Prototype: Steampunk Waistcoat

If you recall, the Mercenary had ordered a great deal of cog-and-screw buttons not so very long ago and we've been wondering what to do with them. And such is one of the solutions.

The steampunk waistcoat is made of faux suede (coming in midnight blue, black and brown), lined in faux silk. It's a fully double-breasted waistcoat with two flap pockets and one hidden pocket. There is also a half belt at the back for a more dapper shaping.

The buttons add a touch of steampunk to the otherwise quite normal waistcoat and the hidden pocket gives it greater utility.

The double-breasted nature of the waistcoat means it can be won three basic ways, as can be seen in the prototype double-breasted waistcoat.

In a fit of faulty memory, the Mercenary has managed to photograph the brown twice but the black not at all. This should be remedied in due course and there will be some photos of the midnight blue one. I would call it navy, but it is much darker than that. It wasn't until we held it next to the black did we realise that it wasn't quite black.

The giant cog is part of a public sculpture about the founding of Durham Cathedral (Bishop Aldhun, Dun Cow, etc) and is, in fact, actually a pillar segment. The linen frilly shirts won by both models and the fall front trousers are both from the Mercenary. The felt topper is from the ebay. The rather battered musket pretending to be a hunting rifle belongs to the Proprietor.

The first few steampunk waistcoats are up on the Character Kit website for £35. It's available in black (large only) and brown (medium and large).

Prototype: Dieselpunk Greatcoat

The Dieselpunk Greatcoat is based on the Steampunk Pirates Concept Art we did a while back. It's not quite as flared as the original sketch and there are various other differences, including the collar not quite coming out the way I wanted it to.

The Mercenary had located some double-sided faux-suede-and-fur material in rifle green and leafing through the steampunk pirates concept art, it seemed like a good idea to attempt a coat from it. The material has a lovely weight to it and rustles satisfyingly when handled. There was enough to make one greatcoat and one sleeveless surcoat from the end of the roll, the latter of which will be appearing in a later post. Because of the nature of using the double-sided material, there is no lining to hide the slit pockets in, which are thus visible on the inside of the coat.

The coat also features two spacious patch pockets (including one on the arm), double-breasted fastening and our so-called buttons of chaos.

I had bought some embroidered badges to function as insignia on the coat, but we were collectively indecisive about which ones to attach so the greatcoat remained without them for the photos. Buying badges was rather an adventure as it seemed that the world demanded a great many designs of things on fire, including Betty Boop, Jesus and Hello-Kitty-but-a-skull. There were also equally inexplicable skulls with an H on its forehead, which also come in the following varieties: on fire or surrounded in tribal swirlies. I also found a great number of once-neon-coloured miffies and chococats in a bargain bin.

We tried to avoid anything with words or acronyms on it, to keep the kit more multipurpose. We're quite fond of the winged skull since it seemed like it would make fine insignia for an air pirate, despite it being really lots larger than the other badges. Perhaps it would tip the design into feeling more anime-inspired.

Worn in the photos by the Proprietor with the white frilly linen shirt, brown waistcoat and green tricorn, the overall look seems rather Freiboden rather than anything else. That said, the Anthropologist still calls it the Haslanti coat. Departure from the classic white-and-brown/black bomber jacket colour scheme into rifle green does obscure the cultural cues we were going for originally, but as always, the Mercenary works within the confines of the materials she finds.

To commission a greatcoat in similar materials would cost in the region of £110-120. For a fully lined greatcoat the cost would likely be closer to £150-160.

More photos of the dieselpunk greatcoat under the cut.

The Case of the Missing Raccoon: A Steampunk Adventure

Yes, that is a photo of the Proprietor using a telescope as a sight on pistol.

Raccoons are sly, tricksy beasts, you know.

As can be surmised from the silly photography, we were out with the camera and the new costumes. We've had a busy few months and are sitting on a large heap of updates and things to be posted off to their new owners. We're also working on a prop-related project that's turning out to be more logistically complicated than originally thought. It's all very exciting, if a little chaotic.

So we're back to old favourite of our nearby locations, Chapel of the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene. We had wanted to borrow the Proprietor's 'coontail hat, but it was not to be found. In the end, we did without and the photos are rather less silly (and perhaps more offensive). The costumes done included a "native" shirt and trousers for the Onontakhan culture at Profound Decision's Maelstrom, a three-tiered caped coat, some waistcoats and a dieselpunk greatcoat.

See under the cut for the full preview.