In Progress » Steampunk-Styled Robot Walker

09.03.08 » Sources & Concepts

I’m still on my steampunk kick while finishing
up the Dampfrich scratchbuild.
For my next feat of 19th century engineering, I present the
Steam-Walker!

I sketched this out soon after I started the
Dampfrich build, but really I’ve been wanting to do something
coal-powered like this for years. Note the coal-box on the
back behind the deck. The large boiler will be made from a
piece of 2″ black ABS pipe and a coupler I got at Home
Depot. The mid-section, AKA the deck, will have a wood-beam
floor, bench, coal-door for shoveling, and many MANY gears,
levers, and gauges. A canopy will be made from cloth and will
sport a metal curly “S” styled girders throughout.
The lacross-stick-like hands will lob cannonballs or maybe
steam grenades (whatever the hell they are) at its foes. Here’s
a side-view. As usual, this is all subject to change while
building.

As most of you know by now, I love to try something
new with every kit. This time my new item is a smoke unit
to make the stack actually smoke. Below is a test I just did,
video’d and uploaded to youtube. The unit is fairly simple
and cheap too. It was a mere $5. However I had to purchase
the smoke oil and a 12 volt adaptor and socketat Radio Shack
which ups the overall cost a bit. But basically I just hooked
the female socket portion of the adapter to the two ends of
the smoke unit which looks like a resistor covered in fiberglass
sleeving. (that holds the oil which is dripped onto the sleeve)
Then I plugged it in and SMOKE!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naZxUyVwVj4

Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ll jump into this
more after the Dampfrich’s done.

09.08.08 » First Progress Shots

Here’s the first shots of the construction phase.
I really wanted it to have an almost comical appearance and
I think I’m achieving that. It looks like a REALLY oversized
wind-up toy which is what I’m going for, especially for the
feet/legs. They’re based on your typical small plastic wind-up
toy that walks. Stiff, unjointed legs that move in the most
simplest of fashions. The boiler/burner head is made from
ABS pipe. It’s similar to PVC, but black (obviously), lighter,
easier to cut and you can use Ambroid Proweld and a few other
modeling glues with it as opposed to PVC. The only drawback
is that the interior structure is “foamy”. (not
the inner or outer wall which is perfectly smooth and bubble
free) This doesn’t matter here as it’s not seen, but if one
was to have open portholes, or visible ends, some puttying
would be necessesary. The “jaw” is made from the
same ABS coupler. It’s not foamy inside. Anyway, it’s coming
along well IMO and is quite large in 1/20 as the scale-figure
shows. The final figure will be very different. Here’s some
pics: