European Robin by Johann Scherft

[sjsquirrel]

I finished this build a few weeks ago and am finally getting around to posting some pictures. The model was designed by Johann Scherft and is available as a free download at origami-shop.com along with another of Johann's earlier models, the Crested Tit (really, that's what's called). Johann's original models are designed by hand, then hand painted to create some amazingly life-like models. I wish mine looked half as good as his.

He has a few other models you can download from his website. Some others are available for purchase and the files are emailed to you, others as printed kits, and his completed models are offered for sale as well.

I quite enjoyed building this one, will definitely build others, and I've been seriously considering buying some of his printed kits. They're a bit expensive with shipping factored in, but I think they'd be worth it.

Anyway, here's a shot of the finished bird on a custom wood stand I made from scraps I had in the shop. It's not the best build in the world and my edge coloring stinks, but from a distance it still looks great and I'm quite pleased with it.



The entire model is layed out on a single A4 page, which I just printed to fit on letter sized. The only instructions are in the form of brief notes and a couple diagrams on the page, but at sixteen parts total, eight of which are toes, I found these to be sufficient. In this next picture I've got the main body cut out, and you can see the parts sheet.



Next is the main body, further along in the assembly process. I used joining strips rather than the tabs to get a smoother body. I'd like to go back and build it again, but next time I would edit the pattern to lighten the black cut lines. I didn't worry about getting all of the line cut off, and in some areas the cuts are so fine it's almost impossible, and the black of the lines show in the finished project.



And now a wing. On the wings I did use the supplied glue tabs (with a little coloring along the borders) as this adds depth to the wing.



Next we have the face and bill. It was a little fiddly getting the bill glued in place, and a little more so getting the face glued to the body. All of this needs to be done before closing the body completely and adding the tail.



Last but not least, a couple shots of the toes. These are in the form of small tubes. I used a straightened paper clip and rolled the tubes around it for gluing. After the tubes were formed and the glue dried I cut small notches in the underside of the toes so they could be posed more realistically. This was all Very fiddly work as they are small parts. For gluing the toes to the legs I used regular white glue initially as I got the toes glued in position so that the bird sat properly on the stand, then coated them with CA glue to strengthen them. Even then I still broke several and had to re-glue them, but in the end it was all well worth it.





The pattern does not include anything for the legs, but suggests using BBQ skewers. After studying several photos of the actual bird I decided to make some legs from paper. A real birds legs are not round, but more like two ovals wrapped in skin. The photo below shows the legs I fashioned. They're a bit too large to be realistic, but they were close enough for me. I still haven;t painted them. Been too lazy to drag out my watercolors and mix up a decent color.



My only criticism of this model would be around attaching the tail - you make the tail, and then have to cut your own hole in the back of the bird for it. It would have been nice to have some guidelines on the pattern, but this wasn't a major problem either. I ended up with the hole slightly larger than it needed to be, but I just glued the tail to the top of the hole, leaving the gap hidden under the base of the tail.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, and I strongly urge you to check out the designers web site. You'll be amazed at the work he does.

Steve

That's a really nice model! I live the stand too. Great juxtaposition! You could squeeze those legs int ovals. here are enough dead birds around here, I could mail you a pair!

I had a friend who was into "Bio-mechanical models. He would meal worms to clean the bones. He would straighten out the bones of the bird, add an cockpit, jet engines, missiles, Rudder, etc. They were fascinatingly morbid, but interesting nevertheless.

[anthony344]

That is soo cute by looking at it with that stand , it might set it off if he was standing on a tree branch. You won't tell the difference if it real or paper model.

[sjsquirrel]

Thanks guys.

It turns out that the legs actually aren't that big of a deal. Even unpainted they blend in pretty well as the eye tends to take in the whole bird, or gets drawn to the feet and toes as interesting details. The legs kind of get lost in the middle.

I had originally planned on using a tree branch, but couldn't find one I liked (it was winter), and that would have need to be mounted on something anyway, so I just took this route. The bird is not glued to the stand so I can always change it later if I feel like it.

I'm looking forward to doing another sometime. There are other interesting bird models out there too from Canon and some other sites. They make a nice change of pace.

Steve

[Wad_Cutter]

I had no idea it was possible. I was looking for chickens in HO scale but these are just plain beautiful. Than you very much. wc

[sjsquirrel]

Originally Posted by Wad_Cutter

I had no idea it was possible. I was looking for chickens in HO scale but these are just plain beautiful. Than you very much. wc

Your welcome. I'm glad you found it. I had much the same reaction and as soon as I saw it (a few years ago) I knew I'd try one sooner rather than later. Everyone that's seen it has really liked it.

Last week I was looking at it and wondering what to do with it when I remembered that the local nature club has an annual birding competition every year in May. I contacted a friend of mine who is active in the club and offered it as a prize, along with one of my modular origami swans. The organizers were absolutely delighted. Apparently they've never had prizes to give out before, so I may have started an annual tradition. It will give me good motivation to build more of these in the future.

My mother even asked me to send it to her so she could take it to a local art and gift shop and see if they'd be interested in selling them. Unfortunately I'd already offered it to the nature club, so I'll have to build another now.

Who knew a little bird would be so popular.

Regards,

Steve

Originally Posted by sjsquirrel

Your welcome. I'm glad you found it. I had much the same reaction and as soon as I saw it (a few years ago) I knew I'd try one sooner rather than later. Everyone that's seen it has really liked it.

Last week I was looking at it and wondering what to do with it when I remembered that the local nature club has an annual birding competition every year in May. I contacted a friend of mine who is active in the club and offered it as a prize, along with one of my modular origami swans. The organizers were absolutely delighted. Apparently they've never had prizes to give out before, so I may have started an annual tradition. It will give me good motivation to build more of these in the future.

My mother even asked me to send it to her so she could take it to a local art and gift shop and see if they'd be interested in selling them. Unfortunately I'd already offered it to the nature club, so I'll have to build another now.

Who knew a little bird would be so popular.

Regards,

Steve

People really love birds. I have neighbors who leave huge piles of brush for birds to Winter in. These guys are serious. My wife feeds birds like crazy. I have had people common on the amount of Humming birds I have around my house. You really can barely see the wings, and they are such gracious creatures. There is a Pileated Woodpecker that must stand over a foot ball easily. They go from 15.7–19.3 in, and the one that lives in my hard has to be 17 inches long. He(she?) is a beautiful bird. Very similar to the picture below. This birds are massive, and have killed two of my neighbors trees. He is a jerk. ironically, I have many trees,and he has touched non of mine! This bird is really really loud. It is very easy to find in the trees because it sounds like an air tool, but way up in the air!

[sjsquirrel]

Originally Posted by Zathros

People really love birds. I have neighbors who leave huge piles of brush for birds to Winter in. These guys are serious. My wife feeds birds like crazy. I have had people common on the amount of Humming birds I have around my house. You really can barely see the wings, and they are such gracious creatures. There is a Pileated Woodpecker that must stand over a foot ball easily. They go from 15.7–19.3 in, and the one that lives in my hard has to be 17 inches long. He(she?) is a beautiful bird. Very similar to the picture below. This birds are massive, and have killed two of my neighbors trees. He is a jerk. ironically, I have many trees,and he has touched non of mine! This bird is really really loud. It is very easy to find in the trees because it sounds like an air tool, but way up in the air!

We had one of those in the yard just yesterday morning. Beautiful birds. Would make a great model. Hmmmmmmm.........

Steve

My neighbor wanted to shoot the one in my yard last Summer. He brought out his single shot .22 rifle. I took out my Winchester 30-30 Model 94. I won. Birds still eats his trees but don't touch mine. See what happens this year. I don't think a whole or two is so bad. This one stripped the top of my neighbors tree really bad. I am convinced it's because he's a jerk though. He doesn't like the deer breeding behind my Barn every year either. I think animals sense these kind of things (jerky people).

[terrinecold]

I really like it. After the dragonfly I found that animal models can be nice as most people will relate to them.

[terrinecold]

Just finished another model from the designer site, thank you for the suggestion

[sjsquirrel]

Originally Posted by terrinecold

Just finished another model from the designer site, thank you for the suggestion

Which one did you build? I'd love to see pictures. I plan on doing the Crested Tit next.

Steve

I have to say that I am really loving this Bird model thread. This is great!

[terrinecold]

@sjsquirrel, I posted it in another thread it is the firecrest
http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=172177
my daughter was happy that I made something for her and not just warlike stuff for her brother. It is a nice model and I am not so used to use light paper like was recommended, it is interesting

[valmy33]

Originally Posted by sjsquirrel

I finished this build a few weeks ago and am finally getting around to posting some pictures. The model was designed by Johann Scherft and is available as a free download at origami-shop.com along with another of Johann's earlier models, the Crested Tit (really, that's what's called). Johann's original models are designed by hand, then hand painted to create some amazingly life-like models. I wish mine looked half as good as his.

He has a few other models you can download from his website. Some others are available for purchase and the files are emailed to you, others as printed kits, and his completed models are offered for sale as well.

I quite enjoyed building this one, will definitely build others, and I've been seriously considering buying some of his printed kits. They're a bit expensive with shipping factored in, but I think they'd be worth it.

Anyway, here's a shot of the finished bird on a custom wood stand I made from scraps I had in the shop. It's not the best build in the world and my edge coloring stinks, but from a distance it still looks great and I'm quite pleased with it.



The entire model is layed out on a single A4 page, which I just printed to fit on letter sized. The only instructions are in the form of brief notes and a couple diagrams on the page, but at sixteen parts total, eight of which are toes, I found these to be sufficient. In this next picture I've got the main body cut out, and you can see the parts sheet.



Next is the main body, further along in the assembly process. I used joining strips rather than the tabs to get a smoother body. I'd like to go back and build it again, but next time I would edit the pattern to lighten the black cut lines. I didn't worry about getting all of the line cut off, and in some areas the cuts are so fine it's almost impossible, and the black of the lines show in the finished project.



And now a wing. On the wings I did use the supplied glue tabs (with a little coloring along the borders) as this adds depth to the wing.



Next we have the face and bill. It was a little fiddly getting the bill glued in place, and a little more so getting the face glued to the body. All of this needs to be done before closing the body completely and adding the tail.



Last but not least, a couple shots of the toes. These are in the form of small tubes. I used a straightened paper clip and rolled the tubes around it for gluing. After the tubes were formed and the glue dried I cut small notches in the underside of the toes so they could be posed more realistically. This was all Very fiddly work as they are small parts. For gluing the toes to the legs I used regular white glue initially as I got the toes glued in position so that the bird sat properly on the stand, then coated them with CA glue to strengthen them. Even then I still broke several and had to re-glue them, but in the end it was all well worth it.





The pattern does not include anything for the legs, but suggests using BBQ skewers. After studying several photos of the actual bird I decided to make some legs from paper. A real birds legs are not round, but more like two ovals wrapped in skin. The photo below shows the legs I fashioned. They're a bit too large to be realistic, but they were close enough for me. I still haven;t painted them. Been too lazy to drag out my watercolors and mix up a decent color.



My only criticism of this model would be around attaching the tail - you make the tail, and then have to cut your own hole in the back of the bird for it. It would have been nice to have some guidelines on the pattern, but this wasn't a major problem either. I ended up with the hole slightly larger than it needed to be, but I just glued the tail to the top of the hole, leaving the gap hidden under the base of the tail.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, and I strongly urge you to check out the designers web site. You'll be amazed at the work he does.

Steve

Excellent build and really different subject

Faithfully
Valmy