How do steampunk guns work

Learn more. In case you missed it You might find these articles interesting. Introduction Hello! After choosing a concept, I created a task list in Microsoft To Do. I started to use To Do lists when I was working on a Dishonored scene because when you need to create a lot of stuff for a project it is better to actually see what you should do.

The next step was to find references and images of similar guns, wood, damages, etc. For the reference board, I use PureRef.

Modeling And this is where the fun begins! I wanted to test RizomUV for this project, and I can say it's a really amazing program. Also at this stage, it is very important to remember one thing: every hard edge is a UV seam, but not every seam is a hard edge. Texturing I texture my models in Substance Painter. Then, I decided how many different materials I'd have: there are two types of wood, brass, a few metals.

I already had some smart metal and wood materials, which I used as a base. I changed their colors and roughness, added dirt, rust, and damages, aged them, etc.

Also for the Color map, I add a bit of baked environment — this makes it more interesting. Presentation For rendering this gun I used Marmoset Toolbag 4. Then I decided at what angles I would render my gun and what'd be the color of the background. I took the background color from the concept and started rendering. Afterword When you create something, it's great to share the progress with other people like colleagues, other artists, even family and friends.

Now let's say we use C instead of G Despite our mechanical arms efforts, at what point would the weapon become unusable--the arm or weapon breaks. Keep in mind that the revolver is primarily made of iron. So far that's what I've kind of re-thought about. It's difficult to compile all of this information.

I've decided that I might actually write the story for the character and then talk to a few of you individually about it. This way you guys understand what the character seems to be capable of, and understand the limitations. This is also the first time I've had some legitimate difficulty writing a character. Normally I get this sort of science stuff sorted out before the character is written.

In this case I need a bit of an example and I'd also like to construct a blue-print of sorts. There's a lot of you that deserve credit for correcting most of my mistakes, and giving me new ideas. Seeing as that's basically everyone, I'm just going to issue a thank you. Since a revolver is a highly developed weapon using self contained "chemical" propellant anyway, your question as worded really makes no sense.

However, looking at the question a bit differently could change the complexion of this. First possible rethink is to use the steampunk mechanisms to bring the weapon to the hand. The pistol is holstered in some sort of space inside the sleeves, concealed from view. When the user requires firepower, the mechanism built into the arm propels the pistol on a slide or other mechanism directly into the waiting hand.

This is a variation of spring powered mechanisms which were actually used the Travis Bickle character in the movie " Taxi Driver " has a small calibre automatic pistol hidden inside a sleeve this way. A small amount of steam can drive a ram to deliver the pistol, or retract it when not needed. The other way to read this is the character isn't carrying a revolver, but rather an automatic weapon patterned after a revolver cannon. Similar in concept to a gatling gun, a revolver canon dispenses with the weight and revolving mass of the multiple barrels, and simply feeds to rounds to a revolving chamber where they are loaded, fired and ejected.

The smaller rotating mass brings the weapon up to maximum rate of fire more quickly than a gatling gun, and the overall weapon can be smaller and lighter. There is nothing inherently difficult to build and chamber such a weapon in pistol calibre, and the "steampunk" part is the feed mechanism which moves the belt from the ammunition container which might be a backpack across the body and to the weapon to overcome friction in the chute and provide smooth feeding of the weapon.

In either case, the weapons are self powered and the "steam" is only needed to either power a ram or other mechanism to bring the pistol to and from the shooters hand, or crank a belt of ammunition through a flexible chute to the weapon. I'd go for pure steam. Most chemical propellants don't like getting wet, so why bother with them?

I'm going to design this just as a revolver and forget about the prosthetic hand. I'll also forget about your "trick shot" seventh shot through the center of the revolving chamber. It adds a lot of mechanical complexity.

Quick disclaimer: I take no responsibility for people building something like this device. It is intended to show how the mechanism of a steam revolver could work, nothing more. On the left we have a boiler. This is more expensive to produce, but reduces the amount of time for your gun to "get steamed up. Perhaps it's coal-gas, perhaps propane, perhaps white spirits. I'd go for gas as there's less to go wrong if you drop your gun.

Just for safety I've put a pressure gauge on there - so you don't end up firing half-charged shots without knowing about it, and you know if your gin is about to explode. Despite drawing the boiler in a position that looks like it may be a hand-grip, do not build it into the hand-grip.

During operation it will exceed degrees pressure raises boiling temperature , so gripping it is a terribly bad idea. Old steam engines got up to about PSI, but because we have a small projectile we'll may need more than that. For reference the chamber pressure of a modern 9mm round is in the 34, PSI region. There's no chance we can get that high, but I hope your metallurgy is good enough to get to several hundred PSI. In the middle we have a rotary valve.

The D-shaped part rotates until the steam can flow from the boiler into the barrel. THe timing of this is quite important. If it's too short you lose power. If it's too long you waste water. This gives a way for the user to regulate the shot, providing a solution for the first part of your 8.

I'd suggest an escapement mechanism for driving the valve, possibly with a spring to provide the rotation. The trigger just releases the escapement, it does a single turn and returns to it's original position. After the shot the same clockwork mechanism can rotate the chamber. This could provide a very consistent shot-to-shot power. The valve releases steam into the barrel, where it pushes the bullet along, and hopefully towards the enemy.

Well, there you go. Hopefully that gave you some ideas about how a steam-powered revolver could work. High purity hydrogen peroxide exposed to a catalyst energetically decays into a very hot combination of water and oxygen, in other words steam, this is already being investigated for use in "rocket powered" actually steam powered prosthetics, this hydrogen peroxide monopropellant hence why they call it a rocket could also be used to fire bullets although I don't know if it would be as effective as gunpowder.

As everyone keeps saying, modern firearms are chemically propelled. The gunpowder is just that, a chemical. You activate it with the firing pin and it goes bang, and out comes the bullet. You can change the propellant to something more 'Chem-Tech,' whatever that means in your story, and achieve the same effect. If you've ever shot a revolver, you know how much they recoil.

For something like a. So for your questions, the six shooter can use gunpowder as its chemical propellant. Old gunpowder was sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter; the first smokeless powders were nitroglycerin and guncotton; modern powder is mostly nitrocellulose. For recoil, a. Keep in mind, this isn't a projectile gun, its a mortar. The Holman projector was designed to use a merchant ship's steam power to throw a mortar a couple hundred feet in the air.

The rate of fire for the early versions was an impressive 30 rounds per minute, or one every two seconds. The propellant of your cartridge is a Hypergolic mixture, one which reacts more quickly at high temperatures. Each cartridge contains a fixed amount of one reactant, and the firing mechanism injects the other. Steam can be used to pre-heat the cartridge, the higher speed causing a larger portion of the reaction to occur before the bullet leaves the barrel, increasing acceleration and thus muzzle velocity.

Assuming the hypergolic propellant can fit into your Chem-tech system, this sort of weapon would require fairly complex integration with the arm.

A simpler system might store both propellants inside the cartridge with a firing mechanism that breaks the barrier between. This could be a more "standard" handgun, with the steam being improvised or aftermarket, potentially even unique since most users would presumably not want to scald themselves. This seems suspect.

While increasing the muzzle velocity would increase the range somewhat, the barrel length and bullet shape are also important components in maintaining accuracy at distance. A gentle squeeze, with the palm of the left hand, pushes the breach block across to the ammunition tube. The lowest ball drops into the breach block, which returns to the gun barrel, together with the ball, via spring mechanism. The gun is now loaded. To fire the gun, simply cock it with the right hand, aim, and pull the trigger, to release a controlled blast of compressed air from the stock canister.

Simple, elegant, mechanical. The animation shows the motion much better than I can explain it. Zip through the video until you get to the part where the guy in costume is firing the gun, at 1. To me, the motion of loading, cocking, and firing the gun has a simple, almost poetic, elegance.

Very steampunk. Weapons with rapid firing capabilities, but not too devastating, together with a finite supply of ammunition and compressed gas to add tension and drama. I have this image of my heroine, Nina Swift, performing a complicated, but elegant, dance as she fires a brace of Girardoni pistols. To use them simultaneously, the pair of pistols would have to be mirror images of each other. All I need to do is punk up the guns a bit to achieve the sort of set piece gun actions seen in Parkour Gun Kata.

To save on the need to carry extra supplies, I have worked out a mechanism for air canisters to be re-pressurize on board during the heat of battle. Not quite an example of fact being stranger than fiction, but certainly almost as strange. Who knows, if the Hindenburg disaster had not brought an end to helium filled airships, the Girardoni mechanism might have gone on to become the weapon of choice for twentieth century aviators. I wonder if you have discovered any real life steampunk gadgets?

If so, please share them in the comments below. Please support the work of this writer by buying his works, pledging a monthly amount in return for rewards , or by donating below via Paypal. You are commenting using your WordPress.