# HONK! help with egg construction



## tekgoddess

HI all,
I'm having a difficult time finding the right medium to build four large and one huge egg for HONK! The actors need to "hatch" onstage.
I've tried chicken wire but it's not holding the shape. Once I have the form I'm going to cover it with dry wall mud.
Any ideas would be welcome. Especially if you've done this show.


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## Footer

Build a rough frame, Cover it in foam and great stuff, and carve to your liking. Foam would be the easiest thing to do in my opinion. Be sure to glue (liquid nails) everything very well. The chicken wire approach will work, but you have to do ALOT of framing in order for it to hold its shape (as you have found out). Someone will be along soon to write a 9pg essay on how to build this thing I'm sure.


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## tekgoddess

*Re: HONK! help with egg construction STILL*

Thanks but a "rough frame" out of what? And isn't great stuff expensive? I've used Dap Tek but these eggs are human sized and I need 4 people sized and 1 LARGE people sized.
What sort of foam are you talking about?
Any help is greatly appreciated.


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## Van

could you carve a form from Polystyrene then fiberglass it ? I'm not sure what your budget is. Or is it possible that the base or bottom half of the egg could be a more solidly built wood framed thing and just the top be of something like vaccuform plastic or fiberglass. 

P.S. I much prefer Bondo to Drywall mud. 
P.P.S Another way of forming an egg might be the use of Polyurethane foam. Much denser than foam rubber, usually used in construction of things like Audrey two or large Muppets.


Oh yeah one more thing Great Stuff Polyurethane foam is about 5.50 a can. If you work with it wear a respirator, even if you are in a well ventilated area. The effects of the off-gassing of Great Stuff are cumlative and they sneak up on you. If you use it besure to use the traditional red can yellow top type, The other stuff is minimal expanding and it sucks. I recently bought a case to help me fill out a tree, and I have to say I was dissapointed. They have changed the formula a bit and while it is probabaly a better insulator it's a much suckier material for carving than it used to be. A lot of the Dap Tex, Touch'nFoam etc are latex based foams and they afre not suitable for use with carving of Polystyrene foams.
Now that you are hopelessly confused I'll sign off.


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## SHARYNF

Are you trying to make a complete egg or just the front side for the audience? it is breaking open and the top lifting or the side swinging out and down? 

Van does a lot of work with this stuff, so he is more of an expert but, what I have done is to get a bunch of sheets of the blue or pink insulation board, and then cut out a series of quarter circles and glue and stack them up so that you have a I guess what could be described as a series of layers that form the wall stacked one on top of the other. You can also use an igloo type design where you make a series of blocks and stack them stagering them for the shape, and then you carve the rest of the material. It might be possible to make half an egg, and then have it crack down the middle and swing out and down, or depending on the production you could have handles on the back that someone inside used to hold it together when the basically walked into place holding the two egg sections.

Sharyn


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## tekgoddess

Thanks to all. I really like the "igloo" idea. Yes, the actors have to "hatch" on stage and get out of the eggs. I think we'll try the igloo. As for using dry wall mud instead of bondo; I mix 1 1/2 cups of elmer's white glue to the drywall mud to give it more flexibility. I think it's cheaper than bondo and it works pretty well.
Any other ideas would be welcome. Once I get these suckers built I'll try to put up pix. Is that possible on this websitre?
Peace,
T


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## Van

Yes the Elmers is a great idea fr adding flewxibility to drywall. Yes you can upload pictures. when you hit the reply button just scroll down a bit and you'll ses a box that says " manage attachments". this will allow you to upload any of the approved formats. Look forward to sseing what you do.


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