Materials: Junk mail, tape, EVA foam, automotive conduit cables, electrical wires, plastic tubing, plumbing parts, hair ties, glue, acrylic paint.
I made this after finishing the Conduit Cable Bug Mask. I had some materials leftover and wanted to make a smaller project that wouldn’t take too long. An industrial robot heart seemed like it could look cool.
I started by making the general shape out of some balls of junk mail that I taped together. When it was about the right size, I covered it in a layer of thin EVA foam, to make an even base for gluing on the other elements. By now I had a lot of experience with conduit cables, so gluing those down went smoothly.
For the pipes at the top, I used plastic tubing, conduit cables, and some plumbing hardware. It’s all plastic, so the copper and brass elements you see are the result of painting. I added details using wires from old electronic devices and a lot of hair ties.
To paint this, I sprayed on two coats of grey primer, then brushed on two coats of black. I highlighted the whole thing with copper, then painted the different wire and tubing elements, and plumbing hardware, with metallic paints. Finally, I gave it a wash of raw umber oil paint mixed with mineral spirits to add weathering. I also brushed on some very thinned out turquoise and green acrylic paint, to hint at oxidized copper.
Because this is a model and isn’t intended to be handled very much, I didn’t seal it with liquid epoxy, but used a couple coats of brush-on varnish.