New Project - My Son's Desert Skiff Bed

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...........

This is pretty sick!! What a great DAD!!!

I think I had that toy. Good luck! Looking great!

That looks fantastic mate! Can't wait to see it finished.

What could you wish more in life than this: father and son working together, making a kid's dream to come true! Excellent start so far!

That is awesome mate...well done

Look forward to the progress on this!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments.

Have you considered making a drawer that pulls out of the bottom that could be the plank?

You are a good definition of a father. That bed is amazing! It shows that you have not forgotten what it is loke to be a child.

That is so cool!

man you got some skills in the wood department. if my son asked me to make anything with wood, i wood half to go for the sandwich idea.

Nice job so far..

Originally Posted by Muad'Dib

Have you considered making a drawer that pulls out of the bottom that could be the plank?

Thanks guys. To be honest, that's an awesome idea, but probably not going to happen!

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 rebar cap to a wood block, then to the wood plate.



I also picked up this replacement foot rest leg, mounted it as the top piece.





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.

...This is awesome!!!

This looks fantastic mate, once it's finished, you should paint a desert scene on his bedroom walls!

You are one of the best dads ever.

This is looking great.

Craig

Awesome project!

Relish this experience!... My older guys are out of Star Wars (for now) and I'm waiting for my youngest to get into it.

...actually we all watched the last 5 episodes of Clone Wars last night... and had a great time! (I know they still like SW but they have to act independant)

That's really great. I have twin boys about to get into small beds. Looks awesome.

Awesome bed!! Well done! Have 2 lil 2 year old boys. Looking forward to introducing them to the starwars world someday soon

****.... Can you be my dad?

Awesome!

This is a great project

Here's a better view of the control sticks, used several pieces of PVC pipe.

Really! This is so cool!!!!!!!!!

Thanks guys!

One final finishing touch before I start painting. I finished the rear sail using a piece of foam core board and paint stirring sticks. I cut the sticks to length and added them to the foam board. I am hoping it ties in when I paint.

Lookin' ShhwEET!!

Ru kidding me...this is awesome!!!

Your great grandkids will be hearing stories about this bed!! Father 2 Father...Much respect!

...Coolest bed... ever!

That is looking awesome!

Yea! You nailed it brother. You may never get your son out of his room again.

This is an amazing build

Full respect bro!
I love things like this and cannot wait till my 2yr old suggests something similar to me...

Thanks guys, my kids are loving this. They both want to play on this thing, even when I am working on it!

Just about done with the base coat, about to move onto a little weathering. I also added a piece of gray anti-fatigue mat for the floor. I got this from Lowe's. They sell it off the roll for about $3.50 a linear foot, but I didn't need much. I spent about 8 bucks and did it with one piece because it was just wide enough.

Wow, just amazing. You are an example for all fathers. Can't wait to have kids and transform their rooms, haha.

Today I can finally say I am done with this. I kind of rushed through the weathering process, which isn't my strong suit anyway, but I really wanted to be finished with this. I had fun, but it took a lot of time (I am guessing I have over 40 hours into this, and I swear 10 of them were getting those audio discs to work!).

Today I threw on several different coats of paint; some black, brown, yellow, gray, a little red, and a bit of silver for the blaster hits. I also finished the piloting sticks by painting them black. It looks a bit better in person.







I am happy to say my son loves this! I am also happy to say I came in under my planned budget of $300.00. Here's the final tally:

Lumber - $111.64
Hardware - $31.96
Finishing Touches (screw covers, material for the sail wing, etc) - $34.63
PVC Pipe - $9.34
Paint - $29.95
Electronics - $46.10

Total: $263.62................Having your son say, "Daddy, you're my best friend, I love my bed", priceless!

And one last shot:



Figured I would re-post the video as well:

Star Wars Desert Skiff Bed.MPG - YouTube

I know the next step is to make this a full Star Wars room, so painting the walls is probably next!

With all the talented members out there, I would love for someone to tackle this and do it some real justice.

Amazing work, you should be proud of yourself.
I wonder if my wife will let me have a bed like that.

Craig

Wonderful job. I love what you've done here, you should be proud for this accomplishment. This is a story to tell to your grandkids next to a warm fireplace. ...Priceless!

That is incredible Great Job!!! Your son is really lucky lol. My kids looked at this with me and now they are screaming for one.

It looks great. I bet he loves it. This is why I can't surf the forum with my kids watching. They will want me to build them something like that.

Thats just awesome. If I made something like that id be afraid it would fall apart while my kids was in it. But I have no skills when it comes to stuff like that.

WOW! You def set the bar high! Great work buddy!
B

Amazing work, would love one myself but the other half said I'd be sleeping in a skip if I made her sleep in something like that


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.615078,-0.246281

cArAZZY SWEET!! Nicely DONE!!

Thanks guys! Glad to see so much positive feedback!

Well, I figured since I made a skiff bed, I would go ahead and finish the room in the Star Wars ROTJ skiff scene. My son seems happy about it. My inspiration for the room is this:



Here's how the room looks so far. I need to do a few small touch-ups.







I also took a photo I found online of Jabba's sail barge and sent it into an online poster company. (I apologize if this photo is owned by anyone here, I didn't find much info when I did my search, and I feel guilty for using it without asking). They turned it into a 22" x 36" poster for about $20.00. I am going to cut this out, mount it to some foam board, and hang in the room. I also plan to back light it with some LEDs.

Ummmmm I'm confused....didn't you say this was beyond your level of experitse?!?!?

Looks like you hit it out of the park....

Can you make me a bed too?!??!?!

Originally Posted by lawdawg 35

Ummmmm I'm confused....didn't you say this was beyond your level of experitse?!?!?

Looks like you hit it out of the park....

Can you make me a bed too?!??!?!

I am doing my best to fake it!

Maybe I should get into the bed making market. If Lucas would allow someone to take ideas like these and mass produce some cool looking beds, man would that be a jackpot. How cool would it be to have a prefabricated Landspeeder bed, Skiff Bed, and other vehicle that wouldn't break the bank. He should license that to someone, especially, you know, since he's hurting for money and all!

OK, here's the barge mounted to some cardboard. I couldn't use the foam board because it was too small, and I didn't want to have to connect two separate pieces. I sprayed the back of the poster with permanent adhesive. It was a real pain to cut this out. I removed most of the black areas from the deck, but some areas were thin and I didn't want to risk it. I was going to add some figures to the barge, but this is slightly smaller scale than the action figures.



Here is how it looks with the LEDs wired and mounted. All five LEDs run off one 9V battery. I was a little bummed with the red LEDs, I thought I had some extra and didn't. I had to run to Radio Shack and the only ones they had in stock had the focused tip, so you don't get the intense light like the blue. I may put some hot glue on the tip of the blue just to diffuse the light some, or maybe not, not sure. This looks real nice in a dark room.



The switch is just your basic toggle, I mounted it to the rear side of the barge. In the photo above, the barge is sitting about 2.5" - 3" from the wall. I used some of the foam board and made buffers. I am going to mount it to the wall using some industrial strength 3M Velcro.



What do you think?

Awesome! You are an excellent dad!

I was able to mount the barge to the wall:





I also painted the moon yellow and orange and mounted it back to the wall. It looks close enough to a sun when it's not lit up.



When the other one comes, I'm going to paint it more white than yellow. I'll also mount it above and to the left of this one. I am going for something like this:



I was going to start airbrushing in the sand dunes and clouds, but the **** thing broke (it was 15 years old). So while I wait for the replacement, I brushed in some basic shapes and shadows.



And here is the barge and sun lit up.

This just keeps getting better and better.
The attention to detail is amazing, I bet your son loves it.

Craig

Mate, this looks AWESOME.

forget race car beds!!! you just set a whole new standard!

This is absolutely amazing!!

Utterly fantastic project!

I'd like to try an AT_AT using a bunkbed frame.

Wow! This is amazing!

Thanks guys!

Check out the sweetness that arrived today! This is a Sarlacc rug that a member from the RPF just graciously donated out of the blue to my son's room. Looks really great and adds that something extra!



Taking a break from the room at the moment to work on R2, but it's almost done!

That rug is sooo perfect for that room! Very nice of the RPF member to donate.

You should have Winnie the pooh sittin down in the middle of the pit

Wow I just stumbled onto this and I am blown away ! That is so cool. The detail is amazing fantastic. Job!

B E A U T I F U L !!!

That is so epic on so many levels. So freaking awesome.

Thanks guys! I appreciate the comments.

That's fantastic... I am beyond words....

Great job! This is too cool! Father of the year, ha ha!

This is the coolest thing ever... If my dad cared about Fett I would be in HOG HEAVEN!