Birds.

The Ariane still awaits its shroud. I felt like making a bird. I like birds. A lot. So that's why I also make bird models. Here are Johan Scherft's Starling (De Spreeuw) which I bought via Zeist Bouwplaten (Diderick A. den Bakker's webshop) and also Johan Scherft's Wren (Winterkoninkje) which is downloadable from Johan Scherft's website, just like a couple of other birds. Do try them. They're lovely to make.
Both went together very easily. I modified both a little. More of the story below.

The starling has special feet. I put floral wire inside the toes so they now are bendable. There is room inside the shaft that makes its legs for another piece of wire, so the bird can sit snugly on a branch and curl its toes around it. I printed the model a second time on regular 80 gram paper to provide extra parts to do the insides of the wings. You can look underneath them and it shouldn't be white.
 

Below a shot of the feet in close up. It just is paper wrapped around floral wire. But it looks quite realistic this way. There are two small rods coming from the branch, going into the straight part of the legs. the rods are glued inside the branch.

Okay, then the wren. I already made one but I wanted to redo it because I now had better paper (120 gram/m2) and I wanted to depict the wren singing. Why? I don't know. I always seem to have the need to never just do a model out of the proverbial box. Quod erat demonstrandum.
The bill was made from scratch by me. I used water colour pencils and a little acrylic paint for the insides and the edges. I also doubled up the throat feathers so they could stand out a little, like birds have when they sing.
here too, I printed the model a second time on regular 80 gram paper to use at the insides of the wings to hide white spots.

The legs were just glued together around a brass tube and both feet got an inner layer of a second print. I shaped the toes a couple of seconds after I added some CA to the surface to make them more sturdy. Inside the branch is a little rod.

And here it is, happily belting away for the rockets and spacecraft. And the cat's violin.
The other wren I made, was put in a little display case and it will be a present.

I hope to finish the Ariane soon, because I am afraid there will be less time for builds the coming period.
I need to film a 30 minute TV item for a regional television station, and to my great joy, I got a national broadcaster interested in the documentary film project I have been working on in private for some time now. It is about ANS, the Astronomical Netherlands Satellite, which was launched in 1974 and was an amazing piece of work. More on that perhaps at some later date.
Thanks for stopping by and see you all soon.
--PK