Introduction: Camo Duct Tape Cardboard Tank

About: Professionally I have been a summer camp counselor, a Draftsman/designer, salesperson, bicycle mechanic, laminate flooring machine mechanic, teacher, and designer of the OP Loftbed. Personally I am a human tha…

My daughter had to make a tank for a project for school. My wife found this Instructable:https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Tan... by TigrisLi

And she did a great job making it. She asked me to help finish it and I thought it would be cool to camo it up with duct tape. You can buy camo duct tape but it usually has a pattern that doesn't match up well on small objects. I came up with a simple technique on how to use duct tape to make camouflage.

Step 1: Caution

You will be using a sharp knife. Be careful that you don't cut yourself.

Step 2: Materials

All you need to camo up your cardboard tank is three or more different colors of duct tape. Black, Brown, and Green were the colors we chose.

Step 3: Tools

I thought that I would be able to cut shapes in duct tape with scissors, but a sharp knife worked so much better. I used an x-acto knife with a sharp scapulae type blade. You will also need a glass surface.

Step 4: Cover the Tank Body Fully in the Lightest Color First

First you want to cover the tank body in the lightest color of the duct tape you have. We had already decided that the tank "tracks" would be black, so we left them unglued from the main tank body until after we were finished.

Step 5: The Trick

I came up with this idea after trying, in vain, to cut some curvy shapes in duct tape. If you were going to make a digital type camo pattern, it would be easy to cut square pieces of duct tape. But our tank was supposed to represent a WWII tank and they did not use a digital camo pattern.

The technique I came up with was to use three or four strips overlapping duct tape to make one sheet of duct tape. At first I thought I could tape the duct tape to wax paper, cut the shape I wanted, and then peel off the duct tape. (that was a disaster) I was working on a glass top table, and that was my AH HA moment. I cleaned the glass off and then used the glass surface to make my sheet of duct tape. I was then able to use the x-acto knife to cut out a curvy shape. I then peeled away all the duct tape outside of the shape. I was able to cut some curvy shapes that looked like classic camo.

Step 6: Put the Pattern on the Tank

I would then peel the duct tape shape off the glass top table and then stick it to the tank.

Step 7: Medium Color Second

The first layer is a solid covering of the lightest color. The medium color should be the shapes put on top of the light base layer.

Step 8: Darkest Color Last

Use the same technique to cut out shapes in your darkest color duct tape and place those shapes on last.

Step 9: Tanks for Looking

That Pun was camouflaged. That is why you didn't see it coming. But seriously, Thank you for looking.

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