Quick Viking Longship build for Scouts
This was a Sunday morning project with the kids, we have boat building session this week with the beavers (6-8 years old) which culminates in them sailing whatever they have built down the river, So i decided it would be worth knocking something up to join in the fun.
Its made of card (As you can see) and is waterproofed and held together with packing tape, given more time i would have painted it (If it survives I still might!) I was particularly pleased with the oars which came from a cheap multi pack of chop sticks.
The picture doesn't do the scale justice, its actually around 60 cm long. I started with two sheets of card cut out for the sides, these were taped along the bottom and then shield shaped pieces of card were pushed into the hull to give it the correct profile. Everything was taped up before a deck was added and hot glued into place to give it lots of rigidity. It has quite a bit of clay forced into the bottom of the hull as ballast, so hopefully it will float upright.
The sail is an old off cut of material, the mast a cardboard tube and that's about it. Unless its sinks instantly tonight Ill get some pictures for an update of the boat on the water tomorrow!
Karl
Catapults for Cubs!
This is in the same vein as the one day builds created by Adam Savage (Of Mythbusters fame), In as much as it only took me a short time to build. I probably could have built it in a day if work and the kids taxi duties hadn't interfered.
I Started by collecting some off-cuts of wood, the longest pieces were around 3ft long, which determined the overall scale of the device. Without really planning too much I built what I felt a catapult should be, added bungee cords and was roundly disappointed in the results! It turns out Bungee cords don't actually have very much stretch, and even with dozens of them attached to the catapult I couldn't get any power into the throw.
The day before the cubs were due to use it I dismantled the entire thing and rebuilt it into a mangonel style of siege engine, one that uses a twisted rope for power.
This worked brilliantly, a few test fires of soft sponge balls out into the road showed the potential, so the entire thing was then loaded up into the back of the car.
Fortunately the next evening at cubs was warm and sunny, so after the cubs had made their own marshmallow firing catapults, we all went outside, where armed with 30 or so water balloons we challenged the cubs to try and catch as many as they could!
As you can see we did have one or two misfires, but on the whole it was a massive success.
It's still sitting in the cub hut as we hadn't got the heart to break it up.
Karl's Big Build!
We have bought a train!
Well, part of a train, to be precise its an early 1900's ventilated meat wagon (already christened "Rupture Farms" by Sue.
It has been, along with another wagon, used as a store on a local recreation ground since the 50's and has reached the end of its useful life so when we heard it was being demolished I offered the owner £50 and became the proud possessor of piece of railway memorabilia!
In the picture top left, its under the tree on the RHS, so you can't actually see it!
The idea is to put it at the bottom of the garden as a garden office, keeping as much of the character as possible. (While taking off the rude graffiti!)
It is pretty big, (18ft by 8ft) and should make a really nice space, the ends are metal but everything is lined in wooden paneling making the entire thing incredibly heavy and solid.
The steel used on it is fantastically think and must be an excellent quality as there is very little rust.
Next order of business was moving it, I had 4 days to clear if off the site before the JCB moved to prepare the ground for its replacement.
