Steampunk, Phasers, Waterguns, and You
So, I'm doing Steampunk Star Trek, I have to have a phaser, right? Of course. I will admit, though, that I've taken a few liberties with the design. Why?
Because Next Gen/DS9/Voyager era phasers look like ass.
Seriously, it's one of the most unimpressive weapon designs I've ever seen. They're boring. I firmly believe that the inherent dumbness of the hand phaser design is what ultimately led them to designing the 24 century phaser rifle. I firmly believe that this conversation must have happened at some point:
"Um, guys, we need Picard to be in a firefight..."
"OK, give him a phaser!"
"...but we need him to look cool."
"Oooh. OK. I'll whip something up for you then."
So I'm basing my phaser off of the classic Trek look. I figure I can get away with it, since Steampunk embodies the concept of alternate technology development. So in my Steampunk Star Trek universe, phaser technology continued to develop, but never changed the basic design silhouette.
So I started with a watergun that had the correct basic shape and gave it a base coat in gold. There were a couple of bits that I could pry off, so I gave them a base coat in silver for contrast. I also wasn't quite satisfied with the shape itself, so I picked up a small piece of PVC pipe joint to glue into place and extend the water tank back to look more phaser-like.
Comparing the base coat on the phaser to an unpainted watergun. Amazing what difference a little paint will make.
Better picture of the basecoated gun. This was done with spraypaint, btw.
But that just looked *too* pretty and shiny, kwim? The finish needed some distressing. I took a very dark brown (black would work as well) acrylic paint and used a small brush to paint it into all of the crevices, and a sponge brush to dab the paint more sparsely all over. I used a paper towel to blot it down. (The silver pieces got a similar treatment, only in a metallic bronze rather than brown.) Once that dried, I did another, lighter dabbing layer in gold acrylic to mottle the color some more. I also took a bit of craft wire and wrapped it around the tank, because I could. Then I superglued all the pieces together.
The result:
I had to share this as well:
Because Next Gen/DS9/Voyager era phasers look like ass.
Seriously, it's one of the most unimpressive weapon designs I've ever seen. They're boring. I firmly believe that the inherent dumbness of the hand phaser design is what ultimately led them to designing the 24 century phaser rifle. I firmly believe that this conversation must have happened at some point:
"Um, guys, we need Picard to be in a firefight..."
"OK, give him a phaser!"
"...but we need him to look cool."
"Oooh. OK. I'll whip something up for you then."
So I'm basing my phaser off of the classic Trek look. I figure I can get away with it, since Steampunk embodies the concept of alternate technology development. So in my Steampunk Star Trek universe, phaser technology continued to develop, but never changed the basic design silhouette.
So I started with a watergun that had the correct basic shape and gave it a base coat in gold. There were a couple of bits that I could pry off, so I gave them a base coat in silver for contrast. I also wasn't quite satisfied with the shape itself, so I picked up a small piece of PVC pipe joint to glue into place and extend the water tank back to look more phaser-like.
Comparing the base coat on the phaser to an unpainted watergun. Amazing what difference a little paint will make.
Better picture of the basecoated gun. This was done with spraypaint, btw.
But that just looked *too* pretty and shiny, kwim? The finish needed some distressing. I took a very dark brown (black would work as well) acrylic paint and used a small brush to paint it into all of the crevices, and a sponge brush to dab the paint more sparsely all over. I used a paper towel to blot it down. (The silver pieces got a similar treatment, only in a metallic bronze rather than brown.) Once that dried, I did another, lighter dabbing layer in gold acrylic to mottle the color some more. I also took a bit of craft wire and wrapped it around the tank, because I could. Then I superglued all the pieces together.
The result:
I had to share this as well:
