful nickname of Dick, among them Kevin Desmond; "Richard Fairey 1887-1956", Aeroplane Monthly, January and February issues, 1988. I can dig out a few more if you remain unconvinced. For my part, I am not aware that he was ever referred to as "Sir Charles Fairey"; he was always "Sir Richard Fairey" (see e.g. Dunne to Delta or J. Laurence Pritchard's appreciation of him in the Journal of the RAeS, December 1956, pp.764-8). Sadly, today's Internet meme machine is not capable of contracting "Sir Charles Richard Fairey, MBE, Hon.FIAS" with any sense of historical reality. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RWG686 33,100 Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 26 minutes ago, steelpillow said: Sorry mate, you are well off target there. I'm always willing to acknowledge that fact if I'm proved wrong. How else do we learn ? I'll PM you so as not to bog down @Gorby's thread. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 17,213 Posted February 28 Author Report Share Posted February 28 Anyway, back to ancient critters. I'd changed my mind twice before I'd even started….do I just roll a sausage of Hallucigenia body and drill holes for the leg and spike wires...or should I have a skeleton of wire inside and attach the other wires directly to that? I went for the skeleton as I thought it would be stronger and sometimes Milliput can be a bit crumbly when you drill into it. This took about an hour. It was really fiddly as it's less than four inches (9cm) long. Then there was another quandary as what to make the body from, so I had a little experiment. I was curious to see if it was feasible to use paper and PVA. I thought tissue would be too thin so I tried newspaper torn into very thin strips. Which I wound down the body adding abundant quantities of PVA as I went. I thought it looked great. What a success…. ….until it dried. It was a bit of a mess. Too uneven and too many cavities. Back to the drawing board for the next attempt….and this is were the photographic record gets a bit lax. Plan B was Milliput. It a bloody awkward shape to cover so I had to use small strips to wrap it mil by mil along the body, then smoothing with water. The legs were even more fiddly. Roll a slim sausage and fold it onto each leg, then smooth with water to get rid of the seam. Fiddly because the Milliput was continually trying to twirl around the wire. Anyway, so far I've managed to get it to this very well fed Hallucigenia: Needs more spiky bits (you might have noticed) and a lot of faffing about with to make it look less...well, less duff. I wonder if it's time to buy a 3D printer? 4 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steelpillow 702 Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 If you've got any blackthorn (sloes) in your garden, that might provide suitable pointy bits? Just watch those pointy bits, they are coated in an irritant toxin - much like my old PE teacher. The sloes themselves can be used to flavour gin, which (in my case) is about as palatable as the better paint thinners. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hutch6390 2,153 Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 (edited) Shame the papaya mashy didn't work out, but the Milliput's looking good Edited February 28 by Hutch6390 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 17,213 Posted February 28 Author Report Share Posted February 28 26 minutes ago, Hutch6390 said: papaya mashy I should have gone with that idea. At least I could have eaten it if it didn't work out. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mad Steve 20,611 Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 Nice one Gorby, always something original and exciting,good one 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Col. 7,396 Posted March 3 Report Share Posted March 3 What an excellent subject choice Gorbs 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 17,213 Posted March 3 Author Report Share Posted March 3 2 minutes ago, Col. said: What an excellent subject choice Gorbs If it goes well there may well be other morbidly-obese prehistoric creatures to follow. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steelpillow 702 Posted March 3 Report Share Posted March 3 17 minutes ago, Gorby said: If it goes well there may well be other morbidly-obese prehistoric creatures to follow. No I am NOT sending you a selfie! 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 17,213 Posted March 7 Author Report Share Posted March 7 Managed to get a bit of time playing working in my actual workroom so took the next step on my critter. Although it's probably not a good idea to step on critters. Last time I had a go at attaching one spike. It did work out okayish but it was a bit hit and miss that it would dry in the correct position: Incidentally, as the critters got a wire frame it's being held by some magnets. This time I'm letting them dry before trying to stick 'em on. As you can see I've made nearly twice as many as I actually need, and then I'll just choose the ones which turned out the best. The biggest problem is that the Milliput isn't fully drying. Probably because of the cold. Because of that I'm going to have to wait a while before being able to go any further with the build. 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mad Steve 20,611 Posted March 7 Report Share Posted March 7 Nice one Gorbs, coming along nicely. Put it in the airing cupboard to help it dry 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 17,213 Posted March 8 Author Report Share Posted March 8 14 hours ago, Mad Steve said: Put it in the airing cupboard to help it dry Haven't got an airing cupboard.It's near a radiator but it's still tanking an age to dry. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mr Bowcat 460 Posted March 8 Report Share Posted March 8 Just come across this threads Gorby, very interesting. I find it particularly fascinating that the ammonite fossil seems to follow the Fibonacci sequence, I had no idea it could be traced back such a long way. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 17,213 Posted March 8 Author Report Share Posted March 8 4 minutes ago, Mr Bowcat said: ammonite fossil seems to follow the Fibonacci sequence I find the internal structure fascinating. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steelpillow 702 Posted March 9 Report Share Posted March 9 11 hours ago, Mr Bowcat said: the ammonite fossil seems to follow the Fibonacci sequence, Not the exact sequence, that is a typical Internet myth. They are both examples of what is known as a logarithmic spiral. Each step is a constant multiple of the one before. You can find similar spirals in sunflower seed heads, snail shells, and many other places in nature. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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