A Steamier Raygun Holster

When I created the Raughnold Raygun almost two years ago I made a holster for it with sort of a Buck Rogers look. Futuristic, but not particularly steampunk. Along with gears and goggles, rayguns have become an iconic part of the steampunk atavistic reality, and I started thinking recently how I would like to construct an alternate holster with a steamier look to it.

Original leather holster

The one element that I came up with to accomplish this was to add straps and buckles. Above is my concept sketch.

And here is a full-size paper mock up.

Next I began playing around with how a single piece of leather could incorporate straps that interwove, like clasped fingers.

Here is the pattern I worked out in a heavy paper, before committing the design to leather.

After a few minor alterations I fashioned it in leather. I decided it still needed some changes, including lengthening the straps, and adding a reinforcement around the belt loop opening.

Here then is my final design.

And here is the back view, showing the interlocking straps.

Olifant: Tusk, Take 2

While going through my collection of yard sale finds, I came across the flashlight shown below. I bought it because I loved its Buck Rogers futuristic look.

Since I've been working on the new Olifant tusk canister, it ocurred to me that the missile end could make a good finial for such a canister. And as I wasn't feeling all tingly inside about the versison I had been working on I decided to begin again with the flashlight as my starting point.


After molding the flashlight in RTV silicone and casting it in urethane resin, I cut out a series of acrylic discs and stacked them around the "missile".


The flashlight has nine vertical grooves spaced evenly around its circumference except for one place, which is wider than the other eight. I decided to add a piece of hardware there above the discs, bigger than the other eight screws which will be added to each finished casting. Then I coated the acrylic discs with urethane resin to seal them and smooth them out so that the canister will rotocast more easily (that's the white stuff in the picture above).


As it was difficult to see what I really had with the white and black and gray all contrasting, I sprayed a coat of white sandable primer, which makes it much easier to view.