K63 - Leo #1

It’s been a while since I made a quad line, so I wanted to step back into that area. Since the last quad line, I’ve made lots of improvements in the way that I build my templates, so I rebuilt my quad line template for this build.

This kite is called “Leo”, latin for Lion. When I was fiddling with the design, I was going for a butterfly wing type thing, but once I colored it, my girlfriend pointed out mow much it looks like a lion or a tiger or something.

I have a handful of build changes on the on:

Leading edge mesh

Instead of doing the folded hem to attach the mesh to the sail, I just layered it on with an extra black backing. This does seem to cut out a lot of material and makes the transition from mesh to sail less bumpy. In the course of rebuilding my templates, I got the positioning of the fold point reinforcements off a bit. I’ve adjusted my templates for the next one.

Fittings

This kite sports my red 3d printed quad line T fittings, snazzy as usual.

Bridle

The bridle is a variation on the 3-wind or French bridle in white spectra bridle line.

Light table technique

I built this kite using the same technique as K62, a printed blueprint on an illuminated table, hot cutting over the paper. I found it much more difficult to cut out panels this way because all of the panels are very curved. If/when I do this one again, I’ll make hard templates to cut against.

Sleeve

This kite has a red/black/white sleeve with the kite embroidered on it. I’m quite happy with the sleeves these days.

Vertical mylar reinforcements

I decided to try using mylar for the vertical wear strips instead of my usual Dacron. My thought is that the mylar will be less intrusive on the artwork.