"Steampunking a ship" Topic

My Father is a keen radio control boat enthusiast and is always asking me to get one and join him on the local boating pond. However I have zero interest in boats.

…Unless I could modify a boat/ship by steampunking it up a bit!! So any ideas on what makes something look "Steampunk"?

a sun helmet?

Paddlewheels?

I guess visible rivets, boilers, gears and so forth looks steam punk.

Here is a house version to give you some ideas about what could be done with a boat:

Another idea would be to have some sort of airship tethered to it. It doesn't actually have to float, of course, it could just be a model made out of rice paper over a frame.

That would actually look pretty cool.

Check out the ships from Spartan Games' Dystopian Wars steampunk naval game for ideas;:

link

Why not just build a model of the HMS Thunder Child?

Any ideas on what makes something look "Steampunk?" Well here is a catchy tune to help you in your query. :-)

Grimm

YouTube link

See this link;
link

Tony

At the risk of sounding like a hipster (as in "I was into before it was cool!" even though it is true), before "steampunk" there was what was often referred to as "Jules Vernian science fiction" (or certainly in circles I moved in).

Look at the nautilus in the Disney version of "20,000 leagues under the sea" for some original Steampunk.

Many of the Dough McClure "monster" movies like warlords of Atlantis, at the Earths Core also has that sort of look.

Alternatively look at the pre-dearnought Ironclad warships. Now imagine that they were paddle steamers (either side paddles or rear paddle like the classic American riverboats of the 1860's).

Though don't base you boat too closely on the Ironclads, most were notoriously unstable! (maybe a side paddle ironclad could overcome that flaw!)

Master of the World, anyone:

link

You *could* start with an 1880s vintage battleship by replacing the main guns with Tesla-esque "Lightning cannons" and add some "aerial torpedo launchers" and other such mayhem…

Always did like the Albatross…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Thanks for the ideas guys. I was looking at building an ACW ironclad before I decided on the steampunk idea, so I've a few pics saved for inspiration.

I'll be showing my ideas to my Dad, so he can say, " it'll sink, needs more ballast to work, unsteerable, why does the wheelhouse look like a gentlemans club…etc"