Finally finished

My girlfriend came through with the replacement elbow joint and the final pieces were cut and glued together. 



Rear of Steampunk Rifle





Oh crap...

Last night was a total disaster! I've completely lost a vital component! One of the copper right angle joints has gone missing. I've either put it somewhere or one of my pesky kids has nicked it!

It was totally my fault, I had it the night before and put it somewhere. Still, My girlfriend has picked me up a replacement today so I’ve got a busy final night tonight.

Last night, I did a bit of cosmetic work, nailing some thin strips of soft leather to the grip and to the stock where the forward hand would go, and glued the sight onto the sight assembly.

Tonight I need to cut and fix the side pipe assembly and it’s done. I’m confident it will get done.

One final cosmetic detail that was pointed out by my girlfriend which I think is exactly right. The leather strips on the grip look too “new”, I’l going to dirty them up with either boot polish, ink or just plain old dirt from the garden.

No pictures I’m afraid, so the next post will be the finished article!

Last nights progress

Last night I cut the leather straps (or as I’ve now found, imitation leather...still does the job though) and screwed them to the stock to hold the pressure vessel in place. The glue did a pretty good of holding it securely but the straps look the part.

Before I attached the barrel, I took the copper sheet that I had cut to cover the trigger guard and simply nailed it in place on the stock. It is quite thin copper and it nailed fairly easily. It covers the hole really well and I just need to paint the trigger assembly with copper paint.

I tried to drill holes in the copper straps for the barrel but it just wasn’t happening with the Dremel. So, I marked where I wanted the holes to be and just hammered a nail through the copper. I then marked the stock and drilled a small guide hole for each screw on both sides of the stock. The barrel was glued with hot glue to the stock and quickly secured with the brass straps.

Tonight I’m going to concentrate on the side pipe assembly, that’s the tricky bit. That is easily an evening’s work (you may have guessed I take my time with this sort of stuff!) as there is some accurate measuring to do and cutting it all to size. Once this part is done, I can glue the sight in place and once that is dry, cover any glued areas with paint. Then it’s just cosmetics.

In progress - three nights remaining!

My amazing girlfriend bought me a hot glue gun yesterday which, thanks to a tight deadline, is proving invaluable already! Thanks Gorgeous!

Progress last night was in little bits. I stained the rifle stock, two coats, which looks ok. It could’ve been a lot better but I couldn’t get a smooth enough sanded finish on the bottom and rear of the stock so it looks a bit rough and grainy in places. The sides look great and I’m sure that once other components are fixed in place it will look ok.

I used the hot glue gun to glue the snug fitting trigger piece in place (at the second attempt! I didn’t realize that the glue set that quickly!) and I then cut a thin piece of copper sheet to fit over the trigger guard and fix to the stock to neaten up the join.

The 1m long barrel was glued to the sight assembly and a 15mm-22mm copper pipe reducer/widener (depending on which way around you look at it) was also glued to the other end for a cool little detail. So all in all, the barrel length from stock end to tip is now around 1.2m!

Finally, the pressure vessel was glued in place and left to dry overnight. I’m not confident that there is enough contact between the vessel and the stock for a good bond but it will also have leather straps so, fingers crossed it should be ok. I’m going to screw the straps in place tonight first thing.

The next job will be attaching the trigger cover, this will need guide holes drilling with a tiny drill bit and nailing down.

Once that’s done, the barrel will be hot glued to the stock and the brass straps partly drilled to the stock and screwed down.

That’s what I want to achieve tonight at least. Ideally, I want to also cut the side barrel parts too. I’ve found a screw hook to hold up the side barrel but I don’t want to do too much and risk knocking anything that’s still drying.

Apologies for the lack of photos today, I’ll update tomorrow.

Ok, just a quick update...

Last night I cut a hole for the trigger to sit in. It was initially tricky to get the shape of the hole cut due to it being in quite an awkward space next to the grip. A Dremel disc was used to cut the outline and then once the hole started to take shape I had a chance to use my Dremel router attachment for the first time. The trigger was cut from the toy pistol I was initially going to use for the Boba Fett replica gun project. However, the two sides of the trigger didn’t stay together very well so I had to substitute a working/moving trigger in order for the bits to stay together. I basically filled the inside with araldite so it’s now pretty solid. The rough edge around the edge of the hole will be covered with a thin piece of copper sheet and glued/nailed in place. Sorry its a poor picture..

Time is running out...I only have four evenings left to complete it before my buddies, Drew, birthday BBQ on Saturday. Everything is pretty much done, it’s just assembly now.

·         I’ll stain the stock tonight after a little sanding.

·         The sight and pressure vessel need another wash with green ink to make it look aged and then a final dry brush with a darker copper colour

·         There are a couple more cuts of copper pipe to make to finish the side pipe assembly that attaches to the pressure vessel

·         Attach the barrel to the sight assembly and glue it to the stock.

·         Strengthen the barrel bond by gluing and screwing the brass straps to the stock

·         Attach the pressure vessel with glue and further strengthen this bond with screwed down leather straps

·         Attach the final parts of the side pipe to the pressure vessel

·         Attach the sight with araldite and cover the glue with copper paint

·         A few final cosmetic details, thin leather straps to the stock grip etc, if there is time.

Future plans!

I've decide to add some interviews with fellow modelers and creative types to my blog. I’ve got lots of friends still in the industry and lots that just make stuff for the love of it. I plan to contact some of them and ask for hints and tips, inspiration and chat about ideas. I’m personally pretty excited by the idea and I’ve had some of the guys agree to talking about their passion. Obviously I’m still busy with my current project so the interviews will be put on the back burner for a couple of weeks but I’m still looking forward to it!

The Steampunk Rifle next steps

Ok, so I’ve been a bit busy at work and family stuff but I've gotten started again. Due to the nature of the work and that the project is worked on in the evening, use of power tools has been limited due to the fact I don't want to disturb my kids once they are in bed and some things need time to dry/set.
I gave the wood a quick sand down and I’m happy that the recycled wood that had been in the garden for years cleans up ok and should look good once stained. I've got some wood stain left over from doing our mantle piece so I’ll use that on the finished stock. Speaking of which, I cut it out using a jigsaw. The only downer is that the wood is very slightly warped, which is evident when you look along the bottom of it. It’s going to be too time consuming to sort it out, it’s not noticeable unless you are looking at it but I have a plan to hide it.
Here it is.

Steampunk rifle stock shape

You can see a couple of the features already. As well as the groove along the top to house the barrel, I used my Dremel to carve a neater end at the front and rear of the stock. In hindsight, the carved groove along the whole length was a waste of time and effort. Not only is it too big (oh dear!) but it would’ve been easier to use the Dremel tool to just sand a neat groove along the stock. But you live and learn. Here is the groove for the barrel.

You can see the notch I sanded a few inches in on the right side. This is for part of the piping connected to the pressure vessel at the front of the gun.



Pressure vessel space



The pressure vessel is simply an empty drinks can filled with plaster for strength. I’ve glued some card to it and have some small plastic studs to glue on too. Once painted metallic copper, it should do the job. I’m also looking at green and black ink washes to age the appearance a little.

For the sight, which will also be painted, I bought a childs toy telescope from eBay for a couple of quid (I narrowly lost out on an actual brass telescope, which would’ve been awesome but I wanted to keep costs down). A couple of hose clips will be used to connect the site to the barrel assembly.

Rifle scope

This will be the rear of the barrel. It needs a pipe end cap on it and the barrel will fit into the other end. There is a groove cut with the Dremel already which the screw part of the sight hose clip will sit in. The other upright part of the assembly still needs a groove cutting into it. The middle part fits into the side groove cut on the barrel stock, which you can see here.

The part on the side will have an extension to the pipe that runs along the stock to connect to the pressure vessel at the front.

There is still a fair bit to do. I need to cut lengths of brass strip; the Dremel is good for this, to use to strap the barrel down. This is for strength as well as aesthetic purposes. I don’t think glue would be strong enough on its own so brass straps will be screwed to the stock in three or four places to secure it. Stuff needs painting with enamel paint and aged, and additional lengths of pipe need to be cut to secure the joints together, again thanks to the Dremel. I have a toy pistol which I’ll remove the trigger and guard from and insert into the stock. A few additional cosmetic things to think about but I’ll record them as I do them.

That’s it for now. Busy weekend ahead.

Prop IED and Dirty Bomb

I managed to find a couple of pictures of some prop exposives i made for Matlock Combat Games a while ago. There are actually a few of the IEDs but this is the only picture i could find. Its an old broken mobile phone glued and taped to filled PVC pipe sections and some wires and circuit board attached. Basic but it does the job as a prop explosive. There are plans in place for a version with working phones, so the IED can be "called" to signal detonation!

Prop IED (improvised explosive device)

And here is a picture of the "dirty bomb" built into a briefcase. The box bottom left had a small LED and beeping circuit that could only be turned on or off by a key. The small laptop is a broken Redfly mini PC and the PVC pipe "charges" are filled with sand to add to the weight.
Again, I have a better version planned with one of these built in, replacing the alarm buzzer with an electric smoke charge!

Briefcase Dirty Bomb Prop

And so it begins!

I've finally pulled my finger out and gotten started! I had already glued the two recycled planks together, and since I don't have any clamps to use, screwed them together so that there was a strong bond between the two. There is a slight variation in the colour of the wood but at this point I'm not sure if this is just down to how the wood has been exposed to the weather when it was used as part of a compost bin! I'm hopoing that once it has been sanded, it should be fairly matching. and once the stain has been applied it should be ok. Here is what the planks look like.

 You can see a bit of what is already going on but it gives you an idea of how the two planks look. Where I have already started cutting a groove for the barrel at the top, you can see the somewhat imperfect join of the two bits of wood where one is slightly warped. Again, i'm hoping this won't matter to the finished piece.

 

Here you can see the rough outline of the stock shape, its kind of basic but one its cut out and the edges shaped and sanded it should look pretty good.

 

 

I marked out a 13mm slot on the top of the stock for the barrel to sit on. The barrel will be made from 15mm copper plumbing pipe which, unfortunately, I don't have yet so i'm working on theory in some regards. I marked out a 13mm slot so that the barrel would sit on it, rather than in it. I know it sounds silly but I don't know if 15mm is the internal or external measurement. in the grander scheme of things, it could make all the difference. The 13mm groove can always be widened. if its too wide I'll figure something out later. The groove was cut with a long slanley blade and the chiselled out with a very small wood cut chisel, which is really designed for decorative work (I've blunted three of them already......). once a basic 2-3mm deep groove was cut I started to use a 13mm wide Dremel sander which was labourious work but effective. The groove doesn't extend to the front or back of the stock at this point, I wanted to get the bulk of it done quickly and concentrate on the detail at the front and rear of the stock later. This way i'm hoping the barrel will look flush at both ends.

I've called it a day for tonight as there is a glass of wine waiting for me, i'll hopefully finish the main groove tomorrow and then cut the template out with a jigsaw.

More to follow!





Shall i cheat?

I’ve seen a few wooden rifle stocks on ebay for a few quid. If the home made gun stock doesn’t go according to plan, I might be a cop-out and buy one….

Minas Tirith for Games Workshop

WOW! I only created this blog yesterday and I haven’t published it to any friends yet (on account of the Steampunk sniper rifle being a gift for a friend’s birthday in a few weeks! Shh, mum’s the word), and it’s been viewed by some one from the USA! Exciting!

I’ve never blogged before and don’t feel like I have really put anything of note on here yet, so thanks for looking and check back regularly! I hope I don’t disappoint!

This blog will harbour ideas and pictures of stuff I’ve made.

Recent projects include:

Prop IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device) for Matlock Combat Games Airsoft site

A prop dirty bomb, again for Matlock Combat Games. This was a briefcase with  PVC pipe “charges” linked to a simple electrical circuit that was turned on or off by a key. It was used as an objective for airsoft games by the site. Not sure if I have pics of this, I’ll look later. I’ve got a better design for this in mind….

Anyway, here are some pictures of projects I did while I worked for Games Workshop.

A scale model of Minas Tirith from The Lord Of the Rings for the Games Workshop tabletop game.

The Steampunk sniper rifle plan

Right, the Steampunk Sniper Rifle. It evolved from another idea…..

Sometime ago I considered making a replica Boba Fett blaster (I’m not even going to explain who that is, if you’re reading this and you don’t know who Boba Fett is, seriously??). I looked at image after image of his blaster, researched what it was based on and read other blogs people had written about how they had made their own. I even went as far as buying a £2 toy revolver from ebay. The actual blaster looks like this…

You can see that it’s actually based on a deactivated WWII British flare gun with an added stock and some other bits and pieces added on. I was going to base the Steampunk rifle on this revolver, extending the barrel and adding a stock but I was put off by the actual revolver chamber and I had more of a magazine or even lever activated look in mind so this was shelved. I looked at other Steampunk guns on other sites, such as

http://www.mazahor.com/steampunk/guns/steampunkrifle1_17.jpg

http://www.svenweiss.com/2010/04/04/stc-2-001-steampunk-rifle/

http://gurutree3d.blogspot.de/2012/01/steampunk-rifle-texture-progress.html

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/steampunk-rifle-ma/413273

They really are awesome and there are loads of images and ideas out there.

This is my first foray into anything steampunk, and I really didn’t have an idea how it should look. I had a vision of a long barrel, probably made from copper pipe and a wooden stock. And that was about it. I’m really working on a budget and looking for recycled materials. I found a couple of planks of wood that were used as part of a compost pin at my old house laying around in the garage and glued them together back to back to double the thickness to around 45mm and left it there for a few days while I looked up rifle stock designs. Again, I looked at loads of images like the one below…

I then realized that I was getting too bogged down with how ACTUAL RIFLE STOCKS LOOK!

I sketched out a few ideas for size and shape on the wood I had, still trying to stay away from realistic shapes. I mean, a rifle stock has to be functional, sit against the shoulder and be within a certain size range, but I was struggling to fit a design within the size of wood that I had. I could always add more wood to the stock end to extend its height but due to my lack of tools I really wanted to stay away from having to do it (if I had access to a table saw I could guarantee accurate cuts that would glue together properly, but I don’t). Therefore the aim is to get the stock and the forward grip from one piece of wood.

I looked at copper pipe next and settled on 15mm. My local DIY shop does it for a couple of quid a meter, but there is also a heating company on my way route to the bus stop to work so I’m going to ask them if they have anything laying around…
Pipe diameter any bigger than this would look wrong for the width of wood I’m using.
The plan is to sit the pipe on the top of the wood and either glue it in place and then hold it in place with copper/brass strips. I can see there being a length of wood beading on either side of the barrel to round off the top of the rifle body. It all depends if I can figure out a away to cut an accurate groove in the top of the body to sit the barrel in…..
This is what I plan to do later this week.

Every journey....

....starts with a single post.

Well, here I am. I’ve been thinking of blogging for a while but really didn’t know what to blog about. I’m certainly not funny enough to just try jokes and anecdotes, not clever enough to be insightful or interesting. I am repeatedly told that my Facebook posts verge on the frightening with my angry rants, so I thought I’d document some of my creative projects.

I’m starting one soon, as in the next few days, and I’m sure I’ve got some photos of previous stuff somewhere that I can upload.

But first, a quick bit about me. I’m an IT professional working for a large company (I don’t want to say who, just in case…) but I used to work for Games Workshop some years ago. Not in one of the stores you understand, I worked for the UK Events team in an area known within the company as Q-Lab. It was a workshop just attached to the main hall of Warhammer World in Lenton, Nottingham. Our workshop wasn't open to the public but we provided the games tables for events held in the hall, as well as scenery for the tables and custom display models, I’ll post some pictures of our MASSIVE Lord of The Rings Minas Tirith model later.

We had access to every tool you could ever really need. Lathes, sanders, pillar drills, molding and casting equipment (expanding foam and resin), as well as hand tools and materials. I don’t have anything like that now…..

So, my future, and recent projects, will need to be done using what I have laying around. I have neither the time nor the money to go out and buy whatever I need. Improvisation is key.

Off the top of my head, here is what I have and use most often:

Dremel

Drill

Jigsaw

Wood saw

Hacksaw

Hammer

Various screw drivers

Chisels of various widths

Pliers/clippers

My smaller scale stuff includes:

Needle files

Pin vice

Scalpels

Metal rule

Clippers

Generally, I use materials for smaller scale models, scenery for gaming tables etc but I’m branching out to bigger scale. Wood, metal, card, plastic, recycled materials, anything goes now!

My next project is a present for a friend. A Steampunk sniper rifle!!