Fallout Caps

So, post apocalyptic money.

These are some badges I made a while back as a mini-project with some leftover stuff I had lying about. This is just a quick post up of the pictures of the ones I'd already made (Don't have them anymore, various people do or don't have them now, depending on how cruelly they've been treated)

I'll be making a 'how to' guide in the next week or so and putting it up so you guys can make some delicious Fallout badges if you so desire. They're pretty simple to make, but if you spend a bit of time on them they can look pretty tasty, so it'd be great to see what you guys come up with!

Until then, here's some I made earlier, Blue Peter style.

Cheers for reading, if you're interested in slightly more frequent build updates, full picture gallery and some funky extra sketches and musings of a madman, give the Facebook group a like, or follow me on Twitter. 

William John Props Facebook Group

William John Twitter

Knives, Knaves and Knackering

I'd hoped to have some pictures of the goggles mid-progress by now, but my knife blades seem to have all decided to go blunt on me, or snap. Hoping to get some more at the weekend but trying to cut the plastic this thick with blunt knives is just ruining the shape.... and very nearly my fingers.

This is one of the woes of making props. The sheer amount of equipment that I have to get and replace on a pretty regular basis. There really is truth in buying good tools saves you money, my leather punch has lasted me years because I splashed out a little, but knife blades aren't something that seem to last long it seems.

Not a day goes by I don't wish I had a lathe, the things I could make I think. Then I'm reminded they cost literally an arm and a leg and I have to carve the damn thing by hand again, cursing my lack of powertools as I work.

Despite the lack of tools, I've been developing the sketches for an 'add-on' to the sketch I posted up before, it completes the picture a little, anyone guessed what it is yet?

Oh, and I'm hoping to make it big, pretty damned big indeed.

The Near and not so Near Future

So, after Asylum I've had a few ideas floating about and I had the time today to put one of them down on paper. I'm hoping to have this made for next year along with some other stuff, but I wont be saying too much about it just yet, I'll let you guys guess as to what it's supposed to be.

In other news, I've also got the first picture of a project that's been in the works for a while due to time issues (Being bloody busy) but now I've done a mockup and worked out how I'm going to make it. It's going to be a pair of goggles the character Rita Mordio wears and I'm hoping to have these finished fairly soon, going shopping for the materials tomorrow actually.

Should be some updates on the goggles coming soon and some more sketches from Asylum if I can find time to get them done!

Asylum 2012

So, now back in Manchester after the madness that was Asylum 2012 (Pictures down below). It's been the first time that I've been to the giant Steampunk weekender over in Lincoln and we've had one hell of a time! The Manchester group Cottonopolis Coglective were there in force which was fantastic to see and the parade of banners and military parades had some really nice stuff on show, we even got a flag for it and everything!

Mostly though, the weekend has given me some food for thought in terms of prop making and inspiration for some new ideas. There was some absolutely great stuff on show, particularly in the backpack department and leatherwork. After seeing so much simply awesome stuff on display I've got quite a few ideas for what I'd like to do next year, sketches of which are more than likely to get posted up on here in the next year or so as I frantically try and get everything I've said I would, made for Asylum 2013.

One game I was playing the whole weekend was 'is it real brass or not'. It's interesting to look at how people have disguised plastics and foams as metals and I've come to the conclusion that the only avenue to go down when faking metal is to make it weathered as hell. I just can't seem to think of a way to recreate the shine on new metals (that I saw on so many guns made of real brass) with plastics!

If anyone can find a way to make realistic looking shiny metal from plastic then that'd be a godsend, but I'll just have to try some experimenting and see what I can come up with, in the meantime I'll stick to my normally, extremely weathered work, which seems to have become somewhat of a favourite of mine, as nothing grates me more than really, really shiny rocketpacks, the things are supposed to shoot fire, which in my experience, tends to make something a bit mucky.

That sounds really bad but I just really hate shiny brass at times, aside from my slightly worrying personal gripes, here are some pictures of the weekend and the Cottonopolis Coglective to give you a taste of some of the stuff on show.

That last picture is our jolly lot in the parade, but as you can see, the costumes on display are absolutely phenomenal, I was particularly impressed by the leatherwork in the first picture and the steampunk DC was simply inspired.

If ever you're in need for inspiration, best place to look is at what other people have made, because some of it is bloody brilliant.

Here's a wee link to the Cottonopolis page on FB, in case you're interested in steampunk in the Manchester area, and also the link to my new FB page where I'll be uploading pictures of my portfolio and some other bits and bobs.

Finally, I'd like to say a massive, huge thank you to everyone who made the weekend one to remember, I'm looking forward to next year more than I can describe and a smashing job has been done all round!

http://www.facebook.com/groups/CottonopolisCoglective/
http://www.facebook.com/WilliamJohnProps

Enjoy!

Boba Fett Jetpack - Quinary Phase

I apologise profusely for the lack of posting in recent weeks, the simple truth is there hasn't been anything to post about as I've been on a hiatus in that time, generally getting about and doing other stuff. However, the summer is near over and I'm back to old tricks and have a couple of projects on the horizon.

However, I feel that it is slightly more important to finish off the last one! I actually finished the jetpack a while back, a week or so after the previous post but never got a chance to get some pictures of the finished job. Leon has kindly sent two pictures my way from his show that I can share on here to give you a glimpse of what the 'pack looks like finished.

Now, those aren't all I'm going to leave you with. I'll be taking the jetpack in soon hopefully to get some repair work done on it (The strap system needs a bit of fiddling with) and general strengthening to cope with the heavy use on stage.

When it comes in I'll get some proper full shots of the jetpack and that should hopefully satisfy some of you who've been asking after some photos of the finished article. 

Until next time, when I'll probably be putting up my first post for a pair of 'Rita Mordio Goggles' followed by a full and final update of the jetpack in the near future, have a good one  and cheers for reading!

Boba Fett Jetpack - Quaternary Phase

Time for a good old massive update!

In the time since the last update I've got a fair bit done on the sanding (floor is covered in dust again) and final cutting for the jetpack; the shape of it is near enough defined now. All that's left is some small sanding jobs, some glueing and a couple of hours with wood filler smoothing everything over and then sealing with PVA and painting.

I'm hoping to get the jetpack done fairly soon, but here are some pictures to accompany my rambling.

Picture of the rocket in most basic form. The plan at this point was to cut as close to the shape as possible and then sand down to form the cones shapes that really define the rocket on Boba's jetpack.

Just holding this part in place, this will be half way up the centre thruster when it's glued on, holding it on for now to give an idea of where it'll be in the grand scheme of things.

A couple of shots showing the jetpack's shape before the sanding of the caps on the side thrusters, the main thruster and rocket. They are only very roughly cut out at this point and still required a fair bit of work. As you might notice also, I've added some wooden 'caps' to the top and bottom for some stability and to hide the centre cavity. There's a wooden plate on the back so I can use a strong spirit based solvent to glue the jetpack onto the back armour plate, rather than use a weak glue on the foam.

The sanding is near finished on the rocket and main body here, the parts are currently in the stages of being glued together for final sanding touches and filler work. The fractal pattern on the final 'slice' of the main thruster is to reduce the amount of filler needed to make the cone shape, it'll end up being smooth in the end, just like the real main thruster on the jetpack.

For tomorrow I'll probably be working on finishing the caps for the side thrusters and starting filler and gluing work. I should also have some pictures of the armour which I've been painting in the next update to match the jetpack.

Till next time, cheers for reading!

Boba Fett Jetpack - Tertiary Phase

Sorry for the wait on this update, I've been ridiculously busy trying to get this done along with sorting out my bike for bike polo, including some gaming related wheel covers which I might post up in the future (Wait for a rainy day).

Besides downgrading my bike, I hope the dust from this blue foam doesn't screw with your lungs, because I've been sanding it down like no tomorrow and it's everywhere, the floor, the roof, me! Literally, my jeans are more blue than black.

Anyway, the sanding does seem like a good alternative to using piping, but enough of my complaining, on with the progress.

The tubes for the side which were oblongs last week but I've sanded down so they fit flush and look like the thrusters. 

Here they are mounted on the sides, and I've cut the oblong shape of the main thruster and put it in the centre to give a sense of scale of the giant centre column,

Here it is sanded down after what seemed like an eternity sanding and staring at it wondering 'is it straight'? There's a tad of touchup work that needs to be done near the bottom with filler to make it a perfect curve, but other than that the sanding plan had gone pretty well so far!

All that's left to do now is add the complete cylinder on top of the centre column, add 'caps' to the side thrusters, make the rocket for the top and then touch-up and paint. Just hoping the snow has buggered by then so I can spray it outside! 

Till next time, cheers for reading!

Boba Fett Jetpack - Secondary Phase

Another update on this beast of a commission, this thing is really turning out to one big piece of kit, half considering fitting it out with real thrusters to see if it'll get off the ground!

Anyway, hit a slight 'bump' with the tubing and ended up figuring it'd be easier to carve the half cylinders out of foam, that way the whole jetpack should be a bit lighter and hold together a lot better.

Here we've got the side panels near the centre cylinder added, there are going to sit flush to the main cylinder which I'm going to sand out of a thick wedge of foam.

I've now added the two wedges to the edge of the main body which I'm going to sand down to make the side thrusters. I've also decided to cut down on the number of layers of foam on the main 'body' which the tubes rest on. This is just because the backplate is considerably thicker than my measurements and cutting one layer of foam should balance this out nicely. 

I'll be taking some parts back to mine to sand them down so I can work on it over the weekend and fit them back in the workshop on Monday. The measuring and cutting is taking a fair bit of time but all is going to schedule and getting those two side thrusters done over the weekend should really get some momentum to the build coming together and the final shape should start coming together real soon.

Till next time, cheers for reading!

Boba Fett Jetpack - Primary Phase

I've been waiting to start this for a while, it's a commission I've been very excited about but not been able to work on. This may be due to some fingers which may have got caught in a bike at work, but that's besides the point, they are now fixed!


I've begun work on a stage prop for Boba Fett's jetpack from Star Wars. For this prop, it wasn't necessary for complete accuracy or detail, all that was required was the correct basic shape; the iconic rocket, the block shape and the three tubes. Just a warning to any die hard Star Wars or Boba fans out there, this is most definitely not a 1:1 prop, but an approximation for a stage routine, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.


Anyway, enough backstory, on with the show!

This is the product of a first session measuring, marking out, cutting and finalising measurements for the backpack. I've drawn out most of the design onto the foam pieces and I've now just got to cut them out, taking my time with this because mucking up the measuring is really not an option!

This is the 'baseplate' of the jetpack as I've dubbed it. This is going to be backed in a thin layer of wood as the two porous surfaces will bond a lot better than foam to plastic. The wood is then going to be glued directly onto the back armour plate, making it a lot easier to take off and create a nice support for it.

This is my evil master plan as far as the jetpack goes. Plenty of pages before this, filled with unreadable scribbling and rough sketches but this is the master page I've been reading from. All my measurements and shapes are on this, so I've been keeping any coffee away from it, any spillages and I am in every sense of the word, screwed!

This is being made for a burlesque dancer's stage show, so the key idea was usability and lightness, so it can easily be taken on and off and not break, hence the simplified design and the main material being foam. The dancer in question is Manchester based called Leon Noir and an absolutely great guy, if you're ever in need of a burlesque dancer for an event or show, I can heartily recommend him, he's been fantastic to work on this project.


This is just the first update for the jetpack, I'll be updating the blog with it's progress as I make it and I'll hopefully be doing this for all future projects so you guys can get an idea of how the props go together and what goes into making them.


Cheers for reading, till next time.

Warhammer 40,000 Mechanicum Tome

Happy new year! Hope you've all had a fantastic year, have a great year ahead and had a brilliant new year's eve, so here is something for reminiscing from a good year ago.

This is a commission of sorts I made a while back, the character it was for was a tech-priest from Mars from the Warhammer universe. This pretty much made the idea for this project for it to be as imposing and huge as possible as when you're mostly robotic weight isn't an issue.

His idea was a huge tome, something he could connect to his belt and carry around with him to look nice and menacing with a weathered look. With this info, I cracked on and as a huge fan of the Warhammer fiction, I'd got a few ideas floating around already.

I decided to go for a fairly simplistic design for the front thanks to the Adepts at the Mechanicum basically being efficient robot men/things. I used a large sprocket from a bike cassette to stand as the cog emblem of the Mechanicum and riveted it to the leather bound ring binder folder I used as a base.

I lined the inside with velvet, held in place by both the hand stitching that runs around the border, and by the rivets. I decided to go with a rich red to match the decadence that seems to be a running theme in the 'grim far future' and to match the red planet!

To make it possible for him to lace the pages up (As he was providing his own) I laced some leather thonging up the spine to make it easy to put the pages in pretty quickly.

The corners of the leather cover weren't that pleasant, so to cover them up and provide a sort of finished feel to the tome, I added some leather corner pieces to add some detail.

To make sure it could be attached to his costume, I screwed on some large chains to provide that menacing look he was going for. These attach to another loop of chain with a padlock to secure it to anything like a belt or backpack.

To secure the whole thing, I added a large hasp onto the side, secured by a large padlock. This helped put some details onto the side as well as adding a nice solid look to the whole design.

Here you can see how it attaches to a belt, not an insubstantial prop I tell you, a thick belt definitely needed, but it fits the brief of 'solid' pretty well. I think it was someone on a steampunk forum who commented on it being 'Marley's chains', fits pretty well if I'm honest!

Lovely prop to make, lots of measuring into working out the size of leather to cut but the velvet came out really nicely in the end. Unfortunately, the guy I was making it for (a friend of mine) was unable to go to the event he was planning to use it for so I've still got it at home.

It's held up pretty well, only problem is that the paint has come off on the chains and scraped on the leather a bit, I'll get round to sealing the chain after a respray and get the paint off with some acetone or paint remover at some point in the future.

Until next time, cheers for reading.