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Steam Powered Squid

Here's a little somethin' I made for RoeBeast's Annual Trash Bash for 2013. Baiscally, a focused scratchbuilt competition. Da 'Beast provides a theme and an item and people go wild with it

So here are the parts. The item (in case you didn't follow the link above) was a mouse. I've done a few mouse-based squids before, but I have had the idea to do something a little different. The other pieces are: plastic easter eggs, K'Nex pieces. Gears made by slicing up Super Glue caps, and a few other miscelanea...

Since this squid wasn't going to have a good balance point, I decided to make a stand so it could fly (after all, air is a fluid). This will also work to have it "float" in underwater games. So I ripped up a coat hanger and taped it to a cardboard base.

Here is two trackball mice, glued together on the stand. I had to bend the top prongs a few times to get a good balance.

And here is the major body work. I have glued some K'Nex connectors on to the body that will hold the tentacles in place. I have also sliced up the longer half of the egg to provide a frame to attach the round half on to make dome/control center/eyes.

Here are the tentacles. I just glued the K'nex together to make tentacles, and then put random bits and bob on the ends. I think the Swiss Army knife approach really works with the steampunk motif I wanted. I mentioned that ... right?

I also put some Crayola Model Magic clay on the stand and gave it twists so it would look more like a water column or something.

Here it is finished up. The fin is just a shaped piece of cardboard. I ran some latex fabric paint along the seams to make rivets. Not a nice as individually placed rivets, but pretty quick, easy, and decent enough. I went for a burnished look with the paint to get that steampunk-made-in-my-mad-science-garage look.

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