Scratch Built Dakkajet

I have a strange relationship with my Father (who doesn't). We don't share many common interests. For some reason I decided to show him my new hobby. This was followed by him telling me all about his old WWII model plane collection he had when he was a kid. I felt like this could be an opportunity to bond over something which never happened when I was a kid. My Father is now in pretty poor health and is unable to leave his home without assistance.  I visit him about three times a week to do random chores and help him with his Facebook.  When the idea for modeling came up we brainstormed quite a bit and gathered a bunch of odds and ends to start the project with.



My goal for Project Dakkajet was to build said model completely from scratch (or as close as possible ). We started with random junk from his house and from my work. The centerpiece was a set of plastic binoculars that had been sitting in the lost and found box for months.  I decided to use that as the jet engines and added some of my Father's empty pill containers for the fuselage.

 This gave us a pretty good start.  Next we agonized over the wing design looking to both classic WWII styles and futuristic designs.  We came to an agreement mixing elements of both.  To make the front housing of the jet engines I used to caps from the Angry Birds Star Wars toys again.  The front wings came off of a broken helicopter toy and the guns are old lancets from my Father's diabetes test kit with the needles removed.  The wings were made from  two soft plastic CD cases.  I used computer keys to give some extra hold to the "X" wing design and the little pink piece is from a kids magic trick party favor also for support

For the front I wanted to do a WWII style bubble gun/cockpit.

The cockpit was difficult because the plastic did not hold glue very well.  It is from one of those gumball style toy machines.  Another problem was that the glue fogged up the bubble completely obscuring the inside.  I added some plastic trim to the bubble and decided against building another one since it was such a pain.  Oh well, no pilot needed.  A few more gubbinz and it was good to go.

Big M. in the background.

Too close for missiles, I'm switching to guns

Just a few bits for good measure.  The binoculars are way too heave for the base so I will need to add some weight to it.  I had to actually use Greenstuff (first time) to get the base to hold.  All-in-all it was a fun little project.  I think we are going to do a Battle Wagon next time.  It's hard to blog as often as I would like since I have so many hobby projects going on but I will try to pick up the pace and remember to take lots of pictures.  Thanks for reading and feel free to post comments.

I feel the need...
...the need for speed!

P.S.  I just started reading the rules for 7th and I am having my FLGS keep the new codex on hold for me.  The new stuff looks pretty sweet and Da Mad Mek can't wait to get his Klaw on some of this stuff!