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 attended the Asylum last weekend, Lincoln’s Annual Steampunk festival.  I’m currently editing a video, but here’re some pics in the meantime.  As you can see I got to road test my exo-suit arm as well as see some rather amazing costumes made by others.

Here’s the final part of my build log for my steampunk exo-suit power arm thing (still not doing too well on coming up with titles for my stuff!). I’m quite pleased with how this came out.  The mobility is pretty good and it doesn’t restrict my movement much at all.

I’m off to the Asylum Steampunk Festival this weekend so we’ll see how it holds up!

Just thought I’d share this quick video of my Steampunk Exo Suit which I posted on my facebook page.  The piece is basically done, a few more details to take care of but basically there.  The Asylum‘s next week so looking forward to taking it out on the road, so to speak.

I’m currently editing the final part of my build log which I’ll post soon as it’s finished.

Here’re my pics from this years Asylum.  I hadn’t taken that many by the end of the first day, but by the end of the weekend I’d taken over 400, so it took me a while to go through them all.  Here’s a pic of Amy from Aconite Creations – her costumes are always amazing.

And here’re Sue and John. I thought they looked abit cinematic so I gave them a widescreen look and abit of film grain

And here’s a Flickr gallery of the rest of my pics.

Finally, I found myself getting photographed a fair bit.  Here’re some cool pics taken by photographers at the event.

So I spent the weekend parading about like some sort of clockwork menace at The Asylum, Lincoln’s steampunk festival.  I managed to complete my steampunk predator cannon in time and took this along with my steampunk mask.

I had a great time and the costume was well received – I couldn’t go more than 10 meters without being mobbed by photographers, but I guess you’ve got to expect that if you’re dressed up like a lunatic I spent a fair chunk of the weekend like this!

The mechanism for the cannon held up pretty well and didn’t break.  There was some slippage or stretching of the cable which meant that the lever that raises the whole assembly didn’t bring it up the whole way after a while.  I could compensate for this by using the up/down motion however.   I got talking to a chap that I know who works in special effects and he was able to give me a few pointers, for example soldering the ends of the bike cable so that they don’t fray, and using cable junctions (this sort of thing, minus the plastic) to connect the cables.

He also suggested creating a hand control, which makes alot of sense.  I think I might rework this doing exactly that.  That way I can control the gun without it looking too obvious that I’m directly controlling it.  I can also exert abit more force with my hand than I can on a wrist mounted control box.

I also gave a talk about the creation of the costume at the event.  I didn’t think anyone would show up initially but in the end I had about 20-30 people and managed to talk for about 20 mins or so.  A fair few techniques went into the creation of the costume so I had a fair bit to say.  Alot of people asked questions and it was quite a receptive audience so it ended up being really fun.  I’m afraid you can see my face in these pics…..

Here’re a few more pics of the thing, including some pics of the back.

  

So I had hoped to post some more in-progress pic of the construction of this thing, but with The Asylum 2015 rapidly approaching I’ve had to get cracking in order to get ready in time.

Here’s the costume so far.  I’m using a version of my mask and backpack that I’d constructed for previous events, I’ve modified the backpack to include the wooden arm so I can mount the gun on my shoulder however.  I’ll hopefully have some more complete pics soon.

So the last time I posted, the shoulder cannon was basically just a wood and metal mechanism without an actual gun.  It’s come some way since then.  I’ve covered the wooden arm and mechanism in a layer of styrene plastic and spray painted everything green.  The gun is also mostly constructed from styrene and various other found pieces like lids from spray paint cans and contact lens containers.  There’s also a bicycle pump in there and I also cast some copies of those nitrous oxide canisters to include on the side as they’d weigh less than the real thing.

I also had a go at doing some paint chipping effects by painting the model silver in places then applying some torn up pieces of masking tape.  I then spray painted everything green.  Once it was all dry I peeled off the masking tape.  It doesn’t look too bad for a first try.  I gave the whole piece some washes of brown and black oil paints for weathering.

Here’s a video of the gun moving.

Here’s another video of my predator shoulder cannon mechanism.  I’ve now completed the mechanism for the bottom pivot which will raise the whole arm and gun up.  This is operated by a lever which will be mounted on my forearm.

This has really been scratch built from various bits I have lying about – the lever was made out of an angle poise lamp, the mechanism is bike brake cable fittings and a metal corner bracket that I bent into a flat shape.

So continuing my tradition of starting a new project before all the others ones are finished, here’s a new piece which I’m preparing for the Lincoln Steampunk Festival The Asylum at the end of August.

This is actually something I originally thought of at my first ever Asylum in 2011 – a steampunk Predator’s shoulder cannon

Here’s the mechanism.  Once I’ve got this running smoothly I’ll start detailing work to make it all steampunky

I’m planning on attaching my existing backpack to it too.

So I attended The Asylum this year, Lincoln’s steampunk festival.  It was a great weekend and each year it gets busier and busier.  Apparently over 2000 people attended this year.

I love seeing what people have come up with each year.  The level of artistry on show is incredibly impressive and really inspiring.

I posted some pictures of my costume for this year in my previous post, but I think my friends stole the show with their matching costumes:

I ended up taking over 400 pics and some 200 odd of those have ended up here.

I couldn’t resist having a play with some of the pics though.  Jon’s coat was based on Neo’s coat from the Matrix, so this seemed appropriate:

I also had a play with colour too:

Finally a mention of Amy Smith’s amazing costume.  She really outdoes herself each year.

Here’s a gallery of my pics.