We debated for a while over how to build the tail. This is where we had major creative differences; Mom was hoping for a snakier, smaller tail, but I like much more massive tails. The smaller one would be easier to build, obviously, but it would be so much further down on the awesomeness meter. So we turned to the issue of the curve - no self-respecting dragon has a droopy tail.
Making an appropriately-shaped sock and stuffing it would be a pain, so I found an old ground pad for camping, rolled it up, and hacked away at it until I got the right shape. Mom covered this with some black vinyl on the underside, and the scale pattern on top. We made the tail blade (one of the major visual cues for "dragon" IMO) out of my old, worn-out foam kneepads. A little trimming and some tape, and they worked nicely.
Meanwhile, I constructed the armatures for the wings. Those were 1/2" PVC in a V shape, with an extra 45ยบ joint for the thumb. Straightened out, the wings were slightly longer than my arm and hand. For the fingers, I used spokes from an umbrella a la Evil Mad Scientist. These were wired through a hole in the PVC just behind the thumb. Mom made it clear that she didn't know what I was planning for the wings, so I was going to be doing this one myself. Ho boy. (Nervousness)
Armatures and umbrella for reference. Tail is approx. 4 ft long without blade.
Relative lengths of the stretched out arm and umbrella. These are fairly realistic proportions for a bat's wing, or so Google tells me.
For the wing skin, I used what I thought were some old shower curtains from the thrift store. Turned out they were circular plastic tablecloths. That was fine, too. I glued that to each of the four wing spars, and to the armature. I found out by experience that superglue does not stick to these tablecloths at all. Thus, I had to use hot glue - less fine, but more manageable. For fleshing out the wings, I used pipe wrap from a failed project a couple years ago. There was one layer on the forearm, two on the upper arms. I also used some scraps to make the elbow look more natural and less like an elbow and a 45. I took two rectangles of the fabric, one for each segment, and covered them, placing the seam either facing my back or against the wing skin.
If you've been watching Facebook, you've likely noticed Mom saying how often she has glued her stuff. In fact, there was one very humerus incident (sic) where she walked into my office with my tail blade hanging from her fingertip, laughing hard. I think the fumes may have gotten to her. Now I know what she felt like. Whoo, that was a lot of glue stuck on me. In the end, it was late, I was tired, my Blue Man Radio widget had gotten a lot of mileage, and I had a completed set of wings. Well worth it.
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