Kinetic Horse

I was trying to make a battery powered Kinetic horse but because of covid19 lockdown I was not able to get my gear motor and components for motor speed controller.so this one won't be able to stand and walk but it will move by rotating a metal rod behind it.
Let's make Kinetic horse while we all stay safe inside our home.

A4 Paper
Glue
Scissors
Metal wire
Cardboard

The actual idea is from Theo Jansens strand beast model.Theo Jansen is a Dutch engineer who started building these Kinetic sculpture called strand beast which are able to walk by themselves. He made all these sculptures using PVC pipes wood and fabric.his strand beast walk with help of wind.all his models are open source so any one can recreate them.all measurements are available in his Website

I made some changes in the basic structure so that it would look something like a horse leg.these changes made my Kinetic horse a bit more realistic
Once you get the basic idea of working of these sculptures you can easily design a totally new one yourself

Here structure means all four legs and body of the horse.Legs are the only moving parts remaining body helps to give horse shape and place to connect it's legs.since this was my first try on a Kinetic mechanism it was a bit difficult in the beginning to get the exact dimensions and movement i was looking for.but after making some prototypes I was able to get exactly what I was trying to make.scaling down Theo's measurements won't work because it didn't have the shape of a horse leg.so I ended up drawing mechanism with my own new measurements until it gets the desired shape and movement.drawing rough sketch and making it would help you to understand the working and would give you a better working model. For the prototypes I used a4 sheets rolled as straws and nails. Nails were used on all joints.paper straw and nail mechanism was not precise and and making changes was not that easy.This is why I made a printable paper model.its easy to make upgrades and easy to assemble.All images to make this project are given in the PDF

Two copies of leg shapes are required(two copies so four legs)all measurements and names are provided with the above image(First image or in the PDF).You can either draw the design or print two copies of it.In the image doted lines shows place to Cut,so cut all doted lines.Solid lines are where you need to bend the paper.while bending do it all in one direction.as you can see in the
above picture (sixth picture)i made a mistake by bending all end 1cm portion in the opposite direction it's not a big problem if you did this just correct it when gluing.On all pieces at the ends there is a 1 cm portion this is what we use to glue different pieces together.after cutting and bending keep each leg parts separately otherwise you will be gluing wrong piece's.all places to add glue are on the top and bottom of all pieces. add glue to one side of the paper and stick it to the next piece.you can see where to glue them by looking at the pictures (second picture or in the PDF).so look at the names and glue properly.this is an important step since any single mistake would result a shape altered or a hard to move Kinetic horse.if you have any doubts please comment below.l used white paper glue for sticking but any paper glue will work.In the third picture we have the remaining body.All three points to pass metal rods are shown in it.The body needed to be stronger than the remaining sections because all moving parts will be attached to this body so I copied two bodies shape on a4 sheet and glued on cardboard then cut it.this way body is more strong and rigid.Three proper sized holes are also made on exact locations. After cutting and sticking all parts we will have four legs(a pair of two connected legs) and two body pieces.

There are some moving parts involved so it's important to connect those parts strongly and free of any tight holds.But before connecting them on main body we need to get three metal rods and 6 pieces of paper straw.I made paper straws by rolling paper its inner diameter is a bit more than the diameter of metal rods so it will move freely inside.points to stick these straws are shown in above picture as P and Q.use paper pieces to stick them on the legs.these points will be under pressure when its working so secure them properly.Here I used two different sized metal rods but it's not necessary you can use all same size.length and shape of middle metal is shown above and remaining two are straight.so bend them accordingly.ln my model I used thinner rods to connect legs to body.All three points pass metal are shown in the body picture from middle,midle point is where we pass the rotating rod in my model it the thicker one and passing this one will be a bit tricky because of the bends we made. remaining two metal rods are approximately 10 cm but it's better to cut them after assembling all pieces.pass all three metal rods through both body parts then glue both body parts together with some cardboard pieces.also stick a small piece of double sided tape or a cardboard piece on the body where the legs are connected.this will eliminate legs getting stuck to the body.
Carefully connect legs to the body by passing all three metal rods through the straw holes,do this on both sides. If its all done cleary your Kinetic horse would work by rotating the middle metal rod.

Making a stand was necessary since I was not able to get the electronic parts.cut some cardboard pieces and stick them together as shown in the picture.stand should be high enough to let the legs move without touching the ground.cut a rectangle on to of it for the middle rod to pass and you should be able to rotate it freely without touching it anywhere on the edges.My stand is 20cm long and 15 cm wide hole in it was 6cm long and 5cm wide.To fix the horse on stand I used same sized metal rods I passed the rods through the stand and through one side of horse and glued it on the inside of next body piece.Use atleast three metal pieces otherwise the horse won't move smoothly without shaking.The horse should be atleast 2cm away from the stand.but before I did this I painted the horse white and glued a tail on.tail was made simply by cutting a cardboard in the shape of a tail and cutting sides to long thin sections and I also painted it white.

Our Kinetic horse is all done. To make it move rotate the long middle metal rod form behind the stand.if everything done perfectly it will be smooth and easy to rotate.and you can see it's legs moving.In future I will add a motor and make it a bit more stronger so that it can hold it's and the motor weight.maybe that will be a future instructables.
Thankyou all for reading my instructables,this is my first instructables and I am participating in paper contest so please vote this instructables.thank you