Lone Wanderer Ukulele

This is what comes of simultaneously reading the Hunger Games trilogy while replaying Fallout New Vegas to a soundtrack courtesy Abney Park- You get dystopia on the brain.
This was sort of a mental floss project. I've got a love for the beautifully modified and hand-distressed instruments of the musicians of AP (See for yourself!) and wanted to try something similar. Although this is not nearly as pretty or professional as an Abney Park instrument, I'm more than satisfied with the end result.
I wanted a Uke that looked like it had been kicking around the wastes for years and I think I succeeded!

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All the metal hardware (both stock and aftermarket) was rubbed down with steel wool and then given a bath
in muriatic acid. After a few hours a lovely coat of corrosion and rust appeared.

The corroded metal is, for me, the thing that really sells the character of the instrument. Although it looks like hell it is still 100% playable.

The soundhole cover was sort of an afterthought. The pickguard and side plate were cut from old license plates and screwed on, but the face of the uke still looked too...well, normal. I cut a disc of speaker mesh and cold-welded it into a section of tubing to make a suitably dystopian soundhole cover and voila! Instant facelift.

The majority of the surface weathering to the body of the uke was done by hand with files, rasps and knives. A minimal touch-up was done with black acrylic.

A particularly nice patch of acid weathering on the side plate.

The donor uke was a glossy black to begin with, so I sanded it down and gave it a series of layered coats to make for interesting weathering. The external color was achieved by first painting the uke seafoam green and then lightly dusting it with blue metal flake. This adds a good level of grunge while adding texture.

Old-Time Carvival Shooting Gallery

This was a low-cost, low-stress weekend build. My church hosts a free carnival every summer and we try to have several new activities each time. A shooting gallery was suggested at one of the first planning meetings and I volunteered.

The frame of the booth is made out of masonite. It was short work to zip everything together with corner braces and a screw gun. The front skirts were the last things to go on after the rails had been installed.



 The targets themselves were simple, but fun. I chose a clown face sourced from a 1940s Circus poster and a Lion from a 1950s Jell-o ad because they had the best Old-world carnival feel in my Image library. I printed them all on standard paper then affixed them to insulation foam with spray adhesive. They were then cut out on the bandsaw and attached to 1" strips of masonite which where then screwed to a collection of small cabinet hinges.

 The targets were placed at 10" intervals along the target rails. In order to add a little visual interest to the backboard I utilized a wonderful toy advertisement from the turn of the century. The image not only has a wonderful carnival feel to it but it also reinforced the playful nature of the booth.

The booth was a big hit at the carnival and will most likely return in some form or other at future events. I intend to add a bit more structural integrity and some globe lights when it next appears.

1920s Carbon Ring Microphone Prop

This prop (and a slightly dressier version) was commissioned for Bethany Lutheran College's production of John Olive's "The Voice of the Prairie". It was fabricated out of various odds and ends from the ol' parts box. 

The Microphone itself began life as a showerhead and ring was cut from an old coffee can.

The neck was cut from a length of scavenged steel tubing and the base came from an old wall sconce. It was weathered with rustoleum spray enamels and acrylic paint.

The switch and cord are purely decorative, but help to tie the piece together!

The $4 Mjolnir (for those who are worthy, but broke)

Hello all!
For the last few weeks I've been doing some preliminary work on an "Avengers" style Thor costume (hopefully I will have those duds ready in time for the premiere of the new movie) and the first thing to get off the table was everybody's favorite Asgardian thwappin' stick, Mjolnir. I am trying to keep the cost as low as possible for this build, so I didn't want to buy a hammer if I didn't have to. 95% of this hammer was made from stuff I already had, so the total cost was 4 bucks. Yeeha!
This hammer is sort of a hybrid Mjolnir, blending the look of the movie hammer with the comic hammer. I really love the idea of Mjolnir being a little rougher in appearance to reflect its years of bashing cosmic evil in the teeth, so I went for a dirtier more "forged" look for the head and omitted the knotwork panels on the sides of the bevels more out of necessity that anything else. I may add them later on if I can find the time. The grip and pommel are pretty much straight out of the movie. I loved the pommel design on the "Dark World" hammer, so I borrowed some from that.

The head of the hammer is eight pieces of blue Tyvek foam sandwicheded together. I cut and sanded the block into shape and then glued on corresponding pieces of EVA foam (bought from Hobby lobby, hence the $4) and filled in the gaps with bondo and hot glue. The handle is a length of PVC pipe with an internal dowel for weight and strength. I wrapped it in leather left over from an old leather jacket I had lying around. The grips were just long strips of EVA foam I painted and glued on, bending them in shape as I went. In all honesty, I'll probably redo them. The pommel and accompanying knotwork are EVA foam and the strap is part of an old leather belt.

This hammer was intended to be light enough for me to carry around all day but be tough enough to withstand the rigors of trooping. I've tossed it, hit stuff with it, dropped it, spun it and chucked it and it held up like a champ! This was a fun and gratifying build, and I can hardly wait until I have the rest of the outfit to complete the look. 
Thanks for reading!

Props: Panzerforge's Answer!

A little something I made to get the word on ye olde Facebooke.

Japor Snippet Commission

This little piece was commissioned by a buddy who's a huge Star Wars buff. He had always wanted the pendant that Anakin gives Padme in Episode 1. Despite my personal aversion to most of the prequel trilogy, this was a quick and fun build. The pendant itself was carved out of a block of resin, then sanded and stained. I drilled a hole through and looped a rough-looking leather thong through to The box is pine and weathered with a dremel, followed by a quick coat of woodstain. It was then sanded again to reinforce the aged image. I lined the box with a burgundy felt and pasted a specimen tag on the lid to add an old "collectors piece" feeling to the item. I wanted it to look like it had been floating around the galaxy and changing hands multiple times before coming to rest with the current owner.

Smuggler's Pistol

Star Wars has always been my first love when it comes to an engaging universe chock full of props waiting to happen. I hadn't done anything from the SW genre in a long time, so this was the result. It was based off a mid-90s toy blaster I picked up for 25 cents at a garage sale. The poor thing languished in my parts box for some time before I hauled it out and dressed it up. Nothing too special here... just a basic distressing job with oil-rubbed brass kyrlon and some brilliant silver rubbed over the top. I extended the barrel with some lathed aluminum and added a scope from a monstrously accessorized toy Beretta pistol I bought at Walmart. Green acetate went over the lenses of the scope to add some character.

This was a quick and cathartic build, added to by the fact that it was made entirely from things I had lying around in the workroom. I must confess, it's a fun piece. I've been running around the house with this one and shooting at invisible stormtroopers!