New Project - My Son's Desert Skiff Bed

[azheat01]

So last week my son walked up to me and said, "Daddy, will you make me something?" I figured he was just hungry and wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I then asked what he wanted and he said "a bed". When I asked him what kind of bed he showed me this toy of his:



I so don't have the skills to pull off something like this so I humored him and said "we'll see", thinking he would forget about it in a day or two. When I dropped him off to school later that week he said, "you go work on my bed". I said OK, and shrugged it off. When I went back a few hours later and picked him up, the first thing he said was "Is my bed done yet?"

That's when I realized I had no other choice but to try and pull this off. So, my R2-D2 project is on hold for a little while and away we go.............













I quickly learned this was beyond my skill level. The design, as you can clearly see, needed heavy modification to fit my expertise level. My son is so excited each day we work on this (despite only having a vague similarity to the toy) and seeing him smile is all that matters.

This is 2 days of work, I have more in store, including the control panel with switches, LEDs, and some sound and I have an idea for one of the sail wings. We also picked up the paint today, more to come...........

 

[Mattastic13]

What a great dad! Good job!

 

[Jedifyfe]

I quickly learned this was beyond my skill level. The design, as you can clearly see, needed heavy modification to fit my expertise level. My son is so excited each day we work on this (despite only having a vague similarity to the toy) and seeing him smile is all that matters.

Very cool man! Don't sell yourself short.

Here is the truth of it:



WHAT YOU SEE:

WHAT YOUR SON SEES:

 

[Robert412]

Awesome!

I think you made some really good rational choices. Remember... This is just a structure. The wow-ing is in the finish work!

Also, how old is your son? To look at his toy and think, "this would make an awesome bed!"

It's in him... He's one of us.

 

[Tommyfilth]

Looks Awesome, a coat of paint and some blaster burns and it'll be the envy of the neighborhood.

 

[cayman shen]

That's awesome!

 

[JasonCash]

you are one very cool Dad for doing this...... Bravo sir....

 

[DAVIDYR1]

Most awesome of you. Your son is very luck to have such a cool Dad...good for you bud.

David

 

[azheat01]

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback.

My son is 19..............kidding, he's 5, funny thing is he was also thinking about a Landspeeder bed. He has the new Playskool Landspeeder and showed me that as well. Funny thing is, he has never seen 17 Again, so no idea why he thought that! Maybe I have projected that upon him! A Landspeeder would have been cool, but this fit the room better. I think his interest was peaked when I showed him a bed I found online, it was an AT-AT some guy built. It was pretty impressive.

 

[MooCriket]

Kudos to you Sir! Looking great so far.

 

[Rick H]

thumbsup Way to go Dad... Looking good. Your Boy will remember this forever.

 

[IndyBlues]

That is damn cool!!
Mike

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Great project!!!

The carpet is the right colour already (although you might want to think about getting a few scraps of carpet in Sarlacc colours ), but you know that you need to do something to the wall, right? Some blue for a sky, a twin set of suns, a few banthas in the background in the dune sea, should be a piece of cake for someone who can build such an awesome bed

 

[MFP 2020]

Great stuff!

 

[Funky]

This thread may be of interest to you: http://www.therpf.com/f9/update-pic-sarlacc-run-bottom-stairs-37758/

 

[Lucien Kane]

I hope my son is this cool

and this is awesome, seriously well done! ... My wife was looking at it and suggested a toy bin in the back with some kind of draw down cover over it to keep it hidden. Might be neat.

 

[azheat01]

Great project!!!

The carpet is the right colour already (although you might want to think about getting a few scraps of carpet in Sarlacc colours ), but you know that you need to do something to the wall, right? Some blue for a sky, a twin set of suns, a few banthas in the background in the dune sea, should be a piece of cake for someone who can build such an awesome bed

Thanks guys, ManfromNaboo, I was already thinking that! For some reason my son never wanted his room painted, he had a lot of those wall decals of super heroes, most of which I took down when I started this project. He was just funny about his walls being painted, but now he is super excited.

I was thinking about some kind of mural maybe, not sure yet.

 

[azheat01]

Today I wanted to work on the first part of the sail fin, as well as some trim work. I bought a wood plate from Michael's and two rebar caps from Lowes. I mounted the wood block to the wood plate, then mounted the rebar cap.



I also picked up this replacement foot rest leg and mounted it on top of a wooden dowel rod.





I then mounted the wooden dowel to the plate.



I also bought some schedule 40 connectors, luckily the larger piece just barely fit the over rebar cap. A little glue and a few wacks with the mallet and it's secure as can be. The smaller coupling fits into the larger piece.



Here's how it looks mounted. I am a little bummed, I made it just a bit shorter than I wanted, but oh well. I think it will look much better when painted.





Next I'll finish the rear part of the sail.

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

Fantastic. Lucky boy you have there!

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

I think this one deserves to be moved from the OT to the main prop forum.

Michael