A 3d crab made out of a single aluminium pepsi can. simillar to the plastic bottle crabplastic bottle crab i made earlier.

Can Crab by Chaitanya Krishnan on Sketchfab

Step 1: Materials and Tools

you'll need a pepsi or any other soda/beer can, a pair of pliers, a scissors and a marker

Step 2: Cut Off the Top

option1:
cut of the top of the can, mine ended up really jagged, so i cut it again using the scissors to get a neater edge.. this will avoid unnecessary damage to your fingers later..i advise you to wear protective work gloves when working with tin or aluminum cans.

option2: trickier, idea from fearme36fearme36 (thanks fearme36)
don't cut off the top, let it be attached, to one strip
look at the diagram(capback.jpg) this allows it to be used later, without any gluing involved

Step 3: Appendages- Eyestalks, Arms, Legs

cut out eye stalks, and uround 10 strips from the rest.
leave enough space in the eyestalks, so you can punch a hole through or stick-on something round for eyes.
the 2 strips that are closest to the eyes will be the claws, so make them thicker.
the ips of the legs have sharp corners, cuting them off may seem like the solution, but don't!
basically the first time i made the crab i found that if the tips are pointy they tend to get bent easily. so instead of cutting off the corners, just fold them in, to make the tips, sturdy yet pointy.

Step 4: Elbows and Knees

look at the pics, bend the legs like i've done..
once down ..then
once up ..then
down..then
down..tada!
crab leg done

cut off the 4 strips at the back(they were just so you got the spacing right (first time i did this, the rear legss were too close :( ).
this will leave you with only 2 legs on either side

now the arms..for the elbows ...fold at an angle, so the claws face forward
for the picers, pick the inner pointy part and fold it twice...like in the image

Step 5: Eyes

Saved this part for last, coz ....
its the most complicated step...so take a deep breath and pay attention
so heres what you do- there's two options

option1
-take something sharp and pointy...and poke a hole in each eye stalk and call them "eyes".

option2
-stick something round to each eye stalk and call them "eyes"

thats it, your done.
now be careful, keep this out of reach of kids and other people with soft hands.

Step 6: Update: Via Fearme36

fearme36fearme36 had an excellent suggestion that the top of the can you cut off in the beginning can be used to make the top of the shell, here's a pic of the one he's made

i don't know how he attached his, but if you havn't started yet, you can do this:
leave the top attached to one of the strips that will be at the back of the crab, and then fold that strip so the top just comes down.. refer diagram

will try this soon and post pics.

Step 7: Paint It Up White

i used acrylic paints, but you could use enamel paint or spray cans too.

1) paint a base coat of white as the primer.. priming the surface ensures that your colours will turn out bright. a common mistake is that people spray on the colours they want.. and then it doesnt quite turn out as bright as they thought it would.

Step 8: Paint Your Colours

once the base paint is dry, go ahead and paint on your colours.
i've hand painted it, so it looks a bit shabby .. for a finer finish i would have used spray cans or an airbrush

Step 9: Marker Detailing

add some details with a marker

53 Comments

holzmanj9

12 years ago on Step 9

Cool. I have a suggestion: cut the bottom off instead of the top. That way when you stick that piece on top you cand work the smooth rounded part up into a nice dome. I'll try it and see how it works. Hopefully I'll have some photos this weekend.