Crocodiles galore!

Step 6 Doing the papier mache bit

Here's the crocodile all papier mached over - egg cartons and all. To give my croc some sort of feet I cut out triangular pieces of cardboard and attached them to the legs very securely before I started covering with papier mache. Pay special attention to where the legs joine the body, as these are the weakest points of the structure. I did quite a bit of reinforcement to these areas with thin cardboard and extra layers of papier. If you don't make these areas strong, the legs will crack at the shoulder and thigh joints, because of the weight of the limbs. Old toilet roll middles and paper towel middles are very useful here. Also the cardboard in the middle of all that masking tape comes in useful too! Two or three coats of newspaper need to be added with drying out taking place between applications. Sometime cracking will occur when the form is dry, and you may have to reinforce some more with cardboard and then repapier!


Hint: use very small pieces of newspaper to cover over the "bobbly" bits of the egg carton, and make sure every piece of tape is covered. This will make it much easier to paint when it has dried out.

When the form is completely DRY, you can sand-paper lightly to remove any roughness.