I built this as a gift for a grandchild in the spring of 2023. The plans come from the book "Animated Animal Toys in Wood" by David Wakefield.
The black wood is wenge and the white is hard maple. The build follows the plans in the book with one exception. I decided I wanted the white stripe to show only on the back. To be honest I didn’t know for sure at the time if skunks have stripes on their bellies or not. (I just checked, they don’t)
Normally the center plank is made of two pieces – a lighter piece for the stripe and a darker piece for the head. I used three pieces to keep the belly dark. The clamps held the pieces flat while the bungee acted as a band clamp.
There is an offset wheel on the rear axle that acts as a cam to make the tail move. The last two pictures show the range of motion. I didn’t take many pictures of the build. Here’s one of the parts being finished.
This was a fun project that didn’t take too long. The wenge works perfectly to make the skunk black.
Thanks for the comments! I was really pleased with how this one turned out. The strong contrast in color really made it look good. And it's new owner is really happy with it!
