Gyrfalcon wing feather prototypes, created using the US FWS Feather Atlas, lots of image manipulation, and excel formulas to adjust length and width ratios to more manageable bounds. Each feather is unique and not entirely straight or symmetrical, like real feathers. I intended to make a wing to scale with every feather to tweak the design before committing with the more expensive foam.

Honestly I had to scale down quite a bit. Turns out falcon wing/feather:body ratios are crazy, if I followed them to scale my wings would have spanned like 2/3 the dance floor fully extended. Then again gyrfalcons are the biggest baddest falcons in the sky, so yeah.

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My technical notes section
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M4 screws & nuts for P1 and P10, using 5/32 drill bit
1/16 drill bit for P2-9, 5.5" zip ties
Secondaries - 16g wire
Primaries - 14g wire - need to lighten to 16g. P1 needs to go to 12g or reinforced on both sides. P1 and P10 wire should be bent into loop at end.

Workflow:
1) Prepare paper cutout
2) Trace to fun foam & cut. Make sure marked.
3) Cut & straighten wire
4) Notch & glue in eye hooks.
5) Glue wire to foam feathers as vane. Make sure smooth. Be liberal at hooks.
6) Single coating of sealant
7) White liquitex basics acrylics using coarse brush for barb texture
8) Airbrush markings using carbon black high-flow acrylic & stencil - clean with ultrasonic
9) Liquitex gloss varnish
10) Primaries to glove device, secondaries on reel stretched out
11) Use 30lb fishing line for feather spacing. Max distance 90cm.