Albatross Skull (puppet)

thingiverse

The skull of a Black Browed Albatross, drawn to about 90% scale (if I remember correctly). I used this to make a prop of a dead albatross for a Hallowe'en costume several years ago - I was the Ancyent Marinere and needed a dead albatross to hang around my neck. The final bird, with a nearly two meter wingspan, was quite the thing to behold. It had a skeleton from withies and coroplast joints, to give it that extra bony and cartilaginous feel, with real feathers and fur fabric over top. The overall effect was a very large, very scruffy, and very dead, bird. I've included some build photos if anyone wants to attempt to replicate the build - but warning, it produces a lifelike bird, but it looks and feels extremely dead. For the eyes, I used 10mm diameter dark orange soft toy eyes. Glass eyes make a big difference to the realism. When buying feathers, estimate how much you need then buy double. It really takes a lot more than you expect.