Steampunk Pistol 3D printed Prototype parts: It's alive!

Hello friends
The first test parts for one of the steampunk pistols you can make on Vyctor's lab at maykrlab.com have come in for inspection. I chose one of the more difficult designs to print because of all the working parts. It's a steampunk hand cannon (the likes of Hellboys pistol) with a wild huge barrel, a transparent chamber (lights to be installed shortly) and high detail grips (soon to come). I am thrilled at the result! Even unpainted, the pistol is exciting.

Steampunk Pistol 3D printed from Vyctor's lab

These parts are engineered to snap together and these first parts did just that. In addition, the main frame of the gun has a pivot lock at the top that also assembled first time and soundly locked and unlocked the frame.

Steampunk Pistol 3D printed parts from Vyctor's lab

Steampunk Pistol with frame lock from Vyctor's lab

There's still a few parts to come in such as the handle grips and the final bit of the rotating chamber (yes it really rotates).

Steampunk Pistol partially assembled from Vyctor's lab

I'll be posting the update once those are in and the prototype moves to painting and final decoration.
cheers, Kevin

Vyctor's lab at maykrlab.com

Hello friends
Over the past year, I've become involved with a very interesting startup called maykrlab. It is a company working on the forefront of consumer created goods. Specifically, maykrlab is a web based site (soon to go live) where maykrs can imagine, design and then make amazing objects using bits and parts from their favorite fantasy worlds.

It works like this. If you are into steampunk (and if you're reading my blog you likely are), you go to maykrlab, sign up as a user, open the steampunk toolkit of parts and mechanisms to create with, and simply begin making choices and putting together your own design using the parts available from guest creators on the site.

I am the first guest creator and the first toolkit will be to create steampunk pistols for collecting, cosplay, larping, display or whatever tickles your fancy. The design elements are pulled from the Aesthetic and world of Frahnknshtyne, the story I've been writing and illustrating on this blog. The toolkit within maykrlab is called Vyctor's lab (named after Vyctor Frahnknshtyne, the inventor hero of my story and world).

Steampunk pistol made from parts in Vyctor's lab

I chose pistols first because most of us into steampunk have had to make due with kit bashing nerf guns and the like to achieve something worthy of good cosplay.

Steampunk double flintlock from Vyctor's lab

maykrlab is definitely next level stuff using a fully engineered system where any choice you make fits with any other choice and many of the bits and bobs actually work! Triggers pull, hammers cock and chambers spin!

Custom steampunk pistol from Vyctor's lab

It's all free to show up and play, save and share and that, in and of itself, is great fantasy grist for illustrations, screen savers and the like.

But that's just the beginning. If you want to hold and use the steam pistol you've created, the system lets you choose materials and the design is 3D printed, one-of-a-kind, to show up at your front door in just a few days!

I'm super excited to be part of this big step in enabling all makers and hope you'll drop in and sign up to stay tuned in to the progress as the maykrlab's first entry into the market, Vyctor's lab, marches towards beta and then full launch.

As always, I'd very much like to hear from all of you to tell me what you're interested in. This is being done for you so help us make it really great.

I'll be posting very regular updates on this blog to keep you up to the minute.

Cheers, Kevin Mowrer

Steampunk Aether Rifle in 3D!

Hello all my friends.
I've been updating this post with new images and details of the Aether rifle. I've been down a rabbit hole lately with several projects. Even so, I've been able to work on bringing Lacette's Aether Rifle design to life as a 3D rendering. It's been so much fun doing this because once you can move around something and really see it, ideas and opportunities to evolve the design and add to the idea just start exploding. Now it's a proper assassin's rifle!

It isn't done yet but its far enough along to share with you. There's more details to come yet on the gun itself as well as the ammunition and its box for storing the life force of the victims. I'm also designing a tripod for those really long distance shots where the fold out monopod just isn't enough. There's more adjustments to come on the Aether scope but for now, I can show it both turned on and off.

In modeling this, I didn't want to take the approach of just making lots of gears and bits and then free form placing them about to "kit bash" a design together. That's a valid way to work but for the designs in Frahnknshtyne, I wanted everything to have that strongly grounded sense of visually being "purpose made." There's an industrial integrity liberally mixed with a sense of victorian exquisite handcraft that is important to me. Every knob, hold down, ferule and finding is custom designed on this rifle. I'm even considering doing a rapid prototype of it to see what it would look like as a nice 24 inch long model.

Anybody out there up for making a full sized rifle? :-)

Hope you enjoy a bit of gear from the world of Frahnknshtyne. Always good to feed ones own addiction to Steampunk tasties and share with others who like the same.
Cheers, Kevin

Aether Rifle full view

Aether rifle 3/4 view

Aether rifle scope mount

Aether bullet

aether rifle loading chamber

Aether rifle bullet prongs

Aether rifle view down the barrel

Aether rifle declination mechanism

Aether rifle fittings

Aether rifle strap fittings

Aether rifle brass housing

Aether rifle barrel view

Aether rifle scope skull