Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Teddy Bear Pirate Ship Conversion: Part 2

I've had the chance to work a bit on my Pirate Teddy Bear Duck Ship this past week, and thought I'd post some photos of my progress.   Below is a picture of the plastic duck shaped watering can that I got at Target, that I am using for the basis of my ship.

The first thing I did was cut off the handle with the rotary saw on my Dremel tool, I then cut a large section out of the ducks back, and about a 3" x 3" section out of the underside to make an access opening to help me in assembly. I also trimmed up where I had removed the handle from the back of the duck's head to make it a doorway.
 
My next step was to cut out a cardboard deck to fit in the back.  At first, my plan was to use this as  the main deck, but after I glued it in place I noticed it had a bad slope in it so I decided to use it as an under-decking for a proper wood plank deck.  At this time I also took a spare metal cannon I had, and glued it into the spout in the duck's bill.  I used E-6000 glue for all the gluing of parts to the duck's plastic body, and Tacky glue for gluing cardboard and wood together.
 
  I glued some popsicle sticks I cut to fit onto the cardboard deck to correct the slope, then cut planks from a sheet of balsa and glued them in place.  Next, I cut a cardboard oval, and glued it into the top of the duck's head to make the crow's nest. 

I then cut a piece of cardboard to fill the area between the deck and the top of the duck's back. Finally I cut a door to fit in the doorway at the back of the ducks head.
  My next step will be to glue on hatches and a mast, and then move on to to painting it.

5 comments:

  1. Chris,

    Have you thought about a name yet? How about the Freedonia? Or the R.T. Firefly? At the very least it will encourage cultural barbarians to ask what the name means, giving you an opening to educate them about the Marx Brothers.

    Best regards,

    Chris

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  2. What a great project! I have the exact same toy awaiting conversion to a steam punk landing craft.

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  3. Reminds me of The Great Bronze Bunny of Ouargistan El-Ahrairah

    http://web.archive.org/web/20090101161358/http://zeitcom.com/majgen/66bronzbun.html

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  4. Don - that was certainly my inspiration.

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  5. Very cool! I had never seen the Bronze Bunny before. One of the HAWKs has also suggested using these ducks as the gas bag for a zeppelin. (Especially when cmbined with the Eureka Bear-O-Planes!)

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