Every year I make trophies for the packs pinewood derby. These are great fun to make since I don't follow any plans I just change the style each year. These are very inexpensive to produce, but they do require some time and care. All of the wood came from the scrap pile. You will see at the end that I simply use metalic spray paint for the large trophies to get the gold, silver, and bronze look. For the other trophies I use hammered spray paint simply because I like the way it looks.
Trophies are in progress. First, Second, and third place. Getting primed for painting.
The trophies are still not assembled here, I just put them in this position to double check the look. I keep the tops and bottoms apart for painting. To attach the car to the top I drill a hole through the car into the stem and then use a countersink bit on the car. I apply glue, screw the parts together and then apply wood putty, let dry and sand. The finished top is seemless and ready to prime and paint the appropriate color.
For the bottoms I assemble them with glue and once dry I paint with a high gloss black.
Most scouty, most creative, and sibling trophies are nearly there as well.
After the paint has dried I assemble the top to the bottom. I glue the stem to the base and allow to dry. Once the glue is dry I drill a hole through the bottom to the stem, and use a screw to provide additional strength. There is no need to fill the screws countersink with putty since I will cover it with felt later. Trophies are painted and ready for lettering.
Used a Cricut machine and self adhering vinyl to do the lettering. Then they were coated with poly to give everything a bit of protection and to keep the letters in place forever. The bottoms are felted to make sure they don't scratch any surfaces. Fully complete now.
I highly encourage other packs to make trophies for the kids, the styles are endless and I can tell you the kids have been so excited by these versus the cheap plastic ones that you can buy. Total cost for these was 4 cans of spray paint. Fortunately as most woodworkers will attest, there is no shortage of scrap wood in the pile.
