Midriff Work (day 40)

Today I spent a big chunk of time puzzling about how to attach the head and midriff to the torso. I’m not sure I’ve come up with a solution I’m happy with yet so for now I’ve altered the midriff part to fit around the canopy frame.


The midriff part was originally built back in 2010 or earlier. The midsection of the Zaku Kai is supposed to be a flexible covering over more complex mechanisms, but I made a plan back in 2008 for a way to build the midriff as a rigid part and still have some flexibility in the midsection. But it’s not really a perfect solution: there shouldn’t be gaps between the midriff part and the chest parts, but with a rigid, jointed part that’s somewhat unavoidable. One possibility is that, given the limited amount of flexibility (around 15 degrees of flex, maybe?) I expect to get from the connection of the midriff to the torso, it may simply not be worth connecting the two via a flexible joint at all.