This is sort of the shape I was shooting for. There are several images of pterodactyls on the internet and have various shapes, but this one seemed to have the features most in common with a lot of them.

This project was a combination of styrofoam used for the form, rebar and chicken wire to hold the material, and "Great Stuff" to fill out the body. I first attached some scrap styrofoam pieces together to make the bottom a thickness of four inches. Then I scraped out the body shape and lined it with aluminum foil to keep the spray foam from sticking to the styrofoam. Next I placed the rebar and chicken wire in the form and supported it with small wires so it would "float" in the middle of the body rather than sitting on the bottom. If you zoom in a bit more on the large image of this picture, you can see the support wires holding the rebar up.

The "Great Stuff" has been sprayed into the form and that has better stabilized the rebar in place.

It can now be shaved to its final shape. The small holes will not matter because this will all be covered with cloth.

I used two colors of cloth for Pterry. The darker color is for the body and the lighter color is for the wings. All the pieces were attached with hot glue. The final product is shown at the top of the page.

During the construction process, I added locations to attach wires to allow it to be hung from the same oak tree as Lincoln and the butterflies. Unfortunately, a heavy snow storm added too much weight and brought it down after a couple of years. It was damaged beyond repair without a lot of effort so it is now extinct. The good news though is that it leaves room to add something else in the future.