Colganology2: Trashbugs

A few days ago I described how I made a scorpion from junk items (see here).

But I still had a fair bit of junk left. And insects, spiders and other arthropods do lend themselves to trash-bashing as as they look partly mechanical already.

So I made some more.

If you're the kind of person who's interested in how these things get made, here are a few 'under construction' pics.

I then experimented with more dynamic portrayals - rather than just emulating specimens on display in a collection - with this dragonfly and a rusty looking bug.

Like the previous trashbugs, these were made entirely from recycled materials (except for the wooden cogwheels which I bought in bulk for another project from a craft shop in 2019).

The bug began as three nitrous oxide cylinders found in a wood while I was walking my dogs. Some silly kids were obviously 'doing balloons' (I say silly because they clearly don't realise the health risks involved). The main leg assembly is a broken hair grip that I reshaped by holding it over a tealight candle and bending the 'limbs'. One of the tines on the hairgrip was broken so I replaced it with an arm and claw and mirrored that on the other side. The 'teeth' were also from a hairgrip and the eyes were the earbuds on a broken pair of earphones. Detailing came from my greebly box and then I used a combination of painting techniques to create a rust effect.

To finish, I added some dusty yellow highlights. I then made a base for it to stand on. I used my hot wire to shape a lump of polystyrene packaging and then covered it with a mix of plaster, PVA glue and brown paint. To finish, I drybrushed a lighter brown to bring up the surface detail and sprinkled a little green flock over some PVA. And we were done.

The dragonfly, meanwhile, was suggested by a found toy plastic golf ball that reminded me of compound eyes. I attached it to a body made from a Yakult pot, a broken metal Maglite torch, a pen lid and various other things. The forearms were made from various plastic greeblies and the claws by cementing together the little wooden triangles that I needed to push out of the spokes of my laser cut wooden cogwheels - waste nothing!

The whole thing was then given a coat of matt black primer and then painted with several different colour metallic pigments.

It was at this point that I realised the body was too stumpy so I increased the length by adding the lid from a dead Posca marker pen. I also built the wing assembly from clear plastic packaging (an antipasto meat selection if you're interested), a plastic clothes peg, wire and beads.

Here's the finished piece.

I now had the bug (no pun intended) and so, by Jiminy, I made a cricket!

As always, the choice of subject was dictated by the forms I found in my junk box. Putting together the top of a deodorant spray, a mayonnaise lid and part of a squash bottle reminded me of a bush cricket. I then managed to make something approximating the shape of the head from a deconstructed kitchen bleach spray trigger (often a source of really interesting plastic shapes). I added a couple of wooden cogs too.

I decided to use a defunct old phone charger cable for the antennae - I simply removed the wire from inside the coiled metal sheath and replaced it with stiff garden wire to make it poseable. The addition of a couple of toy balls for eyes and it was starting to come together.

When it came to the rear legs I used plastic cutlery left over a birthday party last year. Melting it slowly over a tealight candle allows you to bend and weld it and it wasn't too hard to create the shapes I wanted. I then added a few greeblies in the form of googly eyes, plastic lollipop sticks, parts of freezer bag clips and 'feet' made from deodorant can triggers. The other four legs were made from lollipop sticks and beads glued onto wire.

It was at this point that I realised that the head and the 'mouthparts were all wrong. So I took a saw to it and the finished result is much better (and, of course, I can recycle the piece I cut off into another model). I gave the whole thing a coat of white primer and then painted it a nice pastel blue, followed by a succession of orange/brown and metallic silver ink washes to start to create an eroded metal look.

Finally, I daubed on some fresh blue paint, and some rust-colours at the seams and joints. A final dry-brush on the high edges with metallic blue paint and it was done.

Should it have been green? Maybe. But the blue really seemed to work. And, after all, we're suspending disbelief here aren't we? These are mechanical rather than biological beasties.

I enjoyed this one. So much so that I decided to create just one more.

I made a spider from a plant watering bulb thing, a couple of screw caps (mouthwash and tomato puree), a couple of PCR test droppers (suitably sterilised after use), googly eyes, cardboard, some coffee stirrers, plastic beads, a deodorant spray cap and a handful of plastic cutlery. Two plastic spoons were used for the face shield, fork tines became the fangs and the legs were each made from plastic knives that were broken into pieces and welded together using a naked flame. The legs were held together using two large washers and a nut and bolt (plus hot glue). After that it was a matter of painting to create the illusion of old metal.