Around this cycle helmet was tied pipe lagging to act as filler and save on the large amounts of expanding insulating foam which was then squirted around and around in layers. something like the body photo to the left only with the cycle helmet in the centre. I don't have a photo for this step but if you see the video above you should see how Paul Jones did it.  

As I did not have any bulk industrial equipment this has cost a fortune as have had to purchase large numbers of foam spray cans. 

The foam sets very unevenly so the next layer was used to fill the gaps each time after carving to shape with a serrated cardboard cutter knife shown below and power filing as well as use of circular drill sanding discs, scalpels and Dremel multi - tool, then hand sanding

Surforms use  and hand sanding smoothed the material off.  I don't have the original photos but below are the closest from later stages.

At this point the body and head just consisted of foam of a dryish watermelon chewy flesh consistency. It could be pulled apart with finger nails, easy to rip out chunks, dents and likely to be severely damaged in storage, transport, installation and so on.

After spending over £500 last year and a couple of £100 this year I followed the suggestion to protect the body and head in a shell of fibreglass.

This started with filling in more holes and crevasses  with the squirting expanding insulation foam in the gaps, these were then cut off and sanded repeatedly to minimise the unevenness or the surface.

Like the body, the whole surface was coated in resin and fibreglass matting to shell the unit. This was followed by primer and them some colour spray paint.

Various colours were tried but could not get a natural brown shade.  A block and white and grey pattern seemed to work better. to run a comparison I tried the body in a mottled yellow brown and black pattern and the head more black and white and grey look.

At this time with the uneven foam and rough fibreglass shell, the spider head was very rough, Sharp Jagged and uneven. so filler was added, roughly at first then finer, filling in holes, folds, crevasses. This also allowed for shaping such as with the eyebrows.

Firstly the major holes were filled with filler, then the filler was spread over all the surface smoothing the indents caused by the fiberglass strands.

The shape of the eyebrows were also added to  with the filler to enhance the intimidation look.

Smoothing off the filler was done with a variety of tools, starting with drill sanding disks and the super versatile power file, before moving onto a Dremel multi tool with various bits and  then hand sandpapering smooth.

This was done in cycles of adding more filler in holes and gaps revealed with sanding, then sanding them smoother than before.

Smoothing off the filler was done with a variety of tools, starting with drill sanding disks and the super versatile power file, before moving onto a 

Dremel multi tool with various shaped bits and then hand sandpapering smooth.

This was done in cycles of adding more filler in holes and crevasses that were revealed after sanding smoother as well as layers of primer paint which revealed more imperfections.

Various colour schemes were tried, Initially trying to mimic the original  Paul Jones video.  I also had trouble finding the right brown shade and at at least £10 a can its was too expensive to try a more than a couple of various colours.

 

A  mottled brown and black pattern seemed most organic. However the black grey and white mottled look seemed more intimidating than the brown and yellow.  Frankly when sanding with filler patches the mottled rough look had a more realistic appearance then just a solid colour. 

It was still deemed to be too rough when I tried to assemble the spider. More touching up was needed. Several cavities for the legs were too small; and tight, so the filler and sanding cycles were restarted to smooth the surface more. 

During the repeated sanding and filler and  various tweaks to the shape, especially the leg cavities the fibreglass was weakened or penetrated. 

Glass fibre patches, this time with thinner and smoother fibreglass tissue material were used to restrengthen the soft weak points. The tissue was also more use on fine points.  Again more filler sanding and primer spray cycles were needed. This costs a lot in filler and primer paint.

The spider was repainted and re-varnished with yacht varnish then the masking tape removed from the eyes only this proved problematic.

Yet another problem surfaced, whilst precautions had been planned to protect the eyes under masking tape the resin solidified the tape. 

Some resin got through and did damage from the sanding tools which nicked the eyes as well as a fair amount of damage incurred trying to remove the masking tape. 

Also between the eye spheres and the both the trapped tape which was brightly coloured was difficult to extract  and looked awful. By the time this is was extracted there were unsightly rings around the eyes and cut and scratch marks from there the knife slipped trying to cut of the masking tape shell which had hardened.

So the decision was made to replace the eye spheres. 

This also gave the opportunity to alter the position of the eyes to space them out as it had been very difficult to sand between them as too close which left poor rough surfaces ruining the effect.  They had also not been ideally balanced so removing them gave an opportunity for repositioning. 

There was no easy way to remove the eye spheres as had been solidly glued into the foam on to of being more and more locked into place with the layers of filler and fiberglass.

As they could not be pried out, I had to fit a milling tool on the multitool  and cut around. them to dig them out. Then as the eyes were to be thrown out anyway switched to breaking the spheres in the centre with a hammer  then using the milling tools again as well as a milling bit on a drill and pliers to extract the fragments. Once the eye fragments were extracted with severe facial damage, the face was rebuilt with more expanding foam. First the circular trench and gaps where spheres had been held was filled with expanding insulation foam, then I built up a new face that was far more even, with well spaced out even eyes with good gaps. Also saw that the eyes were more protruding like real sider eyes. This was also shaped to make it appear like the jaws were coming out of cavities in the face as opposed to solid horns coming from the base. of the face.

Again the foam was worked with a variety of tools from the serrated cardboard cutter knife, power file, Dremel like multitool and then scalpel with various blades.

What was spotted when trying to replace the eyes and fix the face was that it was very uneven, so there was no ideal spot to place the outer eyes. To achieve this the side corners of the face needed to be bulked out and evened up.

There were also problems in attaching the leg connectors. Part of this was due to  the thickening of the base board with the resin and fibreglass.  The walls between the cavities and inside had also been enlarged with all the filler and fibreglass and paint.

In many cases the connectors would not connect as the board was too fat or had obstructions, or the body and the walls were getting in the way which also blocked swivelling the connectors.

First the left side was substantially rebuilt up  with insulation foam, then adding in the usual filler in any gaps and to harden the foam to help sanding to shape with the power files and hand sanding to give good shape and surface for the fibre glass shelling.

The left forward leg and arm or pedipalp (Spider Port) cavities were completely rebuilt and shifted over to balance them out so each side was even. There was major carving out of material including removing and replacing the walls for the front Port (Left side looking forward only). 

The walls were rebuilt from foam, filler, sanding shape and smoothing down and them fibre glassed over to solidify and strengthen then filled in with filler and sanded smooth.

This was followed by patching up with fibreglass tissues and again filler and sanding .

Looking at more photos of real spiders I noticed that most done have eyebrows which in effect would cause loss of all round vision. So the decision was made to cut off the eyebrows and round off the head. The power files also act as a cutting tool but it does got through several belts.

Again yet more insulation expanding foam was used to fill in gaps, then sanding to shape, filler and sanded smooth. The face was built up to add surrounding around the jaws to give more of an appearance that they come out of the face.

Once all smooth the face was fibre glassed with the thinner tissue and resin. When wet the eye spheres  with pushed into the eye cavities to create  sockets. Once dry this meant the eye half spheres are were removable and easily replaceable without damage to the face as vunerable to damage. 

This was then repainted.

A stand was built to support the head whilst the back body was supported by a bucket. The head male pipe slid into the female body and legs bolted on with the connectors and an electric screwdriver.

The stand is needed as with all the added weight, the leg joints cannot support the body.