F14 Sculpture - Stainless Steel

This was a very special custom order.  It is modeled after an F14.  I started by building an exact scale model and then turned the design into the modern interpretation you see below.  The dimensions were perfectly to scale.  I wanted it to be as accurate as possible without being an exact duplicate.  The sculpture is built entirely out of stainless steel.  All the curved bars are stainless steel that I rolled to form the arch shapes of the aircraft as well as for the base.  The main fuselage of the plane is built out of stainless steel sheet that is bent to duplicate the lines of the actual aircraft.  There are many individual pieces making up this sculpture.  The fuselage is numerous pieces welded together in layers to create this look.  It was almost like metal origami.  A lot of time was taken to design it so that as few welds as possible would be visible on the top side.  The round-bar was polished and the fuselage and wings have a brushed finish, from front to back.  I did that by hand and blended the welds.  The base is hand cut out of steel plate with three pieces of polished stainless steel round-bar attaching it to the aircraft.  These bars connected at the termination point for the canopy round-bar so everything flowed together.  It was a very clean design and an enormous amount of work went into it.  It was one of my most favorite projects.  

F14 Sculpture - Stainless Steel