Posessed

Giraffe without the lower legs

This weekend was nothing but working on the giraffe because I fear the cooler weather is about to depart.

Possessed is about the way I felt this weekend working nonstop on the giraffe. In the last week I completely tore off the chest and redid it TWICE. After the first chest rework it still wasn't what I was hoping for. So the second time I really tore into it and added curves in the front around the legs and middle chest. Plus using the plasma cutter I pulled it in another couple inches.

Next major rework was the hump. Even though most giraffes have a hump at the base of the neck, the size of the hump I made more resembled a camel. So While I was carving, off it came. After that I looked at the profile of the back and decided to make that more of a slant. That looked more natural and the giraffe slimmed down a little bit more. The slant of the back made a kind of hump and the advantage is the neck looks about a 9 inches longer. More Giraffish ...

The back end of the Giraffe was modified slightly to give it more contour. When the rear legs start forming, that area will be roughed in more.

The more I do this the more little tricks I figure out. How to form metal shapes is now quite easy. Welding gets easier by the day and I'm still learning how to make good welds. I found out a lot of my welds were not the best when I took a hammer to a few areas in the front of the giraffe. Extreme hammering the steel broke quite a few welds but they were easily fixed.

That's how you learn...