Vehicles built out of junk, and run. The roll half of Nature in Motion.
2
Chassis
3
Drives
one not yet working
6
Diagrams
19
Materials named
What it is
Junk modelling is the materials, junk modelling vehicles is the activity.
Settled 18 August 2026. This is the activity half, paired with the
wind tunnel as fly. Its stock comes from
the materials area.
It is not Moon Buggies. That is the English Martyrs LEGO Ramps
activity. This one builds its vehicles from junk; that one builds them from LEGO. Both run something
down a slope, which is why the two were confused for a fortnight.
Method
The example board asks one question, Can you make it move?, and answers it in
three moves: make wheels and an axle, power it with an elastic band, power it with a balloon. The
prototypes add a second chassis and a third drive.
Two chassis and three drives, drawn separately so a child combines them rather
than copying a finished car.
Wheels, axle and a body
Wheels and axle
A dowel through a straw taped under the stick. The straw is held, the dowel turns.
Chassis A, lolly sticks
Two sticks crossed, a straw taped across each end. The axles run in the straws.
Chassis B, a bottle or a jar
Skewers pushed straight through a bottle. On a jar they are taped along the underside.
Three ways to make it go
Elastic band
A band round the rear axle, caught on a stick across the chassis. Winding it stores the turn.
Balloon
The neck stretched over a straw and taped. The air leaves at the far end.
Elastic band fan
The bottle top cut into petals, on a band running the length of the body to a peg at the tail.
The fan drive does not run yet. It is kept
because it is worth solving, not because it works. Liber suspects friction, which is a hypothesis
rather than a tested finding, and is still working on it. A child may try it on the day and it is
not expected to go.
Most of these are collected and ordered on the materials
area. materials.csv says which, row by row.
Safety
Children
Scissors, tape, elastic bands, straws, bottle caps, lids and card. Skewers and dowels, which have sharp ends.
Adults
Glue guns. Craft knives, and cutting a bottle open.
First aid
Cleaning wipes and plasters. The risks are cuts, and a wound elastic band letting go.
A wound elastic band stores energy and can flick when it lets go.
Notes
Split out of Junk Modelling on 18 August 2026, when the materials area and the activity were separated. One record had been doing both jobs, which is why its type was argued over.
The method was written on 19 August 2026 from the example board and three prototypes. Until the activity has been delivered once it is a proposal, not a record.
The drawings are the house notation, six of them. The wheels and axle drawing is the settled one from the technical drawing skill and was not redrawn.
Its two board tasks are about materials, not the activity: Create example board, done, and Sort appropriate junk.
What this record still needs
What the vehicles run down. Moon Buggies has a foldable ramp being built for the day. Whether this shares it, needs its own, or runs on the floor decides how much floor Nature in Motion takes.
A working fan drive. Liber owns it and suspects friction, which is a hypothesis rather than a tested finding.
Type, duration and an age floor.
A quantity and a basis on every material row. Blank is legal to write down and not enough to produce a pick list from.
Themes.
How much of a build a child finishes at a drop-in stall, and whether the vehicles go home.