Tin Woodsman Clockwork Heart - The Build

In the previous post I when into detail about all of the concept work that went into the design of the Tin Woodsman heart.  In this post I am going to go over how I built it.  The whole process took a little over 5weeks.

During the first weeks of design I was out looking for and nice block of pine or cherry wood  that would be used to create the heart.  Sadly I had no luck finding one so Ply wood was used instead as it was made from layers which gave a beautiful grain effect I wanted.  The heart was made in two pieces so that the clock-work could be easily installed later.

Once I had both side sanded into a roughly shape the two pieces were taped together to finish off the sanding to get the seam perfectly smooth.

After a week of sanding I put one of the half through the vac-former as a test to see how the tin plates will turn out.  The hard part was getting the edges smooth and cutting the plastic off afterwards but the shaped worked perfectly.

 

Testing the sliver spray paint.  You can't see it in the photo but the plastic is scratched to give the effect of machine shopped tin and it comes through nicely.

I then taped the plates in place and drilled 100's of little holes in them for the studs.

Once all the plastic plates where ready it was painting time.  The scratches in the plastic came trough in the paint to gie the right weathered metal look, which I was pleased about.

I bit of charcoal dust was added to dirty the plates and then a gloss stray sealed them and also added a nice shine.

The next part was the clockwork on the inside.  I got a small moter, think it would be prefect to drive the gears but I could not get the rpm low enough to have the clockwork spinning at a reasonable rate

So the motor was taken out and the innards of a small clock where used.  The power of the this motor was hugely limited but it was still able to turn one of the cogs in a nice ticking motion.  I set up in a circuit with a switch and battery to allowed a key to turn on and off the clockwork.

 Once I knew the circuit work I set in place all of the other cogs and gave then a nice brass colouring.

 Through the use of the laser cutter I found a really easy way to make the key that will turn on the switch as well as the keyhole.

I was then time to stain the wood and attach the plates.  Then the task of gluing the 100s of studs in place began.  Both half's of the heart where glued together at this point. as everything internal had been finished.

This was something fun.  The pipes that left the heart were at first going to be made from plastic but the bend in them never turned out right so I moved onto metal.  Luckily the college has a metal workshop so I was able to heat up and bend a pipe into the shape I need.

The last piece made for the heart where exterior wires covering the front, made to look like veins powering the body.  I used the to scale mock up heart to plan out the shape.  Painting them red and blue was a tough choice but I was told that the added colour would be good for the model and after seeing the finished results it was the right call.

And here we had the finished piece.  I was really happy with hoe this turned out.  All that sanding, and drilling and trouble with the cogs all paid off in the end.

Warhammer 40K Assassins Sword

I was asked by a member of the Dark Heresy LARP to modify his Bokken to give it a more 40K Imperial feel for his Assassin character to wear at the LARP.  He wanted a new handle extension, bound in the same manor as a Japanese Katana and turn the body of the sword in the scabbard.  A guard to be added in the shape of the Imperial two head eagle and power field generator to show what type of weapon it was.  The main point that I was told about the modification was that it had to be black.

The new handle would extend the length of the sword by two foot and curve the in opposite direction of the blade.  The end of the Bokken was cut into to makes a slot for the extension and three pieces of 1/2inch MDF were glued together to make the new handle.  Then it was just the simple matter of slotting the two together and screwing them in place.  I then sanded down the handle till it matched the curve and shape of the rest of the Bokken.

 

Luckily about a week before I got this commission I came across a diagram showing how the old masters created the weaves on the handles of Katanas.  So I had a rough idea as to what I was doing.  I started by wrapping the length of the handle in 2mm rope as a base for the grip.  This need to be tight as sin and also had to be done in two section as I bought out all the rope from the fabric store, which wasn't enough to do the hold length, and had to wait a week for them to get in more.

The Second layer of binding was done with black ribbon.  Starting at the bottom a twisting around the body of the handle to make this distinct cross pattern you see on Japanese swords.  I learned this method from a very helpful YouTube video.  I also, sadly, broken one of my clamps that I used to hold the ribbon in place during each twist.

The next step was the guard.  This was cut and carved from 1/2inch MDF.  getting the hold shape from the Bokken to fit through was the hardest part and required a few hours of sanding.  The rest of the wing detail was simple dremeled out.  I had to have this put on before I started the handle detail as I needed it for a starting point.  The second piece is the "power field generator".  It was just MDF cut and sanded to fit the curve of the sword.

Once the glue had dried is was a simple matter of added some extra details to turn it from a block of wood into something that came from the 40K Universe.  Which means skulls.  This was also painted black then D ringed clasps where added for the strap.

This was a fun build which was a great extra costume piece for the character.  Granted he only gets to wear is at cons but that is the time you really want to be showing off you best wears.  Of course I am not 100% happy with it.  The binding I'm quite proud of but I know the guard could have been better but that is the problem when working on a short deadline and also having a college project to hand it at the same time.  But I learn and move on and make the next build better.

-M

Tin Woodsman Clockwork Heart - Design

As part of our first project for college we where given free rein to build anything.  Normally people build something that is from a movie/game/real-life but for this one I decided to create something that was a reimagining of a prop.  My love/obsession with The Wizards of Oz was what gave me the idea.  I deiced to create a new heart for the Tin Woodsman.  Something that would be seen in a modern day version of the film.

With this project everything is about managing our time.  We have 9 weeks till the hand in date so each weekend needed to be planned out.  I set out the first two weeks of this project for design as this was something I had to come up with from scratch and each element had to have form and function   I couldn't just stick what every I wanted together because at the our lectures would be asking me "Why is this like this" and a response of because I liked it wasn't going to be good enough.

 So to start I need to figure what was the purpose of the heart, what I would be designing into it and its scale.  I knew I wanted clockwork ticking away inside, a key hole and for it to be made out of both Tin and Wood.  I went online and googled wood and tin and heart in as many different ways as I could think of and collect all the images that sparked something inside my brain.

I started off with the stereotypical heart shape you see on cards leading up to February 14th.  Pushed and pulled it in every way that was artistic thinking that this was going to be shape I use it just needs some tweaks   I was very wrong but we shall get to that one later.  I also looked into Artificial hearts for inspiration but they where to abstract and ugly for that I was thinking.

I did a quick run through of all the different way the heart could be shaped as well as looked into the design of the key hole.

and the key.

It was about this time in my research I found an drawing of a realistic heart but make from wood and metal and my brain went "this".  From here on out I started pulling my designs away from the stereotypical heart shape and more towards organic hearts, but not just human heart.  I looked into the design of a number of different animals to see it there was a shape I like but still would be recognised as a heart.

Each animal has a huge different shaped heart and after a while of sketching I ended up using a human heart as my main point of reference.  Again I kept the three main ideas of the build as I sketched.  Tin, wood and clockwork.

This was done over and over again, page after page

after page after page. . .

after page. . . you get my point.  I was much happier with the way this design was going.  More important I was glad I managed to get away from the stereotypical heart shape that I was stuck on at the start of the design project.

Wires running over the surface of the heart will give the impression of the veins and arteries that cover the human heart.

I need to work out how much space the internal clockwork would need as well as the power supple, motor and switch.  Since the heat was going to be built out of layers of wood I though keeping it in two half's until the finial build would work best.  We have access to the laser cutter in college so making cogs would be a lot easier.  Here I worked out how much I would need to caver of from the inside as well as the shape and set up of the cog wheels.

And here is a small mock up of the heart sharp carved from foam with the placement of the tin places and hole for the clockwork drawn on.

The Project is due on November 19th so my next post shall be about the building of the heart.

Enjoy

-M

Steampunk Mechanical Arm

As mention in a previous post, the building of a Steampunk Dueling Pistol, I'm a member of the Dublin Steampunk LARP Society.  The LARP is set in Dublin, in the year 1862.  My character is an Inventor/Business man who makes technological oddities for people who will to pay him.  Much like what I do!  As part of the characters background he lost his right arm and eye in an accident at this workshop many years prier but was able to build himself a fully working mechanical arm, because you know "Steampunk".  This of course means I need to have the proper costume piece to wear in game.  When the LARP started I had a poorly thrown together arm, made from card wrapped in tinfoil.  But when I had this arm signed by Professor Elemental at a Steampunk Burlesque night I decided to retire it as I didn't want to destroy the signature.  This of course forced me to create a whole new arm.  My girlfriend found, and bought me, several sheets of "Funky Foam" which turned out to be a really good building material.

Since I'd already built one arm I use the shape of that to recreate the updated version.  I started with the hand, remember how much of a pain it was to do the first time round.  I also learned from my mistakes, and taking a page from Punished Props Dragon Age 2 armor build I cut each piece on the fingers so that they would over lap for when I bend them. Because the more you know, and knowing is half the battle.  Yo Joe.

I spent a weekend looking for a decent glove that I could use a the base for the gauntlet.  Failing to find one I bought the cheapest set of gloves from Pennys that looked right.  I did a test on the first finger to make sure I'd gotten the cut right and what do you know I did.  See my previous "Yo Joe" statement.

This was then repeated four more times for each finger with a hand guard was cut and glued on top of the gauntlet. Which over lapped the fingers.

Then the forearm was measured and cut out, again using the old arm as a template for the shape.  I have a beautifully made leather Steampunk shoulder guard, which may one day be replaced but for now I only need to worry about making the lower arm.  Got my hands on strips of Velcro to be use for taking off the arm at the back and added a extra strip of foam to make it look like it has a piece of metal bolted the arm closed (not seen in pic).

Once the base was done I moved on to painting and "damage".  Since my character works with huge machinery and the likes the metal on the arm, as well as the leather, has been scraped and scared over the years.  So all this weathering was added with my trusty dremel.  Since I was also going to have layers of detail simulating different layers of leather and metal I painted as I went, not waiting for the whole thing to be fully assembled before the painting starts.  Which is what I would normal do.

Seeing as how it's a Steampunk LARP the costume piece had to have cogwheels in it somewhere.  I wanted to look like the cogs did something and where not there just for show.  So they were added in two area.  One on the top of the gauntlet, showing the clockwork that made the fingers work.  The second was just before the wrist on the forearm section.  The cogs where cut from card and then coloured in a brass/copper paint.  You can also see the extent I went to with the weathering on the metal of the gauntlet.  This is also why I had two layers of foam on the arm.  It added a nice sense of depth when looking at the clockwork giving the feeling that it's not just cogs on top of the arm, they are inside it.

The studs on the fingers and knuckles I found, randomly, in a hardware store.  While the smaller ones are thumbtacks with the ends cut off.

The forearm was made in much the same way.  The cogs where given a sliver coat over the copper for a bit of variety.  I took a bit of inspiration from other Steampunk arms that I'd image searched, the piping being one of them.  This arm was been built at the same time are the Steampunk Dueling Pistol hence the reason for the piping on the gun.  Here it made more sense as the arm is "powered" by steam.  The pipes where just 0.1inch plastic tubes that I heated up and bent into shape.  Then painted gold.

A while back I got my hands on some vacuum tubes that my college was throwing out and I though that now would be the prefect time to use one.

What I learned from this build is that foam is really easy to work with and I am no longer averse in making costume pieces for people.  Also Steampunk themed props are really enjoyable to make, apart from all the cogwheels that needs to be cut out.

-M

Steampunk Dueling Pistol

I play an inventor in the Dublin Steampunk LARP Society.  The game is set in Dublin in the year 1862.  One of the characters there ask me, in game, to build them a dueling pistol, as they'd called out a member of the society.  Then the player ask me to actually build the pistol as they could carry it around.  I of course say yes.  I was given free rein on the design of the pistol.  So I decided to make it a three barreled revolver, which the player was happy with.

I returned to my old friend, balsa-wood as I did not have the time to build the prop out of anything else.  The handle and body were carved separately as I could find a bit enough piece.  I started with the handle.  I modeled the basic shape of the gun off the Hellgun Dueling Pistol from the Rouge Trader book.  It's where the finger grips design came from.  This part was not to much work, just a large amount of dremeling to get the grips to stand out.

The barrels of the gun were cut from 0.5inch plastic piping I got from my local modeling shop.  Then super glued together.  The chambers for the bullets were cut to an inch in length, glued into the same shape as the barrels and then glued onto a 0.2inch pipe.  This would act as the pivot point for when the chambers needed to turn.

Another 3inch length of balsa-wood was cut and shaped to fit the under side of the gun so the barrels would feel part of the gun.

This was then attached to the main body of the gun.  The carving of this was pretty effortless, with the only really problem coming from the trigger guard, as I didn't want to snap it off.  The central part, where the chamber fits, had to be carefully cut away and sanded down so that the spin was unaffected.

This just took a lot of trial and (little) error.  The barrel wasn't glued into place yet as I stilled need to paint the whole thing but this was just to check that the chamber was free to spin around.  I also took a light grain sandpaper to the barrels, seeing as now they where meant to be brass I did not want them perfectly smooth.  A small amount of Polyfilla was put on the nozzle in the pic to seal it over.

For a little bit of extra detail for the handle, I cut out a skull from card and glued it on.  This was another design choice lifted from the Hellgun.

Then the handle was then glued in place, with a small amount of Polyfilla used to cover up the seam.  As I wanted the whole gun to look like it was carved from one piece of wood. The trigger was just three strips of card cut and glued into shape and position.

I used a dark woodsheen to varnish the body of the gun and brass paint for all of the other details.  Something I normal worry about (ie: painting taking Days to finished) went but within a few hours. as the body barely need a second coat of paint and the brass paint drying quite quickly.

As I was working on a second Steampunk project at the same time as this I had some spare cogwheels lying around, so I added them.  As something is not properly Steampunk until it has some cogs in it.  In this case I placed the cogs to give them an "in game" reason for being there.  One of them was set to be the firing mechanism and the two at the side for turned the bullet chamber.  I added a coat of gold paint onto the skull on the handle as well as two of the cogwheels to give a bit more variety.

There was also this pipe added to the side because of "Steampunk" reasons.  Either way everyone who saw it at the Steampunk LARP game though it was a damn fine pistol.  So I was happy with that and the player was happy with the gun. So Win/Win.

I'm hoping that this will lead to more people asking for me to build them Steampunk props for the LARP game.  What I did learn from this build is that cogwheels are murder to cut out and will take up your whole day.

-Matty