Float Building

2014

This year’s float theme was ‘Celebration of commonwealth counties’ which was a little tricky as the scope was so big but yet choosing one large item to build was hard to settle on. We had the country Canada so decided to start by building a log cabin and work from there out. Once done we surrounded the trailer with boards showing images relating to activities of the country. We then added some flags and bunting to finish the design. Members were dressed as skiers, cowboys/girls, lumberjacks etc.

Luckily all our hard work isn’t going to waste as the Picket fence will get stored for future use and the log cabinet is to be a a very posh chicken coupe.

2013

The theme of this year’s float is ‘Children Stories’ so we choose Peter Pan and decided to build a Pirate Ship and dress members up as characters from the book.

Using our normal trailer we pinned boards to the sides and drew out the shape we wanted to create. These boards where then cut and bolted into place, the same was done with the back of the boat to create the iconic boat shape. The sails were telegraph poles stood on end in some custom build metal cases, the front of the trailer was then curved using a ribbing technique to make the bow and finally waves where added to the sides to make the boat look like it was in water.

2011

The theme of this year’s floats was ‘Children Television Shows’ and we choose Thomas The Tank Engine, a show which us older members remember the original and the younger ones are still watching the newer.

We started off with a 30′ long trailer body with double handrails and steps on the rear. Once we had fully measured it we could come up with a design with the help of Steve Shaw who also hosted the building of it in his ‘Party Barn’, as it has been fondly nicked named. One if the first jobs was to remove the front handrails from the trailer so that the water boiler could be constructed. Next we craned on a large water tank so that the cab could be build around it complete with roof and then screwed wooden panelling to the sides.

Once we had finished the main construction, little decorative pieces could be added like the front wheel arches and the stacks of coal on the back. Painting was fairly simple as it was only 4 colours; Blue, Red, Yellow and Black (although choosing the right blue took some time). We also cut and had painted a face for the front of the boiler.

In total it took most of the club 4 weeks to complete this float and we were very happy with the outcome, however it only came third in the competition that year. First was awarded to Fireman Sam and second to Balamory.