Things that will be happening in the next several weeks.

Well, with the long weekend I’m not really in much of a writing mood. But since I’m a good puppy, (yes I am!) I decided perhaps a round-up of  the various bits I hope to get out there into the world in the next while might be in order. You see at long last, after months of work in some cases, a few different projects are finally coming to fruition.

To start with after weeks of studying up a few different bits, and pieces I’m almost ready to launch a video aspect to this blog. Yes, that’s right! You get to see what I look like, and hear my voice, as I spout more randomness. Right this minute I’m just waiting on delivery of a new webcam to get cracking.

Shortly after that I intend to launch upon the world my long-delayed webcomic. Named “Acidgurl”, it follows the adventures of Lucretia Acidgurl, as she searches for a safe haven for her Empress, and Her subjects from the heat death of her universe.  No seriously, that’s what it’s about. Many of the characters are going to be based on close friends, and everything is set in a parallel reality, so I’m there too! I bet you can’t guess which character’s based on me…

Well anyway my comic host is organised, and I’ve got a good handle on the preliminary art, so very soon I’ll be inviting you all to her world.

Finally, for now at least I soon hope to be launching my own Etsy.com page, stocking hand painted, modded, and affordable (so sick of seeing people gouged price wise by modders with an overblown opinion of what their work is worth!) steam and diesel punk Nerf guns and other handmade accessories. This one is sort of dependant on my schedule becoming more stable after weeks of chaos, but it is something I’m very excited about, and I have tonnes of sketches, and ideas ready to go.

And for now that’s about it. There are one or two other things which I hope will be getting off of the ground before Christmas, but more about them as they get closer to launching. So Thursday back to normal, with a quick review of a series of books I recently stumbled upon. you’re probably going to love it.

Valentines Day – My Personal, Most Romantic Day of the Year. 2012.

February fourteenth has come, and gone. The day of sickening romance. The day of card giving. That day of chocolate eating. That day of doing that one thing for your partner that you truly hate, is (thankfully, no time for lube my ass) over. Hallmark’s day is past for another year, or at least it is until they invent Valentines Day II aka Cuddle Day. From all of this you may have guessed that I put Valentines day right up there with Thursday in my list of most important celebratory days.

But that said I thought I would share an only semi-fictional account of a typical Valentines Day in the house of Amanda Harper. This is pretty much what happened last Tuesday. Though the names of the guilty may have been altered to protect their supposed innocence.

Having taken a large dose of painkillers the night before, I sort of woke up enough early that morning, to sort of hear my Partner in Crime say she was going out for the day. I then opened my eyes just enough to be greeted by my beagles bum spinning in front of my face as she tried to get comfortable on the bed alongside me. A huge slobbery lick to my face, and we both went back to sleep.

About 2 hours later I awoke again. Took my hernia medications, ate some breakfast, did the day-to-day housework, worked on modding a new nerfgun (pictures, and review soon), and despite having a migraine I kicked a large amount of ass in Star Trek Online (by the way since they went Free to Play to my stunned disbelief it’s actually worth playing, at least a little). About that time my beagle reminded me that she too likes to eat.

After half an hour of S.T.O. my head hurt too much to think, so I shut down my PC, rang my Partner in Crime to moan about it at her, and bundled on the couch in a sleeping bag with a large bowl of popcorn, and the television turned really, really low. About that time my beagle decided to come over all maternal, as she refused to leave my side until my Partner in Crime returned home. This was sweet, apart from her refusing to go out to pee or poop unless I went with her, and even then she stared at me the whole time. Stared as if she were certain I would pop my cogs if she stopped looking at me.

Have you ever been stared at intently by a beagle as she squeezes out a poop that’s half her body weight? It’s a truly disturbing experience. Kind of like that time your uncle by marriage stared really hard at you while he blatantly played with his nippl…but I digress.

In the evening my migraine medication finally kicked in, so I got up and cooked dinner. Roast pork chops, with baked potato and peas. A nice simple meal with the chops so dry and hard they could have easily been substituted for plaster board. And the peas cooked to that perfection where they could have been successfully fired from a B.B.-gun. This romantic repast was served with a perfectly chilled bottle of Finch’s Sugar Free Orange. We then shared a romantic evening of watching Warehouse 13, Threesome, and Two and a Half men, before slipping into separate beds for some desperately needed time in a pitch-black room.

I guess we’re not really romantic people when you get down to it. But if you took away the migraine, you’d have my perfect Valentines Day right there. A day just like every other one.

Oh I nearly forgot, I got chocolates. Really expensive, good ones, in a pair of ziplock bags. Because when all is said, and done absolutely  nothing says “I love you!” like chocolates in a ziplock bag.

Favourite Steampunkable Toys – Tommy Air Blaster Tec 6 Follow up.

Two weeks ago I wrote a short review of the Tec 6 foam dart gun by Tommy. I bought this gun with the intention of using it to relearn my modelling skills as part of the run up to starting  a major new project. Well the modding is now done, so I thought I would share some pictures, and a very brief explanation of what I did, as well as what I learned while doing it.

So to start with a reminder of what this gun looked like when I got it. It is a truly hideous gun to look at, but had I felt serious potential for a reformatting.

Yup, it really was this ugly. (image via menkind.co.uk)

 To start with I dismantled it. From past experiences I knew to make basic notes on how it actually went back together as I took it apart. Make a note of the absolutely horrendous colours used by the manufacturers. If Satan puked up a gun, this is what it would look like.

Components with outside casing shown.

I decided early on to get rid of the cocking handle that came with the gun. Yes that hideous silver yoke at the top of the gun is the cocking handle. I’d love to ask the designer what he was thinking. But getting rid of it meant that I needed to fill in the slot for it on one side. I decided to use some wood stock I had lying around, and to simply shape it into a pleasant curved shape, rather than try to blend it into the curves. I feel that this works in a Steampunk way because of how often Steampunk styles involve clashes of colors, and forms rather than objects melding together.

The addition blends in nicely with the shape from the side.

But has that bolted on feel that is so Steampunk to me.

 As you can see from the above picture I also gave the whole casing a damn good sanding. I next sprayed the entire thing in a black enamel undercoat in preparation for detailed painting. I don’t intend to show pictures of the various stages of painting the gun, but I will say this, that enamel spray was a HUGE mistake. It reacted with literally every other paint I used in this project. It was quite simply a nightmare, and resulted in my buying a tin of Citadel Chaos Black Primer for use with all my future projects.

In the end though I did overcome those problems, and yesterday I finished the paint job on my gun, as well as adding a very small knob shaped drawer handle to be the new cocking handle. The result is this…

The finished article.

 As you can see in addition to the new cocking handle, I also did a little work on the trigger itself. Went with a black base color, but used both silver, and bronze as secondary colors, and a beautiful turquoise for highlighting in certain places. I also modified and painted the darts to give them that “shot to hell and back” look. unfortunately this photo simply doesn’t do the colors  justice.

I learned a great deal from doing this project. As well as what I learned about mixing paints by different manufacturers I also learned a lot about painting techniques (though I still need vast amounts of practice), I got experience reworking plastics, and modifying items to make them components for something the designer never, ever intended (new cocking handle). All those lessons will transfer nicely to my next project.

Well regardless of lessons learned, and fingers that may have been glued together. Ladies and Gentlemen may I present…

Occiditis Fatuis (Kills Idiots), personal side arm of Captain Lucretia AcidGurl, 13th Imperial Marines (retired).  But more about her later.

Favourite Steampunkable Toys – Tommy Air Blaster Tec 6

Over the course of the coming year one of my projects involves the creation of a Steampunk character. I’ve already spoken a little about this in my post about wanting to modify an old, unloved mandolin. But no steampunk character is complete without some weaponry that looks the part. Preferably for the first time out very cheap weaponry so that when I screw up modifying it I won’t cry too much.  So enter the Tommy Air Blaster Tec 6.

What will be my first attempt at a Steampunk weaponry mod. (image via nerfmodsreviews.com)

I bought mine last Thursday for the very reasonable sum of €8 from Smyths Toys. They do of course also stock many Nerf guns, but I decided to go with something cheaper to pop my modding cherry on. Besides I love the oddly organic look this toy gun has, and the internal mechanism is extremely simple, so I shouldn’t have an insane amount of trouble putting the damned thing back together when I’m done.

Okay so to review the toy itself. It looks great, though admittedly not as good as most Nerf guns. It’s pretty solidly built. I wouldn’t want to drop it from too great a height on to anything solid, but it should survive being owned by me. As a toy gun it works surprisingly well. It has a reasonable range being able to fire the length of my apartment (about 30ish feet). And despite having to be recocked by hand between shots has a nice rate of fire. The darts themselves are not my favourites. I much prefer the darts made by Nerf , but for a much cheaper toy they’re pretty good and the suction cups does allow for some fun to be had.

However, it’s about as accurate as a drunk guy peeing into a toilet with the toilet seat down. Yeah it’s going to be near the right place, but the next girl to use it will probably find herself wondering if she needs a hepatitis test. Also the grip is definitely made purely with children in mind as my little finger has nothing to hold on to, and ends up just dangling below.

My first modding project with one of these will be started tomorrow. At present I’m planning on adding a side-mounted rounded knob for the cocking handle, rather than that silver monstrosity that is currently used. The entire thing will have a matt black undercoat, followed by bronze and gold highlighting. Oh and of course some turquoise will find its way in there somewhere. Physical mods will be kept to a minimum, partially due to time constraints, partially due to my wish to be able to walk before I run. But If this is a success I think my next stop will be a nicely steampunked Nerf sidearm and rifle.

I will of course post an article on how this modding project goes, hopefully with pictures, assuming I can find a digital camera in this apartment that still works.