Buy a good deal of scrap aluminium for £ 25. Most of it is about 2mm thick, which is about as much as I can cut with aviation snips. I use the scaled up picture for measurements and make a lot of card test shapes till I'm happy with one and then make it in metal. Its a quick way to work but end up with a lot of subsequently scrapped versions.

The first leg takes a few days, after 2 weeks I have most of the structure done. Although the feet turned out to be a little project in themselves.