It’s been awhile since I’ve posted my projects. Mostly because I was finishing up the master bathroom and doing a bunch of programming, which usually doesn’t make it onto this site. But, I’ve started a new Tiki project and it is starting to take shape, so I thought it was worthy of a status post.
Some time last year, I stumbled across some artwork from Harry Decker. Probably on Instagram. I was probably looking for some Disney inspiration and found this photo of his take on the Penguins of Madagascar in the Disney Enchanted Tiki Room. I felt it would be a perfect fit for my Cartoon Tiki theme. I was also working on the low end patio speakers, which I felt could play prop audio with the character voices.
I found some existing 3D models for the Penguins. They weren’t perfect, but they are close enough for my use. The Skipper model will not have the Cheezy Dibbles, but Rico and Kowalski will have their props. As for their perches, that’s where it is going to require some creativity and complexity.
For Skipper, I’m going with lamp shade with some Tiki themed material covering it. I’m also going to mount a Hue Color Smart bulb in the lamp. At the moment, I think all four penguins will be lamps to hang from the patio cover. As for the other penguins, not many decisions have been made, but I really like the idea of Rico being inside of a WW2 style bomb shell. Maybe Kowalski in something reminiscent of a still.
I want the connecting structure to be bamboo. Luckily, I found a Blender Geometry Node script that will generate bamboo segments from a curve. It isn’t perfect and has quirks, but it looks like it will work. I wanted to do the front spot lights, but after several attempts, I decided I didn’t like the results and dropped it from the design.
The light structure is too big to print at once, so I’ve learned how to segment larger shapes into suitable printing sizes. Gluing them up ought to be interesting to get the strength I’ll need. But, I have a couple ideas if epoxy, on its own, isn’t enough.