Techsean's blog

An evening of Grand Guignol Theatre of terror

 Life Cast of E. Christopher Clark @ecc1977 using Smooth-On Body Double silicone material by Sean O'Connell @TechSean. Videography by Barb O'Connell @barboconnell monster for An evening of Grand Guignol

 

48 hour film project kickoff tonight.

Going to the 48 hour film project kickoff tonight. They are really great to do and you meet so many creative people. Get involved with one it's worth the time. I will be the representing The Purple Finch Moving Picture Society (Producer John Herman). The kickoff is on Friday is 6pm at Double Midnight Comics & Games, 245 Maple Street. Here you get to see me in the hot sun in a robot costume. Got the state prize for best costume for that one.

I am going to be at the 48 hour film project NH tonight. http://www.48hourfilm.com/en/newhampshire/

Here is a link to previous years efforts.

http://www.johnherman.org/film/

Podcamp robot (page in progress)

This project was meant as a schedule board for PodCamp NH. I used the same type of construction as I have before with the buckets (gives people a chuckle) but this is a static prop. The lights on him were from car stores. You have a great selection of pre-wired lights to pick from

The Long day of The Wheel of Austen

Here is the finished Wheel of Austen currently on stage at Improvboston.  I was asked by John Herman to build this wacky thing (thanks for having faith in me ) . I ended up building this in a day (9am to 1am Long day ). Solid wood construction, nicely sanded and painted. Complete with clacking  sound for the pegs.

Now while I'm pretty proud of this nutty build it actually started off as one big fat fail on my part. I'll get to that later in another post but for now here is the construction of the Wheel of Austen.

I give credit to this link with a big thanks to Ehow for pulling my butt out of the fire

Making my circle

Cutting out the Wheel. Very happy with my saw, that blade really cuts like a lightsaber.

Pie slices ( I did fine but I should have probably gone with the instructions)

Sanding the wheel, top back and edges...

 
Drilling the hole for the dowels. I actually am wearing goggles and a mask for the construction. I removed them for the photo. Safety first!!

 

 
Primed and painted

 

Putting in the dowels. Glued then hammered into the wood. They are not going anywhere.

Working on the base. I used a nice heavy base with mounted with a metal bracket screwed (about 12 screws) into the wood and the post. I later added some nice wood scroll brackets, more for decoration than for support. Painted it all white to give it a nice wholesome clean look.

 

Putting everything together finally!! Still more work to do.

 

We need letters now. That is where my lovely and awesome wife (and muse) came in she found the font and tweeked it for our needs and printed it all out. We spend the rest of the nice cutting tiny letters and decoupaging them to the wheel.

 

 

 

Letters are done at long last and my vision is getting really blurry by this time (1am )and I can feel the burn on my head from being outside all day. Hey I was on a roll so you don't stop for anything except for 10 minute breaks to keep your brain from shorting out.

THE WHEEL OF AUSTEN!!!

VIDEO OF THE FIRST TEST SPIN

 

 

Still more steampunk projects!!

Twitter me @techsean I enjoy talking to othe creative people.

Well the need for steampunk props just keeps coming. Right now I'm on the tail end of some projects for a stage show at the Steampunk Industrial Revolution in Nashua NH March 25-27. I'll post up detailed instruction on my instructables site as I get more time.

Clockwork brain

 

More robot costume parts (construction shots)

Edison Brass-0-graphic recorder

How to make Steampunk Audiophone!

Building the box or recycling is good

This started off as an old silver set box so this is twice recycled. I used the base in another production as a robot control box, but gave it a total makeover for this project. I still liked the hunter green color I used the first time but it needed some help and some bumps and holes filled.      I sanded it all down and primed it again. A few coats of spraypaint and some use of a plastic bag give it some texture was all it took to give me a kind of marbled look. The gray is just the primer showing but I liked the look and went with it. The inside is covered with scrapbooking paper to give it that expensive look it needs for a doctor's office.

Detailing on the box is made from other scrapbooking items and some wooden medallions and various brass hardware.

Inside the box the parts are various bit from lamps, dollar store items and hardware store bits. The tubes are painted plastic marchmellow dart guns. The recording cones are flower holders which I might add flickering electronic candles to just make the piece more active.

I epoxyed some candle sticks and brass bed post together to form some different shape and give the impression of more steam boilers and other unknown bits.

Electronic work

I do plan on wiring up a spinning motor that will go to the knife switch on the right so you have something visually going on inside of the box. I think the spinning will lead the viewer to think that it's recording.

Doctor Doom mask final project update

 
I'll dig out the other pics shortly but I wanted to get something up here. Doctor Doom Costume by Barbara O'Connell

I created the cape clasps by using large button blanks and spray painting them gold. The chain is actually a pimp costume chain but it works well with the outfit. Gloves are actually work gloves that have plastic stage armor parts hot glued on them. Hammer style spraypaint was used on all parts.

Doctor Doom Mask project 10/22/2010 update

Thanks to this tutorial I have an excellent start to create my doctor doom mask.

 

 

I am currently re-adjusting the pattern so it fits my big head and I am thinking of using some plaster bandages or sculpt and coat to make it more rigid. The jaw is fixed so movement is not a concern. I plan to add lots of details to make it look more like forged metal. I'll post more as I go along.

Moved over to a new material for the underskin, it's a rigid but flexable plastic.

I put on the first  layer of plaster bandages and waiting for it to dry.It was them placed on a head form to dry.

 

Robot fan page link

My robot now has his own fan page and seems well on his way to overthrowing mankind. Here is the LINK . I included some "baby photos" of his creation with some details on his build.