Wooden Angry Birds Game Set

Hello, Today I'm going to show you How I went about making a Wooden Angry Birds Game for my family. With summer here it seemed like a no brainer to make this game for personal indoor/outdoor use.

Materials for Game Pieces:

What ever type of wood you would like to use or have handy (I just used various pieces of scrap wood)
Safety Glasses
Some way to sand the pieces (ie. Belt or Mouse Sander)
Jig Saw
Pencil
Acrylic Paints and Various Brushes (Thin and Foam)
Wood Stain (Not Required but will give the board a good look)
Wood Burning tool (Old Soldering Iron does the trick too)

Materials for Catapult:

Ping Pong balls
1 Skateboard Wheel
2 bearings for the wheel
1" dia. dowel
Scrap Piece of wood approx 6 - 8 inches by 4 inches and 1/2" thick
2 rubberbands
1 small wall hook
threaded rod or 1/4" dowel
something to use as the holder for the Ping Pong balls

First thing to do is Choose how many and what pigs you will be making. I decided on 5 Regular Pigs, 3 Soldier Pigs, 1 Old Man Pig and finally 1 King Pig.

Once you know what you want simply (or not so simply for some) sketch out the outlike of one of each type of pig on your wood. When done sketching use your Jig Saw to CAREFULLY cut them out and don't forget eye protection. Now that you have each type of pig cut out simply trace how ever many of each typ you want on more wood and cut them out too. This can be a very hard thing to accomplish with a Jig Saw because of the small pieces so please BE CAREFUL. A Scroll saw would work wonders here but unfortunately I do not have one.

You should have something resembling the pictures.

Now that we have them all cut out take your sander and carefully sand all the edges making them nice and smooth. Do this to the flat surfaces as well. When you are doing this you may want to check that the pieces stand up by themselves. If not just sand a little flat on the bottom of them so that they will sit nice and level. Make sure to ONLY sand enough for them to stand, You still want them to be able to roll from side to side.

Now that you have them sanded you slap on a few coats of primer with your foam brinsh. Using this brush will allow little or no streaks in the paint and allow it to dry evenly.

Now that the pieces are primed take your trusty pencil and lightly draw out the lines that make up the face and details.

Don't forget to allow time to dry between each painting step. When using acrylics that can be a mere few minutes.

Once that is done paint a few coats of green on the parts that will be green only. Do not paint the entire thing green on the pigs with the helmets! It will effect the coloration of the other colors you apply on top of it.

Once you're finished with green, move onto a different tone of green mixing black or white into the green paint before applying. This will be the bottom lip on the snouts.

Now go ahead and paint the helmets grey., the mustache(be sure to use the thin brush for this) orange and the crown yellow.(If you did the same pieces as me)

Once you finish the helmets and other parts you can move onto the white of the eyes. Go ahead and paint all the eyes.(be sure to use the thin brush for this)

Now that the eyes are done it's staring to look like something but seems to be missing that "unique" look that they have in the game still. Take a thin brush and paint the outlines around everything that borders another color. Also, don't forget to apply a small dot in each eye in whatever direction you like to give them a "goofy" look as well as nostrils.

Now you can go ahead and apply a few coats of clear coat to them to protect the paint and your done with them!

For my set I made blocks that are roughly 3/4 inch wide by 1/2 inch thick. Simply mark out 12 blocks that are 6 inches tall and 14 blocks that are 4 inches tall, 5 squares that are 2x2 inches and 6 squares that are 1 1/2x 1 1/2 inches. Use your saw and cut them all out.

On the squares that are 2x2 Draw a line diagonally from corner to corner on each one and then cut on those lines too. These are the wedges.

After cutting them all out be sure to sand them and make sure they sit level on all sides.

Now you can build stuff like in the picture!

Now it's time for the Board, This part is fairly straight forward.Why a board? We will need something to place the blocks on when we play on carpet or other rough surfaces!

Cut yourself a pice of wood that is 25"x12"x 1/2 inch thick. If you want to be creative you can draw some design on the board like I did to give it a little "life" and then using your wood burning tool burn it into the wood. (I used an old soldering iron) Once done detailing it how you please, Stain it and you're done!

Now, I DID make a slingshot from a toy one and it works just fine but People were having problems with it backfiring the ball so I came up with a simple catapult to replace it and make it more fare.

This is a pretty simple concept really.

You have a base, On the base you have 2 uprights close to one end and a small hook at the other.

You put a shaft between the uprights like a lower case t and another shaft higher up to stop the swing arm.

On the lower shaft I used a skateboard wheel with bearings and 2 bolts (one from either side) to hold it in place evenly.

You drill a hole and attach your arm into the wheel sticking straight out with the cup on the end that would hold the ball.

Loop 2 rubber bands over the arm and follow them to the front(under the top shaft) and secure them on the hook. You can add or subtract rubber bands as needed for the power it shoots the balls at.

Unfortunately I didn't have the camera handy for the build process but have these pictures of the completed project. So if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Once you finish this your game is done! I'm still working on the rules but have a fairly simple base to go off of that I will edit into another step when I have more time.

Here's a test video