Here’s part two of my video series looking at making a steampunk mask.

As mentioned this is for the Asylum Steampunk festival in Lincoln at the end of august so I’m trying to get everything ready in time.  This is the first time I’ve managed to get everything on to test whether it all works.  I found that the ventilation unit on the back (which actually works and circulates air through the mask) was a little too low so the gas mask hoses were a little too tight.  I’ve been re-adjusting this

I’m also making a steampunk revolver, which is the first time I’ve actually had a go at making a steampunk hand gun.  This is made from copper piping and some plywood which I’ve covered in plastic, leather and some cast resin pieces made from CO2 cannisters and various other mechanical pieces.

I’ve also made some union jack shin guards which are made from foam covered in fibre glass which I’ve sanded smooth.

Here’s the first part of my build log looking at the creation of my steampunk mask/flight helmet.

I’ve got a little further along in the build than the video shows, but I’ll be detailing that fully in the next part.

Here’re the final parts of my zombie series

Casting

Painting

So here’s a small update on my flight mask that I’m making for the Asylum at the end of August.  As you can see I’ve now given this a union jack paint job and started attaching the various elements together.  I really like the way this is looking and I’ll be doing a video build log soon covering the various stages and processes.

The respirator hoses will lead to a chest mounted unit which will house several fans that will circulate air through the mask so it doesn’t get too hot in there and so I can actually breath!

There’re plenty of other elements to add to the mask until it’s done, but things are on track so far

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It’s that time of year when I start working on my piece for The Asylum.  I’d actually intended to start working on this in January so I had plenty of time to get it sorted.  That’s obviously not happened!

This is intended to be a pilot’s helmet for Imperial Aethyric Airways, my friend Sue’s steampunk troupe.  As you can see they’re characterised by their union jack livery and it’s high time I joined them, so this will be painted in union jack colours too.

I’m constructing this out of foam initially

And have then covered it in fibre glass and car body filler.  After much shaping and sanding I’ve ended up with this.

Here’s a rough sketch of how this is going to look – the pipes in the respirator will lead down to a unit in the chest which will have fans circulating air into the mask so I can actually breath (important).

The flaps on the side and top of the mask are intended to be aerofoils which will be servo controlled.  I’m thinking these will be linked to a tilt switch so that when I tilt my head the servos run through a programmed sequence.

I’ve got myself an ardino and have managed to make a servo move back and forth, which I guess is a first step

I recently went along to support my fiance at The Great British Tattoo show and a few of my zombie sculptures ended up invading her stand  It’s quite a large event and so there was plenty of interest in them over the weekend.

Here’s the piece she did on the saturday.  Her tattoo page is here.

The preceding few weeks saw me painting up a few casts, I even managed to sell one (wahoo!).  I’ll be putting the rest up on my etsy store shortly.

Here’s the next video in the zombie series, this time looking at making the mould.

I spent last weekend trying my hand at pressure casting for the first time.  It went pretty well and I’ve produced five casts of my zombie sculpture.  I’m currently in the process of painting them as you can see below.

Here’re the casts.

If you’ve not heard of this process before, it involves putting your mould and casting material into a pressure chamber and letting it cure under pressure. This has the effect of squashing down any air bubbles in the cast into tiny pin pricks and gives you a virtually flawless cast.  I had very few teething problems with this and got some very good results very quickly.

This is quite exciting as a barrier to producing good quality casts has always been air bubbles in the mould.  Now that I’ve got that sorted I can produce accurate copies of my sculptures that are good enough quality to sell, so I plan to set up an etsy shop selling some sculptures in the near future.

Anyway, I’ll be covering all this in detail on my youtube channel so keep an eye out for that.

Been a little quiet as I’ve been moving house but I’m starting working on projects once more and here’s my latest, a zombie sculpted in Monster Clay!

I’ve also recently invested in a pressure chamber and compressor and so I’ll be able to tackle producing casts of my work in a more professional way.  Stay tuned for interesting, and hopefully not explosive, experiments with dangerous equipment

Here’s a video looking at making the sci-fi helmet I made for my brother’s latest album.