Workshop Notes

Viva Espania!

As I sifted through the endless spam in my inbox I came across this message from Barcelona. Cristina had sent me this picture with her brother Joaca and boyfriend Peter showing the Flying Pig models that they have made. I was delighted!
I put models up on the website in the hope that people will enjoy them. Feedback like this makes my day!
Thank you Cristina.

Combination Lock

	I've just finished a combination lock model and put it on the web site using BitPass. You can visit the page here. The combination lock model is a downloadable project so it needs to be a compact file size. To this end I've done the illustrations in vector format. This means that instead of using a photograph, a line drawing is used, the resulting files are approx. half the size. So... starting with a photograph taken on a digital camera...
	I import the picture into Illustrator and carefully draw round all the lines. Notice that the shapes are transparent at the moment. It can get a bit confusing with all the lines one on top of another but this way the whole picture remains visible. If I'm doing a particularly complex model I'll create different parts on different layers of the file, this allows me to hide parts that I am not working on.
	The number outlines were added using the 'envelope distortion' tool within Illustrator. This lets me stretch and mould the numbers so that they fit into place over the photograph.
	Finally, the photograph is deleted and the shapes are filled with colour. The finished result is a compact file and a picture which remains crisp even if you enlarge it! Click here to download the file and have a go

Full Steam Ahead!

Son number one (Elliot) received this Mamod stationary steam engine from our good friends Dave and Adele for this festive season. We had a great time getting it to run then taking it apart to see how it all works. I've put some more information on this type of engine in our mechanisms section. Pop over for a look. Happy Christmas!

Ho ho ho

Ho ho ho was our free-to-download-model for this Christmas. We've had thousands of downloads, very gratifying :-)
I wasn't sure what to do with the model when I'd completed it, possibly it could be our second BitPass model.
These are the things that we have to contemplate. I'm trying to keep a balance between, making a living and just enjoying sharing my creations. In the end I opted to make the model available to our newsletter subscribers.

Marble release

I'm planning a series of new models, perhaps to feature in a book rather than the usual individual kits. To this end I've been looking through previously developed but as yet unused mechanisms and have come across this marble release.
The mechanism itself is suprisingly robust but as yet needs a 'Purpose'. Originally I had planned to make it drive a 'Plague of Frogs' model but found that the small weight to the marbles wasn't enough to move much of anything. I have a couple of other ideas how to use marbles to drive a model... I'll keep you posted.

Cam Bird

The Cam Bird, a new project for the new year. A simple cam-in-a-box with a bird on top. The whole to be die cut and supplied as a pack for schools. It will be produced on plain card for the student to colour.
A separate teacher page and student instruction sheet will complete the pack. Initially Cam Bird will be available in the US. If all goes well we may try distributing it in the UK.

Workshop Notes

A new section for the Flying Pig website, Workshop Notes revives an old section of the site but using the power of a Weblog tool. Hopefully this section will allow me to keep you up to date with some of the ideas and developments as they happen. I hope that you find it interesting