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!