This just arrived, and I'm so jazzed I wanted to share it:
It's a how-to book on making realistic bugs using tissue paper. Not the kind you use to make small flying airplanes, but the Kleenex kind! And pretty much nothing else except glue! For transparent wings, he soaks the tissue in gloss. For the other general use sheets, he soaks them in diluted white glue, hangs them up to dry, then IRONS THEM. So Japanese!
I had some projects in the back of my mind that could use stuff like this. The techniques can be applied to other organisms like crusteaceans, arachnids... prehistoric invertebrates. It boggles the mind! The author is obviously a craftsman, but I am just a hack - I plan on using any and all materials to make my monsters, er insects.
I have some serious reading to do now (thanks mom and dad for forcing me to go to Japanese school instead of allowing me to watch cartoons).
EDIT: I had a look thru last night, and it seems this guy is an artist who chooses a "pure" medium, i.e. only tissue paper. I have no such compunction towards such things, so I plan on using everything at my disposal (epoxy putty, sheet plastic, stretched sprue, vac-form, etc.). His take on transparent wings could use a tweak - maybe vellum or onion skin paper instead of Kleenex?
Now to find a suitable "first try". A fly?