Once all the pieces were cut, sanded and otherwise prepared, I was able to begin work on constructing the bulk of the puppet. The legs were straight forward enough to assemble, following the structure already tested with the hardboard prototype, and I encountered no problems. Before assembling the body, it was necessary to cut grooves in both the rib sections and the spine to enable them to slot together before fixing in place with adhesive.
It was at this point that I began to notice structural issues. The spine, which had supported the rib sections well enough in the hardboard prototype, did not bear up under the increased scale, or indeed the more pliant nature of the plywood. It began to bow precariously, and with the added weight of the neck, not to mention the pressure of being handled repeatedly by numerous puppeteers, would surely lead to it snapping.
Consequently the spine needed reinforcing, which I did by cutting making a template of the sections of the spine between each 'rib' and fixing them in place either side of the initial spine, with a strong glue built up in several layers.
The neck too was tricky, as a careful balance was called for between flexibility and muscle structure. At first I considered string, but this was too soft, and would perhaps result in too much freedom. The next option was wire, but this would have made the neck considerably more rigid, requiring force to turn, and lacking the 'bounce' which would help indicate muscle. The solution was elastic, and small dowel vertebrae. This latter provided the necessary strength, a spine to anchor the bulkheads in place, while the elastic would allow the sections to turn but then bring them back in line, creating the follow through movement which occurs upon muscle movement and impact.
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