Cpt. Alva

I'm sure someone, somewhere still makes it the way you'd want.

that's the point I'm trying to make.

the old saying "They don't make it like they used to" doesn't always ring true, sometimes they do, you just gotta know where to look.

which parts are you referring?, I'm sure with just a little digging, you can find that most plumbing items actually ARE still being made.

proper steampunk attire. No more "Faking it".

Now to do likewise with my GAOP kit.

until you consider that stale piss is also the primary source of potassium nitrate, a key ingredient in GUNPOWDER. Which was a necessity aboard ship.

that's not proof for, but it's definitely a good cause for supposition.

Jill, take a stroll through the plumbing dept. at your local hardware store...

I'm currently working on my ray gun, I will follow that up with some modification to my goggles.

once completed, I've been inspired to try my hand at a moon helmet.

she's a beaut, and she's going to one of the greatest spokesmen the world of pyracy has ever known.

She's in good hands, and a better pair I know not.

great job, Matt, and she's gonna look great on your baldric, Sterling!

Until I build my ray gun, the gentlemanly art of wrenchfighting will have to suffice:

Patrick Hand: LOVE the "Vworp!" gun. Excellent use of found objects, the only readily identifiable piece is the spoon handle, and that serves as a clip to hold it to your belt, so you get a 'pass'.

THIS is what I think when I think "Victorian Ray Gun".

still waiting on my goggles, and my ray gun is only in the planning stages, but:

I am wearing my pirate waistcoat (which needs replaced for both Steampunk, AND GAoP), until I can find one in deep crimson, canary yellow, or a nice blue, since I plan on wearing a dark overcoat with this outfit.

HA!

no, I'm talking about an ankle shackle attached to an iron weight.

parachutes, biplanes, skyhooks....

well, look at Captain Nemo's Nautilus...

Nemo was a pirate, plain and simple, and his submarine didn't (and couldn't) exist in reality.

you're looking at it from the wrong POV. In the context of historicity, Steampunk has very little to do with anything.....at all....except the Victorian era.

and only for setting and fashion.

it's a fancy, much in the same fashion the Disney/Hollywood pirate is. It's a romance.

why do we dress up as pirates in the first place?, because it's fun. Same thing here.

I can't believe nobody said Wild Wild West, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (tho it is a little lame).

How did this come about? Movies, television, games?

Ummmm... yes! It's sort of "all of the above." From my point of view as the casual observer, it takes most of its inspiration from movies like First Men on the Moon and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I don't know if any of the founders of steampunk literature would admit to it, but considering they are our contemporaries, I suspect those films (and others like them) figured predominately in their childhoods as they did in ours. Or, barring that, the original sources... Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and possibly to a lesser extent ERB. It hopped to the gaming world first via Space:1889 and then GURPS Steampunk (at the time I really despised the term steampunk, and during playtest tried like hell to convince the author to change the title, which is why I figure I didn't get playtest credit in that book... yeah... sour grapes... ). At the time of its printing, GURPS Steampunk was on the cutting edge. The amount of steampunk activity 10 years ago was nil compared to what you can find today.

let's not forget the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Did several 'tarred' hats in 2004/5 using the Bitumen paint method (It's the sort of thing they use for sealing water tanks), used a thinned version to start leaving it to cure for a couple of days 'tween each coat then shaved off any bobbley bits of felt, rolled the sides up and put several more layers of unthinned on, left that a week then gave it a coat of shellac varnish (French Polish).

Before the hat was tarred I sewed a thin piece of linen inside as a hatband, stitches as near the bottom as poss and once I'd finished tarring I used this to hang the lining on. Just a precaution as in a previous job I had to paint the inside of a tank with said paint and where the stuff got on my skin, especially my face, it tanned/or cured it like having the skin on your face shrunk one size or the aftermath of a REALLY bad suntan, took two weeks to peel so I dint want anyone getting chemical burns off a hat that I made..........................................................mebbe a reason to wear a scarf under a hat, stop the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH IT BURNS feeling?

where'd you get the squared top?, did you block it yourself?

Find out how / if period sailors washed their clothes, and try and simulate that. The real stains will stay in, probably.

not to sound disgusting, but real sailors washed their clothes in stale piss.

the ammonia actually worked as a pretty good disinfectant.

anybody got any pics of period tarred items?

coats, hats, etc?

With it they found a pewter tankard. So we now have a true period piece to compare our kits to.

it's a straight sided pewter mug, with very little else of note about it.

Or Redskytrader on ebay.

great navigation equipment at a bargain price!

I bought my ball and chain from them.

...sextants, at least those we commonly come across, are not period for the GAoP, they were developed by Captain Campbell RN in the 1750s. An octant, Hadley quadrant, Davis quadrant, plain quadrant, cross-staff or astrolabe would be a fine and useful alternative.

Agreed and understood, except...

The sextant was an easy purchase.

Decided to purchase several guns instead of one astrolabe. They just aren't cost-effective. The reason I have one as my avatar is... so I have at least ONE astrolabe, even if it's only a virtual one.

If someone finds a good source of affordable astrolabes, PLEASE start a new topic thread in PLUNDER.

redskytrader on ebay has one for around $50

I'd say the more 'period' way of doin' it would be leather hinges, heck, even a shoe sole.

indeed.

awesome.

Preferably light blue, gray, or brown for the Wesket, and definitely linen.

anybody got a spare for sale?, PLMK.

And no rush, I just need it before Sept.

Um..... what is steam punk?

Victorian style, with anachronistic elements (Cables, wires, electrodes, vacuum tubes, gears, brass, wood, etc.) all combined to create something familiar but also different.

the 'air pirates' comes from the notion that dirigible travel is still prominent, and the pirates of the steampunk era board those, instead of sea piracy. If you've ever seen the cartoon "Tale Spin" Think Don Karnage.

I have to get back to working on my trike....

I started it last year for Burning Man, but had some slight problems that I will fix this year .... well that, and I want to add a small motor to it....

This is a picture of it before I added a seat and painted it Hunter Green.

The peddling is weird, and that is also part of the problem, The peddles tend to come undone (Bicycles tighten when you peddle them, with everything flipped backwards, it tends to loosen....) I could fix that... or I'm just going to add some more sprockets and lots of bicycle chains, (and a lawn mower engine) and make it rear-wheel driven. fix the seat, and maybe add brakes.....

word of warning from someone who once made the mistake of trying to build a go-kart.

create two hand brakes, one to actually brake the wheel, and the other to disengage the drive train.

otherwise when you brake, if you aren't stronger than the motor, it will throw you, and keep going.