Willie The Waddling Duck

This is an attractive toy to make for a young child and will certainly give him, or her, endless hours of pleasure. Make the duck’s body and legs of wood and Willie is propelled by pushing him along at the end of a stick. This is how he is made. Get a piece of ½ in. wood and draw Willie’s shape, based on the diagram shown in the squares. Each square represents an inch, so you can enlarge the squares to the right size on the wood and make an accurate enlargement of the duck.

When you have drawn the outline, cut round the edges with a fret-saw and sandpaper these. Now make the legs for Willie, again basing your pencil drawing on the squares, to be enlarged to size. Cut the four legs out and sandpaper the edges and they will be all ready for assembling. Drill a hole in the centre of the four legs, and also one where indicated in the duck. These holes should be large enough to take a ¼ in. bolt with washers and nuts as illustrated. This bolt is fastened on to the end of the piece of wood which is used as the propelling handle for pushing Willie along.

Now paint the duck with gay, bright colours. Give Willie a brilliant yellow beak, blue eyes, red and green feathers, with a white chest and yellow feet. The piece of wood pushing Willie should also be painted, make this a bright red.