One January evening Jim arrived home from work early and there were two pickup trucks in the driveway with him. Oh yeah, he had said something about getting a couple of old shipping crates for the kids to play with. He and his friends unloaded the crates and dragged them into the garage. Little did either of us know then that these crates would take over our garage for many months to come and keep Jim very busy for the next seven months.

At first it was going to be a simple little fort, nail the crates together cut a door and a couple windows, throw on some paint and voila the kids have a playhouse. But change had already set in; the girls started talking about a tree house so the design evolved �upwards� to a fort on stilts. Over the next week as the �air fort� design was coming together a shift in paradigm occurred. When looking at the crates, Jim�s Mech-riddled brain now saw two LRM racks. So the question was posed to the children�. How about a �Mech tree house�? They love watching Daddy play the game with his team the ComStar Guard (http://www.comstarguard.com) as part of the Free Universe Mechwarriors League (http://www.fuml.net), and they each have their favorite Mech so the idea was an instant hit. The type of Mech was obvious, a Madcat, the two LRM racks sealed its fate (plus the fact that it is really one of the simplest chassis with more interior room for the playhouse). And so, with some screen shots from the game, the MW4 game manual, a caliper, and a pile of paper, the sketching began. The scale was set by the size of the crates and the height of the garage door resulting in an overall average of approximately 38%. To tell the truth there really aren�t any plans for the thing� more like scrapes of papers with small working sketches and calculations, most of which were scattered around the yard and garage.

So now it was off to Lowes to get plywood, 2 x 4�s, and other assorted hardware. Over the next couple months working on and off during the evenings and on some weekends the Mech slowly took form. It started as a rectangular fort with the crates (LRM racks) mounted on the sides; neighbors would come by and look inquisitively. The kids had already taken to it, climbing all over it during the construction, spawning the idea to put several hatches on top � the kids could now climb into the LRM racks from above or below (these would later be screwed closed when the roof was towering 12 ft up). As part of the playhouse aspect of the layout there is also a large back door, which will one day open onto some sort of a little deck (still to be built) allowing easier access and a place for the kids to stage their toys.

	The Front - Before the Nose Cone
	The Hatches on Top
	The Back Door

Now it really needed the cockpit/nose so how to make the curved parts? Several attempts were made with plywood (scoring the backside) and bending it over the frame, but the radius was too tight and Jim�s patience way too short. So it was back to Lowes and to Standard Steel for some aluminum and Plexiglas sheets and lots of pop rivets. The nose cone was still a question � Wal-Mart didn�t sell a steel salad bowl big enough so the search continued. Leave that for later.

The cockpit begins to take shape

Wouldn�t it look good if it were painted? The kids looked at all sorts of paint schemes from the game Mechlab and the voting began. Lets just leave it at Dad having to override all the popular votes (for red, purple etc) for a nice subdued camouflage pattern that wouldn�t draw protests from the neighbors. So off to Wal-Mart for exterior paint, lots of sealant, and spray-paint for the details. The computer and MS PowerPoint came in handy for making a whole range of templates to do the detailed painting. The first was the hexagonal missile ports on the LRM racks. After completing painting on the first rack (one heck of a difficult job) Jim looked back at one of the color screen shots� the background should have been gray not green� well, that wouldn�t do! It was too difficult to repaint the background around the hexagons so an entirely new plan was hatched. Instead of painting, the hexagons would be cut from plywood, painted, and screwed into place on the rack (much easier, right?!). My son now wants to replace these with real tubes to launch fireworks (thanking CSG_Mhowatt for his rocket post)! So an assembly line was setup to construct and paint hexagons and another trip scheduled back to Wal-Mart for gray paint (I know Wal-Mart loves me).

	The Hexagons in Progress
	Adding Some Camouflage and Details
	More Camouflage

Well now comes a decision point � should we downscale to a pseudo Catapult and minimize additional work???? No lets go for it, its time to start working the arms� back to Lowes for more wood (I know Lowes loves me too).

Nearly completed Body�. Still looking for that nose cone!!

Well, it is starting to look pretty good now so it might as well get a set of real legs� right! The initial design started with wood construction for the legs using a lot of 2x10s. They were pretty sturdy and very heavy, however, with the body weighing something like 700 lbs and the thought of our kids playing on it way up in the air, the legs were being reconsidered. The credit goes to CSG_Gator for his comments regarding the use of steel for the new direction in leg construction. The steel would allow for the correct look (angles) and provide more than enough rigidity for an equivalent weight. After a few calculations, overkill was decided as the best course and the order went into Standard Steel for 30 feet of 4� x 6� steel box beam with a 0.25� wall thickness. The steel legs would look like �chick legs� under it so the 2x10s from the original legs would be cut up to encase the steel� giving them that right �look�.

The steel arrived and was it ever heavy!! The only time AutoCad was used on this project was to layout the steel legs (make sure of all the angles and lengths). So started the job of cutting it up and laying the pieces out (now that was a workout). A saws-all was used for all cutting jobs; kudos to Milwaukee for their 9� metal cutting blades called �The Torch�, they really worked well! The time finally came to weld; the neighbors had to wonder what was going on with all the light coming from the driveway and around the side of the house late into the night. Now there are a lot of hours worth of welding in those legs, the bad part was Jim made the mistake of wearing cloths with holes in them (not thinking) his first long day � he got some pretty bad �sun burn� spots! Total weight of the steel leg assembly is around 500 lbs� that sure is going to make it fun to move and setup!!!

	Original Wood Leg � Scrapped for Steel
	Welding Steel Leg
	Steel Belly Support
	Final assembly of the legs to belly support

Meanwhile, the nose cone was finally finished off in an act of desperation using strips of aluminum flashing and lots of aluminized tape (didn�t look too bad). It was now time to get the Mech out of the garage so that the wife�s car could once again be parked inside. So a good friend was invited over and asked bring his truck (kind of knew what he was getting into) and the towing began� the first question, would it fit through the garage door? It looks taller than the door opening, but measurements confirmed that there was one inch to spare.

	The trek begins�

The next obstacle was the gate through our side fence. It�s 8 ft wide and plenty big for a car but not for a 38% scale BattleMech so one of the arms was removed (it hadn�t been fully secured in anticipation of this event). But even after the arm was removed the Mech just barely made it through the gate (left some paint behind).

With the garage once again cleared it was time to set the legs and figure out how in the heck the body was going to get up on top (we will worry about that later). First on the agenda was to select where to put the thing in the backyard, a strategic position was selected to minimize visibility from the road and surrounding houses. To maximize stability two holes were dug at over three-feet of depth (measured to account for the slope in our yard). It was another few weeks before I could convince that same friend to come back and help set up the legs. Well, it required a lot of brute force, but eventually the legs were in the holes and the thing was up � and crooked! What the heck, I accounted for everything!!!!

	Will it fit through the gate????
	Just pull really hard!!!
	Finally made it to the back yard!!!!

	Up Up and away
	It�s in but man is it crooked�
	does Jim know how to measure??

Later, with the help of a friend�s come-along the assembly was pulled back out and leaned against the tree. The root of the tilt problem was a root that got lodged in the beam as it slid into the hole. After some pounding with a shovel and post hole digger the root problem was taken care of and the legs dumped back into the hole � much easier this time. They were leveled, secured, and 15 bags (80lb each) of concrete dumped into the holes� these things aren�t going anywhere!!!! The next job was to begin encasing the steel legs in wood (and continue thinking about how to get the Mech up onto its legs).

Slowly encasing the legs

Finally the big day arrived. Arrangements had been made with several friends to come over one weekend and help get the Mech up on its legs. How was it going to be done? Well, the general idea was to hook a chain hoist up high on the tree right behind the legs and then pull. The angle was pretty bad so two 4x4 skids were set up for the thing to ride up along and keep it moving in the correct direction. Other than that, it was really pretty much figured it out as we went. Our trailer worked out good for a first stopping point. As it got higher Jim convinced his friend to put his truck under it for another stopping point (he did it reluctantly after Jim promised to pay for damages if the thing fell on it). Even the old lawn mower got into the action putting tension on all the cables. In just a couple of hours the Mech was on its legs and the big kids were climbing on top!!

Up it goes!!!!

To provide temporary access to the mech (keep the kids happy) a large wood ladder up to the rear door was built from scrapes. The plans are to build a small deck outback for the kids to have better access and to put all their stuff on. The Mrs. climbed up, then through the center hatch, and stood out on top of it � and decided that the kids shouldn�t! She declared that it �sure seems a lot taller from up there�, and �it has a great view over the top of our house�. On July 4th the kids sat up there with their Aunt and said they could see fireworks from �everywhere�. The last jobs included finishing up the legs, adding the 3 toed feet, and going all over the thing to do the final sealing. The final touches were to add some more trim paint and of course to add my unit, the Comstar Guard, logo. I consider it one of the finest units around and have teamed with these gentlemen and ladies for three years check us out at http://www.comstarguard.com. I still need to add a logo for a great growing league that we play in, the Free Universe Mechwarrior League (FUML), which is all about hard hitting action check out http://www.fuml.net. It seems to take forever to get all the little stuff added and I�m sure there will be a few extras (like substituting real pipe for some of the painted gun ports) but for the most part this project is finally complete.

	The back door and temp ladder
	Some last work painting/sealing.
	The finished product�Finally!

Just about every kid who has seen it has either asked Jim to build them one or gone home to ask their dad to build one. One neighborhood dad (not willing to build one) told his kids that they were very lucky to have a dad like him � one who was smart enough to move to a neighborhood where another dad would build a BattleMech that they could play on. After seven months the BattleMech is finally completed (minus the deck and stairs). It is quite a �fort / tree house� and definitely a conversation piece! Now maybe some of the real home projects like screening in the deck can get started� but then again the kids are never satisfied. One wants a Raven, and the little guy wants either an Atlas or a BattleMech that moves! Some of the kids comments include: �I think it is very, very big and I am scared of heights�, �It is beautiful!�, �If we put batteries in it, it will move it has metal legs�, and �It�s very nice and the feet are nice. Daddy�s going to make a walking Mech.�.