Anybody got a bright idea how to model these little buggers?
http://www.studiolilica.com/gally\_pix/helices.html
two splines with a sweep modifier then put shell on it
Hmmm… I’m not following. Isn’t sweep mod similar to lofting - ie, one path and one section?
Yes, but sweep is _much_ more robust than loft. At the bottom of the sweep mod you can create a graph for how you want the scale to be dictated as well in curves. (For these you probably want a bell-curve looking line)
@ccs sorry, i cant help in anyway. but i like yout avatar so much. congratz. i cant stop laughing now because of thinking at the office. thx 
i would go with a line and select loft in Compound Objects. then select your shape. At the bottom of Loft is a segment called Deformations, open that up and select Scale. A little window will open up and you can then manipulate the shape with a spline. It will do exactly what you are looking to do.
Val