Steampunk Mosquito

I picked up a couple Mega Mosquito's from the Estes sale and built one stock for my grandson and I have been debating what to do with mine. Well ever since I saw FatBoy and Micromeister's Acme Spitfires, and hotdiggidy's Baby Bertha, I had to go STEAMPUNK. I thought about going 29mm or maybe an 18mm or 24mm cluster but kept it stock 24mm. My technique for rivets is something I saw back in my RC airplane days. The Scale guys used to make a row of rivets with thick CA glue. It's a very tedious time consuming ordeal. I didn't have any thick CA so I experimented with other types of glue and settled on Gorilla Glue. I took some manila folders and drew some pencil lines approx. 1/4" apart. Then I put a small amount of glue in a small mixing cup and dip the tip of a toothpick in and start making rows of dots on the manila paper. When it dried it had expanded to give a really nice raised or 3D look. Here are some pics of what I have done up till now.

Here are my Gorilla Glue rivets.

I wanted the fins to look like they were bolted on.

I ran out of rivets so I need to make more. I also have some ideas for some pipes and such but I'll wait to post those pics. Paint will probably be silver with some copper or rust looking highlights.

A steampunk Mosquito, OK I'm in. This should be way cool.

That's a Mega-Mosquito, not a Mosquito. Still, very cool, and I too will be watching and enjoying your Build.

Those rivets are awesome! Thinking of other ways to use GG to emboss a pattern on paper...

Thanks for watching guys. I added a few more rivet "plates" to the MEGA Moquito tonight. Still waiting on my plumbing pipes to come in the mail. If they don't turn out to be what I'm looking for I will probably try some different size drinking straws. I know there are other types of ready made rivets out there but the cool thing about Steampunking, it doesn't have to look perfectly uniform. Can't seem to upload the pics. right now so I'll try again tomorrow.

Bill... This is looking good! I like your Gorilla Glue Rivet idea.

Any updates?

Finally got back to this after completing my Eggfinder. Did some pipe works and then ran out of primer. So I need to get some more primer and then pick out some colors that will resemble old and rusty metal.

I tried to make what's supposed to look like a hatch at the bottom (in second pic) and the round things are going to be like portholes. The pipes are just straws. Im thinking of painting each rivet and that might just be the hardest part of this build.

OMG... That is awesome! I love it!

Very cool ! I'm gonna keep a close eye on this build. I'm planning a scratch built steam punk rocket but I seem to be having a hard time wrapping my head around the styling. Looks to me like the devil is in the details with them.Interested in seeing how you paint this one.--H

Lookin' Great!!!

Looking great.

Another place to search for pipe looking fittings might be the local model train shop. Find the plastruct section. If I remember, they had all kinds of pipe and fitting detail parts for train layouts.

Very cool! I love the looks of that.

https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3114
https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3105

Both of these have flanges, gates, and various sizes of pipe with elbows and such.

It's one of those why didn't I think of that moments. That's thinking way outside the box. Love the build so far, can't wait for the finished product.

Ted Cochran said:

https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3114
https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3105

Both of these have flanges, gates, and various sizes of pipe with elbows and such.

Click to expand...

Wow that's what I was looking for when I looked for small pipes. Guess I didn't look hard enough, anyhow it's finished. I was trying for a wood look on the fins and nosecone and brass strips and rivets between the silver "metal" plates. It was a fun build but it's tedious work with all the do-dads on the outside of the rocket and all the hand painting. I decided not to paint each and every rivet because that would have been a REAL pain and besides you wont even see em on the pad anyway. Cool thing about a Steampunk theme is there are no rules. You are only limited by your imagination. Lots of pictures of Steampunked cars and stuff on the web for inspiration. Thanks for following along and enjoy!

WOW. Very nice!

Really nice, Bill! What I like about it is that it looks like it was fabricated by boilermakers who were hand-hammering the rivets and hand-forming the metal...an ugly and functional steampunk motif, as opposed to something ornate and organic-looking like the Nautilus from 20K Leagues Under the Sea.

Really nice finish job. Another great source of inspiration for my Mega Mosquito project! I didn't think of this thread when I started mine...but the memory was probably on my subconscious. I don't know if I have the patience for rivets however.