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[Question] Regarding Bird Wings

Discussion in 'Beginners' started by Yourname942, Apr 15, 2016.

  1. Apr 15, 2016 #1
    Yourname942

    Yourname942 New Member

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    Questions:
    - If I buy pheasant wings, will they retain their full range of motion/articulation, or will they be very stiff and not fully move as naturally as when the bird was alive?
    - Will they have an odor to them (even if they are completely & properly preserved?)

    Plan:
    I plan on creating 2 sets of cosplay wings (Kayle from League of Legends for myself, and Morgana from League of Legends for my friend) for next year’s Anime Boson.

    Goal:
    To make articulating wings that can fold and fully extend (To be able to make 3 key poses: a guardian pose, a heart-shaped pose, and a “closed-put away-folded wing pose”, and to smoothly transition between them.)

    I plan on making the articulation as natural-looking as I can. I have already gathered a lot of online references (images, pdfs, videos), but I’m more of a hands-on learner. However, before I can do that, I was actually thinking about buying a real bird wing to figure out/study how it works, and to see the range of motion of the joints, since they don’t just fold on one plane, but they also twist around. I’m not sure if studying a real bird wing would work though because I don’t know if the wing would be stiff, or remain fully moveable)

    Thank you.
     
  3. Apr 15, 2016 #2
    birddogguy

    birddogguy Member

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    Sounds like you will need to remove all the flesh and tendons and wire the wings with a soft wire. You will also need to preserve the skin in a way that will keep it pliable. I used a bird tan once that kept the skin somewhat pliable and imaging if I would have applied some oil it could have worked for your project. Can't remember who made it.
     

  5. Apr 15, 2016 #3
    Yourname942

    Yourname942 New Member

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    I mean I'm not going to use the real bird wings as part of my costume. But I'm planning on buying a couple of them:

    1 to dissect and see the inner workings (maybe 2 so one is just bones, and 1 will have tendons)
    1 to see how it articulates
    1 to just remove the feathers and get a clearer picture

    But the issue I have is not knowing if the wing will bend like it does when the bird was alive. (if it is stiff it may not articulate correctly)
     
  6. Apr 15, 2016 #4
    Nancy C

    Nancy C Well-Known Member

    5,821
    134
    Shelton, WA
    A purchased set of pheasant wings will almost certainly be too stiff to move properly; they probably won't move at all, although they (hopefully) won't be odorous.
    Building a properly articulated set of bird wings is going to prove to be extremely difficult - even big-budget professionals making movie props seldom get it right.
    The old movie "Brewster McCloud" came pretty close. (You can probably find it on YouTube.)

    Is there any way you could temporarily get your hands on a live bird? Even a chicken or a duck would work since all flying birds have wings that open/close in the same way.
     
  7. Apr 15, 2016 #5
    Yourname942

    Yourname942 New Member

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    So this would not be possible if I buy a set of pheasant wings?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5zgleOy4g4

    I have no idea where I would be able to go to handle a live bird to feel how their wings articulate in person.
     
  8. Apr 15, 2016 #6
    MooseFriend

    MooseFriend Just a moose from Canada, eh?

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    NB, Canada
    Aw heck yes! Didn't think I'd see another cosplayer on here! Throw me some pics when you're done, will ya?

    If you buy wings, they are surely to be preserved/stiff by the time you get them, and articulating them would be hard, anyway. It's not like you can run a wire through the bones and voila. You'd have to open them up and clean them out and stuff them - if they're fresh/frozen. If you can find fresh/frozen wings that you can clean and stuff, you might be able to rig something that way? Whenever I watch bird-taxidermy videos, they never tan the skins, so I don't know if you can actually tan bird skin to keep the leather flexible and how well the feathers would hold up.

    I would go with using turkey feathers and building some wings on a cardboard base. Cosplay is all about using what you can get - cardboard is not your enemy! Just learn how feathers REALLY work, because I've seen some terrible off-anatomy wings on cosplayers who made a ^ shape and stuck feathers on it, all of one size... *shudder*
     
  9. Apr 15, 2016 #7
    Yourname942

    Yourname942 New Member

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    Hmm. In that video it seems like it is fairly easy to move them around. (she said that she properly preserved them in a salt/ mothball/ cornflour mixture)

    Yeah I'll definitely post my progress when I begin working on it.

    I'm going to use 2 sheets of fabric and use adhesive to attach it to wire for the super long feathers. I'll use real feathers for the converts (smaller feathers)

    Yeah I plan on making it as close to natural as I can. (In terms of aesthetics and articulation)
    But here is the reference that I am basing them off of:
    Kayle:
    [​IMG]
    Morgana:
    [​IMG]

    I saw so many different ways of constructing cosplay wings, but I want to base the construction off of real bird anatomy. (and not look as awkward/stiff as some people's wings)
     
  10. Apr 15, 2016 #8
    MooseFriend

    MooseFriend Just a moose from Canada, eh?

    34
    0
    NB, Canada
    I'm glad you're going with close bird anatomy and not the anime style ^ wings. I would say that's a pet peeve of mine!

    I'm particularly excited to see Morgana! :) Have "fun" making it! (Cos we all know how hard and awful making a cosplay really is, lol).