Minifig gateway at KonTiki 2017

I've featured gateways built by Harmellia Gardens Air Scouts before, and this Lego-inspired gateway at KonTiki 2017 is their latest design. Harmellia are using a synthetic hawser-laid rope, which, unlike braided polyprop ropes, behaves in a similar way to traditional sisal cordage. the head of the structure is bent from smaller thatching laths, and car tyres make up the hands.

(more sculptures, including dinosaurs, superheroes, biplanes and birds, on the sculpture tag)

Pioneered Christmas tree by Puddle Pirate Rover crew

Day and night photographs courtesy Akela Joy

For the East Rand District end of year Cub Christmas Camp, Puddle Pirate Rover Crew built this pioneered Christmas Tree. All of the guests at the camp bought gifts which were
used to decorate the tree and these were later donated to a charity.

Pioneered T Rex Sculpture

Over the weekend, the East Rand Scout District in South Africa ran a public awareness day, where every group ran a public event to show that Scouting is flourishing in the community. Some groups held parades, some met in parks, some met outside shopping centres. My Rover Crew joined 1st Kempton Park Scouts outside a DIY shop in Kempton Park, and while they set up an information booth, we built this 4 metre high T-Rex.

The SketchUp model is available for you to download and view here.

Inspired by the pioneered animal sculptures of the Israeli Scout summer camps, I started with asmall sketch above and then spent some time figuring out how to make this design easy to build. Working in SketchUp, I put together a quick model with some sequence drawings that let us draw up a kit list and investigate the sequencing. Unlike the summer camp sculptures, we didn't have days to build this dinosaur, but only a few hours. The simple structure is based on a tripod, with an extension above for the head and shoulders, and an extension behind for the tail.  The head is made from bamboo, in two parts, with the jaw connected to a cotton cord that allows it to be opened and closed. The sequence drawing below was used to get the project built in the right order.

Sketches drawn in Paper on an iPad Mini with an Alupen stylus

Having sourced the materials from 1st Kempton Park, the crew set out to build the dinosaur in the car park. Very quickly, things came together, and by 11:00 the T-Rex's jaws were opening and closing above the crowd:

Ably led by our newest Rover, Thomas, we had a good morning building the dinosaur, and attracted a lot of attention towering over the rest of the displays at the Easter market. We're looking forward to building this again, and have some ideas for how we can improve it.

Floating 'Scouts SA' Billboard at Gilwell, Johannesburg

All photos courtesy Terence Vrugtman

Gilwell, Florida, is the home of Scout training in Johannesburg, and also home to the Orion Rover Crew, who led 160 Scouts from 8 troops in the West Rand District in building this raft spelling out 'Scouts SA' at Florida Lake for BP Sunday this year. Orion's Isengard Tower was featured on this blog before, and this time around Terence Vrugtman and Byron Van Gool enlisted Discovery Scouts, Protea Ridge, 1st Horison, 1st Eagles, Florida Lake Sea Scouts, 1st Strubens Valley, and Kagiso Scouts to put this project together in 7 hours.

This project acted as the annual pioneering competition for the district, and is a great example of how groups can work together to create something visually striking in a short time. Each of the eight rafts was constructed independently, with the letters being assembled once ready. Modular projects like this can be put together with simple co-ordination.

Here are the instructions that were issued to the troops:

• The Project! To, as a troop build a standing single letter of the “SCOUTS SA” Logo that can float on water to form part of the District Project. 

• The Concept What are we doing? As a troop, you need to build a floating, self-standing letter of the “SCOUTS SA” Logo. You will be marked on: Project accuracy, general pioneering skill, on-spot knot testing, uniformity, spirit, model building and the final product. Use the below diagrams, rules and guidelines to build your letter (Troop Scouter has it) as best as possible to make this awesome project come to life. 
•  Base Guidelines and Rules Build a floating base that: 

1. Must have 4 drums, 
2.  Must be as close to 2.5m Wide as possible (Don’t destroy your troop equipment), 
3. Must be 3m Long, 
4. Must be a rectangular frame, 
5. Must have diagonal supports, 
6. Can have additional supports, 
7. Can have decking, not needed, 
8. Must have the ability to support your letter, 
9. Will have lashings necessary to support the structure, Letter Guidelines and Rules Construct a letter that: 

Must be made from ropes and poles/staves
Must be 3m High/long
Must be as close to 2.5m Wide as possible (Don’t destroy your troop equipment)
Must be 3D and have a depth of .05m (Measured from inside pole to inside pole)
Should be as close to the font as above in the concept image
Must have a hessian front to support the letter features
Should be as close to “letter shape” as possible (Hessian might be the key)

• General

1.    All aspects of the project must be built on the day
2. Only Scouts (11yrs – 18yrs) may build. Adults may support and guide
3. You must follow and stick to the times provided in the programme
4. Judging will be done by the Scouters and Rovers of the West Rand District
5. Scores will be vetted by the DC

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all readers who celebrate next week. Here's a pioneered reindeer that might decorate your Scout hall grounds

Pioneered Rhino Sculpture by 1st Horison Scout Group

photographs by Liesl de Weerd

1st Horison are a Scout group on the West Rand near Johannesburg in South Africa. This project was built as a Springbok Scout construction project. With a little inspiration from the amazing Israeli pioneering sculptures, Ruan designed and led a team of Scouts to build this structure to raise awareness for Rhino conservation. In South Africa, 668 Rhinos were lost to poaching last year, and there are indications that this year will see similar losses. RAGE is one group co-ordinating efforts to reduce the poaching.

Congrats to Ruan on designing and building this, and good luck with the rest of your Springbok!

Pioneered Biplane for AAD 2012

 Three Rover crews from Gauteng built this pioneered biplane that will be on display at this weekend's AAD Aerospace and defense show at Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria. Enigma, Irene and Prometheus Rover Crews spent the weekend building this sculpture which will be part of the Scouting stand this weekend. Drop in and say hi to them if you are going to be at the show. More photos (courtesy of Ross Images Photography) are available here.

Kontiki 2012: Main Stage

Kontiki 2012 is underway, 36 teams are busy building their rafts down at the waterfront at Arrowe Park, and will be launching on Saturday morning. I'll post more about the rafts later, but there is a structure down at the waterfront that I'm featuring now.

The main stage was designed and built by Gregory Weeks from First Benoni Sea Scouts, and fitting with the Viking theme of Kontiki 2012, is designed as the prow of a submerged boat sticking out of the ground. It stand roughly 6m (18 feet) high.

The stage was built over two weekends, and tilted up into position as the last part of the construction sequence. The whole structure is anchored with a series of stakes below the deck of the stage, square lashed to the base structure.

More to follow tomorrow on the rafts and campsites...

Pioneered 'Strandbeest' walking machine

I posted a couple of weeks back wondering whether any Scouts could build one of Theo Jansen's walking creatures out of ropes and poles. As you can see in the video above, it has been done- be Shevet Hanasi in Tel Aviv.

Thanks to Dor Posner (who first introduced me to the large-scale brand of pioneering Israeli Scouts practice) for sending this in.

Northern District Pioneering projects

These projects are all built by troops in the Northern District in Gauteng, South Africa. This district holds regular inter-troop Pioneering competitions, as well as a Scouter's competition. The above photo shows the winning Scouters from 2008, 1st Athol, in front of their 35ft-span suspension bridge, built in 4.5 hours.


Included here are two tall towers built as Springbok construction projects and a windmill from a district pioneering competition. Shakir, Scouter at First Athol troop, who supplied these photos, writes that "if it's not hard to build, it's not worth building". This is the opposite end of the spectrum from my beginner's project last month, and definitely something to try with ambitious Scouts.

Theo Jansen's walking sculptures

(thanks to AxelHH for the photograph)
Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist who builds enormous, walking sculptures powered by the wind. He calls this type of creature a Strandbeest- 'beach animal'. I first saw these sculptures in a South African BMW advert (watch it here). Theo talks about his sculptures at the TED conference, and you can watch that video or download it here.

The question is, would it be possible to pioneer one of these out of ropes and poles? Theo uses PVC tubing, and works to very precise measurements for the legs of these creatures. But considering that he has also built a creature called Animaris Rhinoceros out of steel, it might just be possible. Mekanizmalar has an incredible animation of the walking mechanism, that lets you play around with different lengths of the various parts, for those who want to experiment. Any takers?

Water writing

Here's on for those used to celebrating tomorrow with fireworks: 'Tekes Esh' is a ceremony in Israeli Scouting that I have blogged about, where Scouts write messages and draw pictures in flames- using fire-proof pioneered structures soaked in paraffin.

Omer and the Shevet On group (sorry, Hebrew only website) in Kiryat Ono, Israel, had an idea for a safer version of this idea, powered by glow sticks(available from Amazon) and water. Omer writes:

"The idea was born because you have to bring firefighters here any time you want to light fire inscriptions (and that costs a lot of money) so we decided to think cheap...=]

What you need:
A lot of 1.5 litre water bottles (from recycling bins usually...) filled with water
An iron net
Iron poles (to lash the inscription to the ground)
Ropes (!)
Sticklights (and lots of em...try to get the cheap ones)

All you gotta do is lash the bottles on the shape of the letters (when they are already filled with water) onto the net.

When you want to light the inscription, break all the sticklights and drop them into the bottles (some whole and some cut into pieces)"

Thanks Omer - this is a very effective display that can be used where safety laws don't allow fire writing. Glow sticks can be a little pricey but for a special event this is really impressive. The good news is that unlike fire writing, glow sticks can last up to 12 hours, so your signs will be visible all night!

Tekes Esh: fire-writing

Gal Longin (who has shared projects with us before) from Israel wrote to me to tell me about an annual Scouting ceremony called 'Tekes Esh' which is Hebrew for 'fire writing'.


Scouts make fire sculptures for this ceremony, using paraffin-soaked cloth 'snakes' attached to a metal grid. The grid is supported by a pioneered frame, with tinfoil insulating the lashings that are closest to the fire. These pictures and words are clear for around 15 minutes of burning, after which parts start burning out, and after 45 minutes the fire is normally out altogether. As Gal mentions, this is a potentially dangerous activity, and it is important to take safety precautions: make sure you have fire extinguishers, keep the fuel far away from the frames when they are burning, and consider informing the fire department of your activity in advance.

Gal has done a series of drawings which explain different techniques that can be used for making these displays, and even animating them, with screens that spin, drop down and change over time. Here then, are Gal's notes (with slight editing from me to include English names of knots and add hyperlinks).

The most basic idea is the static simple one. As you can see I only wrapped with aluminium foil the parts that were close to the fire (letters) and the lashings. You can also see that the 4 ropes holding the window are not directly connected to the window but to a thick metal wire connected to the window so that they would be isolated from the fire.

A more complex yet fairly simple idea is illustrated in the second picture where the writings are divided into two parts (could be more than two) and folded on each other . The two grids are connected on one side with small metal rings from thick wire which acts as a pivot and at the other end they are only connected using a thin burnable rope which has been preferably dipped in oil. Once the letters catch on fire the rope burns and the two grids depart and reveal the message. You could also do this without a burned rope using a highwayman's hitch, so by pulling the right end you untie the knot and release the grids.

Another cool idea is to have a sliding grid. In front of the crowd you have a big window with only part of the sentence/message/symbol and on another window behind it you have the other half. You have several cables connecting the hidden grid and the front window and you slide the grid forward on these cables. You should slide it after it's burning so the visual effect is more impressing.

Another idea is to a have a swinging message. The grid is connected to a strong pivot above. The swinging is quite simple yet very cool and impressing.


Another is idea is to use vertical pivots to rotate the grids.

A more complex idea is the centrifugal one. In this idea you have a big thick pole like a log or a telephone pole or even several thinner poles tied tightly together. The main purpose of this is that the it will have enough mass to stay stable even though great power are exerted on it. Once you have the pole up in the air you secure it to the grounds with ropes and secure it to the ground at it's base with stakes. Around it you create a polygonal shape grid (a triangle is best because it's the strongest shape but if you have diagonals you can also build rectangle and pentagon). if you have a triangle you should use three words and not two as in the drawing. Once the triangle shape is finished(you should try build a wooden frame for each grid to keep it sturdy) you hang it in the air from the top of the poles using three thick ropes. Then you rotate around the pole a few times and you secure it while it's twirled. After you light the sentence you release it and it spins and reveals the message. Make sure you rotate it so that it spins in the right direction (so that people could read "hello big world" instead of "world big hello"), after that it should spins in both directions for a minute or two. Be very careful with this since there are very large and heavy things moving very fast. Keep people away at a safe distance and make sure the main pole is strong and stable.

A different idea is to build a flipping message. You build two rectangles and secure them at a right angle. One rectangle is laying on the ground and the other is upright.you secure the common side to the ground. When you light it you light both words, and after a moment or two when the crowd has seen it you pull the ropes and flip it. It's very impressive and cool and usually it's for a message of change, like if the scouts go through something like getting a new rank, you write on one side the old rank and on the other the new one.

Another way to deliver a message of change is to have a rotating grid (ehs7). You write two different words on each side of the grid and make sure there is a thick material between them so that you can't see through it. Basically you just spin it on it's pivot(usually a thick PVC pipe, if you use PVC or any other plastics make sure you wrap it in aluminum foil so that it doesn't melt or anything).

A different creative idea is the falling balls idea (esh8). You place on the grid many many balls (also made from cloth) at a seemingly random order. But it's not really random at all- most of the balls are secured to the grid using a thin rope that will eventually burn so that the ball falls. Only a few balls are secured with a metal wire so they never fall. Once all the fake balls fall they reveal the message in the left balls(in the picture you can see the letter H revealed). It's usually a symbol not a sentence since it's quite difficult to create many letters in that method. but it's very cool since the crowd doesn't know what's the message and it is slowly revealed by the fire.

(illustrations courtesy of Gal Longin. Photographs courtesy of Israeli Scouting at Zofim.org.il)

Step-by-step pioneered sculptures: a pigeon

Gal Longin wrote in to me with drawings and photographs outlining the construction of a 6m (18ft) high model of a pigeon. Gal's shevet (scout group) in Tel Aviv was involved in building some of the constructions I blogged about here and here (shevet gimel's photos from this camp are here).

I'm going to quote heavily from Gal as I explain how these structures are built:

The first step is deciding on what to build and gathering together photographs for reference:

after we chose 2 or three project leaders for each structure they start designing the structures. they think of cool stuff to build that are connected to the main theme. after coming up with an idea we start designing. we try to get as much pictures of the object we want to build from different angles. we use the picture to define the breaking points that will create the wanted shape. we basically try to make round and complex shapes as simple as possible. instead of a round line we use a few different straight lines.

every structure we build is made up of simple shapes called "windows" connected. a window is basically a general name for anything that is a flat shape...

anyway, the people in charge of the structures look at pictures and determine where there windows will be placed within the object. after that they design the shape and size of every different window. most windows use basic geometrical shapes like squares, hexagons, octagons and decagons but they can have any shape you would like. the project leader then draw a accurate scaled sketch of each window and determine the exact size of each wooden stick and each connection.

after drawing all the windows they build them in an accurate scaled model from small wooden skewers. after all the windows are built they connect them in the model and determine the exact length of each connection. they usually build the model at a 1 to 5 scale which means that every meter in realty is five centimeters in the model (technically it's a 1:20 because each centimeter in the model is equal to 20 centimeters in reality). after that they sometimes build a second or even a third model. the reason for building several models is that you can learn from each model and improve.

the last model is usually on a 1:10 scale, which means each meter in reality is ten centimeters in the model. the bigger model is built from bigger skewers.

...after completing the last model the project leaders determine a work plan and divide the work for the three days of building.
they determine specific deadlines for each stage of the work process and define the schedule for every hour. all of this accurate planning is done because three days isn't really a long time to build these huge structures and we can't waist any time while building. while building everybody must know exactly what there job is. usually there are about twenty to thirty people working on each structure at a time.

the planning and designing process takes about 2 months. in early June we start working on special accessories we need for these structures.by accessories i mean stuff like eyes for animals, teeth, toes and fingers, claws and even entire heads. everything that is small and lightweight and we can take with us to the camp inside a truck. we work on these accessories for three - four weeks ...
...we build these accessories from many materials. eyes and teeth are usually made from cloth sawed together and stuffed in something. for bigger shapes we use special net used in chicken coops that is very easy to manipulate and can also maintain it's shape. we cover this net in cloth or paper mesh. heads and larger stuff we build from small bamboo like sticks tied("lashed") together. some heads who require exact and round shapes are built from a construction metal and wooden planks, covered in cloth

The last few photos show the pigeon under construction, before the cladding is put over. This style of pioneering is a great test if a troop's planning,attention to detail and enthusiasm. Thanks again to Gal for explaining in such detail how to build this type of structure. Now that I have seen how it is done, I am keen to suggest this to my own troop (maybe you could show it to your scouts). Let's see how they respond to that...

More Israeli pioneering structures...

This is a follow up on the Giant Pioneered Hedgehog: unfortunately I haven't been able to find out much more about these structures: Dor did tell me that they were built by Tel Aviv Scouts on a 10 day Summer Camp- attended by about 1000 scouts, and that each troop built a project.

Let's take a look at some of these projects:

Starting with the hedgehog again- Here is a photograph of the model, showing some of the detail of the underlying structure. From this page (also showing Garfield, Santa Claus and the Frog Prince)

Frog Prince: if you look inside the Frog's mouth you can see the 'lattice' frame that is holding the structure together- a grid of poles lashed together.

Wolverine: I like how the arms are sticking out, guyed by ropes. The six-pack is also a nice touch.

Dragon: there are a couple of dragons, but I like this one for two reasons: Firstly, the temple that he is flying through is a good addition, and the way the curves of his body are made- if you look just behind his head you will see how the fabric has been left hanging to make a natural bend.

There are quite a few other images at an Israeli scouting website, they're definitely worth taking a look at:
Construction photos (before cladding is added)
Closeups of models, construction process, also a dragon and an eagle completed
Dinosaurs, eagles, a cactus, sportscars and lions
A dragon, Wolverine, Mario and Luigi and a Transformer
Another dragon, Spongebob and Patrick

If you spot anything of interest in the Hebrew text in these links, or if you were on this camp, please let me know a bit more about it- how long did these take to build, who designs them, how many scouts work on them etc.

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them

Dor Posner sent me some photos from a summer camp in Israel. I'm waiting to hear back from him with some more information about these constructions, but to get started here's a photo of a pioneered hedgehog- each spine is a quadpod wrapped in fabric and attached to the frame of the animal. Not for the faint of heart, I suppose this took a troop a couple of days to build. But if you want to make your scouts nervous hand them this picture and tell them they have 1 hour to build it...

The Statue of Liberty, the Sphinx, Santa Claus (with reindeer), Garfield and a dragon complete with Chinese temple will follow as soon as I can tell you a little more about how these incredible structures were made.

UPDATE: More info and photos here

(With apologies to Newt Scamander for the title)