DIY Army Tanks

Boom! Crash! Bang! You are under fire...according to my son. He is sooo obsessed with army men, army tanks, and guns right now. A mother's dream...Ugh! However, I like to make my little one content, (I'm such a sucker) so we built some army tanks today. They are otherwise known as 2x4's painted with black paint and a dowel rod as a barrel (canon). I found this fabulous idea at Brown Paper Packages.

Supplies:

2x4's

Dowel Rod

Black Spray Paint

Wood glue

Directions:

1. First I cut my 2x4's in two sections. One was a little bigger then the other. Use your own judgement on how big that you would like them.

2. Spray with black paint. Cut dowel rod desired length and spray with black paint too.

3. Drill a hole the same size as your dowel rod in the smaller 2x4. See my little helper. :) 

I would have liked a larger dowel rod, but this was what I happened to have at home.

4. Glue dowel rod into top piece of 2x4 with wood glue. Then glue both pieces of 2x4 together as shown below.

Here is my oldest blowing up who knows what. I wish I had recorded his amazing sound effects. I feel like gun sounds must be a part of the genetic coding of little boys. He made me laugh so hard because he said, "Mom, why do you always have to take a picture before we play with everything!"

This provided the longest afternoon of fun and creative play...even if it was with army men, tanks, and guns!

Here is an older post you might like about building a super hero town out of 2x4's. Click here to see the instructions.