Help me figure out my Halloween Project for my Wheelchair *Unique Kind*

[Joker31]

I am lucky enough to be able to have one of these wheelchairs after a charity event they held for me. I was wounded in Afghanistan and am confined to a wheelchair about 80% of the time, I broke my back, neck, shoulders and knees after a Gravity assisted freefall from a helo that was being shot from under me. I want to do something for my daughters for this Halloween and need to build something to keep my mind occupied. I have this:


and want to build something that is related to something Sci-Fi. I use this term loosely because my first instinct was to make it into the tank from Fury. The frame is custom Powdercoated in Matte OD green. I also have sparked interest in my daughters in Comics, Marvel Universe, Star Wars, Sci-Fi TV and Movies and my oldest is starting a few simple Raspberry Pi Projects. My daughters are 4 and 9 and my 4 year old is very excited by Lego and Lighted items. I can tell you that the system is ran from 2 AGM batteries at 24V, I am not opposed to addding 12V step downs to it because I will later anyways for my Toughbook to run and for my Galaxy Note. I dont have a ton of money but I dont mind spending it to make things, I have a very high degree of Soldering ability and Communications background and have worked on uplink and downlink operations for several Satellites before my Military Career.

Outline Summary:
24V on board
Cannot be Permanent
I will post dimensions soon if I get any responses (Not sure I will)
Must be able to Wow the heck out of a 4 and 9 year old.

Thanks to anyone who reads this, I know time is the most valuable Commodity

 

[mattycsi]

With those tracks I'd be going for a T1 Hunter Killer.

 

[CynicalMormon]

My first thought when you mentioned your daughters I thought of Wall-E

 

[nick daring]

Interesting project. So many cool possiblities.

The comicbook idea that imediately pops into my head is the obscure but most excellent X-Men villain from the 80's Bonebreaker of the Reavers-



Dude even had his own action figure in the 90's-


It's nothing your daughters would know though. :/

 

[Vacformedhero]

I wouldn't limit myself to including the tracks, why not build around them and include them in the design, like a sandspeeder , at night the tracks will be invisible ( its dark here during halloween ) build the body around the track , that way you have some room inside And your not limiting yourself, also any design can be tweaked to suit.

i do like wall E though
what is you or your daughters favourite subject,
also trying to impress a 4 year old is easy, 9 not so much (my son is 9 )

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

First, thank you for your service!

Second I second the Terminator Hunter Killer. That's the first thing I though of. Pretty much all you would need is the head and "arms".

 

[DudeManGuy1019]

Johnny Five, obviously.

 

[CynicalMormon]

With awesome tracks like that you should definitely work them into the costume.
Also, I second Sluis' sentiment and thank you for your service.

 

[ultraman]

i think it would make a cool bat tank.....or something that looks like it came off of mad max!

 

[Joker31]

I love the Wall-E Idea, I'm trying to figure out how to scale it so I dont have to chop my head off. I thank everyone for their replies and thank you guys for your support, I was thinking if I went with WallE I could get my daughter involved with making the voice module for her school science project. I think the programming will allow her to get into the STEM fair along with the little servos we can run. I think I will look into other peoples builds for ideas.

I thinkI should continue to see what people think as well, my oldest was thinking an R2D2 but that thing would be 10ft tall.

 

[ahuntley]

A 10 Foot tall R2 unit would also be impressive. If you are considering adding a few available costumes for different circumstances, an easy one would be Professor Xavier.

 

[MrSouthpaw]

 

[andy19422]

Davros from DR Who would look great

 

[Joker31]

I have been trying to work out professor X for a long time, I have a regular everyday chair that I want to make into Prof X's chair but there are 10 different ones! I saw a way to do most of the seat and actually have a friend who owns an upholstery shop who can make the seat, he said "Man, it not going to be comfortable, dont know how the hell you could be in it for more than an hour" but for a convention or something, I may be able to do it. My stand in costume now is wounded captain america my oldest tells me. I told her about WallE, she was excited and was looking forward to it. Any ideas on Materials for the box? I want it to be lightweight, I have a friend who operates one of the Robot on stilts you see everywhere, he said to try to add fans inside as much as possible, I plan on adding an Arduino to control the Sounds and will add sounds for the WALL-E.

My buddy told me I should make a scaled GI JOE HISS tank.

 

[Joker31]

Funny you mention Davros, my daughter told me to make my regular chair into a Dalek

 

[nick daring]

Oh man, that's a cool idea!

 

[ultraman]

ohhh man an oldschool 80's g.i joe H.I.S.S. would be killer!!!!
+100 nerd points awarded! :cool
although i prefer the original black one!

Oh man, that's a cool idea!
View attachment 489210

 

[CynicalMormon]

For the box you definitely want something light weight. Some kind of polystyrene foam would be my first choice. As far as dealing with your head you could make the eyes into some kind of hat or visor I suppose.

 

[Moviefreak]

This could be epic
First and foremost... Thank you for your service over there brother! You have my utmost respect!
I will be following this thread to see what you end up doing. I can't wait to see your costume.

 

[Joker31]

Polystyrene is something I havent worked with much, I have worked with a material for Marine applications called Centra, its expanded PVC sheets and is pretty brittle but easy to work with, bad thing is the price, $75 a sheet for 1/4" 100 for 3/8 and 150 for 1/2. Its also a pain to paint because you need to prep it by sanding the entire surface then prime it with expensive primer. Thank everyone for their acknowledgement of my service.