Sooooo, I made some wings? This is sort of based off of some other people's projects, but it is all my own original design. One of the main aims of this was to keep it as cheap as possible, and judging off some of the ones you can buy on the internet, I think I suceeded. Overall, it comes out under £100, which I think is reasonable for a set of MASSIVE MOVING METAL WINGS!!!
Anyways, onto how I actually made them…
Materials (most of them at least lol):
• Aluminium C/U Channels (3/4” x 3/4” x 1/16”)
• Linear Actuator (200mm 750N)
• 12V Battery Pack (8xAA Batteries)
• 30mm M4 Bolts
• M4 Nylock Nuts
• ON-OFF-ON DPDT switch
• Plywood
I first drew out the rough shape and size that I wanted the wings to be, by getting someone to draw around my torso and arms, then filling out the shape around the outline. I did this on a large window with chalk pens, however you could also do this on a whiteboard or large piece of paper.
The shape is based on images of Crowley's wings, but it is obviously needed to be smaller, so I made some slight changes. I combined a few of the wing designs that I found on the internet to get the shape that I wanted, and to make sure it would work with one actuator. I then made a smaller prototype version of it using cardboard and split pins.
I messed around with it a bit, to get the measurements more even, and to adjust the shape so that it would work with the drawings from earlier. On a small prototype version this was easy enough to do, as I could swap out lengths, trim things and adjust positioning, however an issue that I ran into was that the cardboard was very floppy, and so I could only do it if it was lying on the ground and couldn't lift it up to see from different angles. This problem could possibly be avoided by using lollypop sticks or dowels or other stronger materials to reinforce the cardboard.
After settling on a final design, I scaled up the measurements and made a full-scale cardboard version of one wing. I only did one wing, as I couldn't fit two onto my floor, however as they are mirror images of each other it didn't matter too much. At this stage I started researching linear actuators, and worked out that they are, in fact, quite expensive (Yes I know I should have thought about this earlier but I am not very good at planning lol). This meant that my design, which needed a rather large actuator, needed to be altered to accommodate a smaller, cheaper one. I messed around a bit, and through a combination of trial and error, and sheer determination to save £20, I altered the design enough that I could use a 200mm actuator, or at a push a 150mm one. This did sacrifice the range of motion a bit, and so the wings are larger when closed than they were originally intended to be, but I think it was worth it. Additionally, the smaller actuator is much more convenient to attach to a backplate and, as I am fairly short, it needed to be small enough to actually fit on my back.
The next step was to order and assemble the aluminium. I used 3/4” x 3/4” x 1/16” aluminium C channels, along with 30mm M4 bolts and nylock nuts. I drilled holes into the aluminium channels where they needed to be joined together, then screwed the bolts in. I used two nuts for each bolt, one either side of the aluminium, to make sure that the bolts didn't stick out too far. I did this using pliers, since they were locking nuts, which took a lot of effort, and a lot of plasters. Initially, I only bought enough metal for one wing, to check that it would actually work, and after thoroughly testing the first wing, I order more and repeated the assembly process for the second wing.
For a backplate, I used plywood, which i admit is probably not the best choice for material due to its inflexibility and weight, but I already had some, and so, for the interest of my bank account, we had to stick with that. I sawed the plywood into a shape that sort of resembled by body, so that it was comfortable and didn't look too bulky, before attaching the actuator with zipties and a larger bolt at the bottom. In order to attach it to myself, I mutilated an old backpack (dw it was already falling apart) to retrieve the back piece, and poked holes in it for more zipties.
Next was the electronics. At this point I was quite tired of fiddling around with crocodile clips every time I had to test it, and so I worked on soldering the switch on. Here's a circuit diagram, but essentially, wire the battery pack to the middle 2 pins, and the actuator to the other 4 and boom you have yourself a working switch!
(also i apologise for slightly dodgy soldering skills lol)
Now at this point we have a functioning pair of wings, and if I was going for a more industrial vibe, I could have just left them as is, however these are not just any pair of wings, these are DEMON wings, so the logical next step is a fuck ton of feathers… Obviously covering the entire wings in fake feathers would be expensive and time consuming, so after making a base of material (old bed sheets dyed black and artfully draping it over the wings, I found a few different ways to mimic feathers. I did have a few actual (fake) feathers, which I used sparingly to make them a bit fluffier, but the main way I added texture was with shiny black fabric (leftover from another project), cut into layers, and overlapped. There were also some larger foam feathers that I made, but I'm still not convinced they look as good as the fabric.
In conclusion, yay wings! Feel free to ask me any questions you have (message box on homepage), and I would love to see if you decide to attempt a similar project! Also, if anyone desperately wants a pair, you could hire me to make them for you ;) /hj
Anyways, onto how I actually made them…
Materials (most of them at least lol):
• Aluminium C/U Channels (3/4” x 3/4” x 1/16”)
• Linear Actuator (200mm 750N)
• 12V Battery Pack (8xAA Batteries)
• 30mm M4 Bolts
• M4 Nylock Nuts
• ON-OFF-ON DPDT switch
• Plywood
I first drew out the rough shape and size that I wanted the wings to be, by getting someone to draw around my torso and arms, then filling out the shape around the outline. I did this on a large window with chalk pens, however you could also do this on a whiteboard or large piece of paper.
The shape is based on images of Crowley's wings, but it is obviously needed to be smaller, so I made some slight changes. I combined a few of the wing designs that I found on the internet to get the shape that I wanted, and to make sure it would work with one actuator. I then made a smaller prototype version of it using cardboard and split pins.
I messed around with it a bit, to get the measurements more even, and to adjust the shape so that it would work with the drawings from earlier. On a small prototype version this was easy enough to do, as I could swap out lengths, trim things and adjust positioning, however an issue that I ran into was that the cardboard was very floppy, and so I could only do it if it was lying on the ground and couldn't lift it up to see from different angles. This problem could possibly be avoided by using lollypop sticks or dowels or other stronger materials to reinforce the cardboard.
After settling on a final design, I scaled up the measurements and made a full-scale cardboard version of one wing. I only did one wing, as I couldn't fit two onto my floor, however as they are mirror images of each other it didn't matter too much. At this stage I started researching linear actuators, and worked out that they are, in fact, quite expensive (Yes I know I should have thought about this earlier but I am not very good at planning lol). This meant that my design, which needed a rather large actuator, needed to be altered to accommodate a smaller, cheaper one. I messed around a bit, and through a combination of trial and error, and sheer determination to save £20, I altered the design enough that I could use a 200mm actuator, or at a push a 150mm one. This did sacrifice the range of motion a bit, and so the wings are larger when closed than they were originally intended to be, but I think it was worth it. Additionally, the smaller actuator is much more convenient to attach to a backplate and, as I am fairly short, it needed to be small enough to actually fit on my back.
The next step was to order and assemble the aluminium. I used 3/4” x 3/4” x 1/16” aluminium C channels, along with 30mm M4 bolts and nylock nuts. I drilled holes into the aluminium channels where they needed to be joined together, then screwed the bolts in. I used two nuts for each bolt, one either side of the aluminium, to make sure that the bolts didn't stick out too far. I did this using pliers, since they were locking nuts, which took a lot of effort, and a lot of plasters. Initially, I only bought enough metal for one wing, to check that it would actually work, and after thoroughly testing the first wing, I order more and repeated the assembly process for the second wing.
For a backplate, I used plywood, which i admit is probably not the best choice for material due to its inflexibility and weight, but I already had some, and so, for the interest of my bank account, we had to stick with that. I sawed the plywood into a shape that sort of resembled by body, so that it was comfortable and didn't look too bulky, before attaching the actuator with zipties and a larger bolt at the bottom. In order to attach it to myself, I mutilated an old backpack (dw it was already falling apart) to retrieve the back piece, and poked holes in it for more zipties.
Next was the electronics. At this point I was quite tired of fiddling around with crocodile clips every time I had to test it, and so I worked on soldering the switch on. Here's a circuit diagram, but essentially, wire the battery pack to the middle 2 pins, and the actuator to the other 4 and boom you have yourself a working switch!
(also i apologise for slightly dodgy soldering skills lol)
Now at this point we have a functioning pair of wings, and if I was going for a more industrial vibe, I could have just left them as is, however these are not just any pair of wings, these are DEMON wings, so the logical next step is a fuck ton of feathers… Obviously covering the entire wings in fake feathers would be expensive and time consuming, so after making a base of material (old bed sheets dyed black and artfully draping it over the wings, I found a few different ways to mimic feathers. I did have a few actual (fake) feathers, which I used sparingly to make them a bit fluffier, but the main way I added texture was with shiny black fabric (leftover from another project), cut into layers, and overlapped. There were also some larger foam feathers that I made, but I'm still not convinced they look as good as the fabric.
In conclusion, yay wings! Feel free to ask me any questions you have (message box on homepage), and I would love to see if you decide to attempt a similar project! Also, if anyone desperately wants a pair, you could hire me to make them for you ;) /hj