Steampunk - A Modder's Guide

Bit-tech: If someone else was attempting to build a Steampunk mod, what advice would you give them?

Luciel: I would say don't settle on a design, you will go insane trying to find that exact part. Have a walk around your local shopping center, DIY stores, see if anything catches your eye and think of a design around that. Use what you can find to generate your design as opposed to the other way round, which is what we normally do on conventional mods.

I would also suggest that, as in my case, you make sure you practice whatever skills you may need for this project either on samples or on other projects. Steampunk is an unforgiving style and will show any errors you commit incredibly easy, so you need to make sure you know what you're doing. And even if you don't at least be very confident about what you're doing.

Do your research, there's a ton of steampunk info on the net, there's quite a few extremely beautiful projects you can use for inspiration but be careful, steampunk doesn't offer a lot of variety in terms of design so it's very easy to end up with something that looks like a copy of an existing project. Try to centre on details you haven't seen on other projects which will make yours stand out from the rest.

Bit-tech: Do you think it's more difficult to make a Steampunk mod? Is anything particularly challenging?

Luciel: Yes and no, I would say it depends on what you're used to, your set of skills and so on. Personally I find making the typical clean glossy mod harder than making this.

Not in terms of effort and time needed (I'm pretty sure the steampunk one needs more of both) but keeping yourself motivated and interested. With 'glossy mods' it's easy to think wow this looks fantastic, and not continue to detail it, knowing that more details aren't going to be always seen, as there's a general look to that kind of project.

Yet on a steampunk one, because of the nature of the details I think most people will notice them a lot more, because everything in it is designed to stand out.

It also makes it easy on the hardware as it's rare to see plexy on a steampunk project, so hardware looks isn't nearly as important as the look of the case. If you look at my Fallout cause sp project you'll notice the hardware is extremely basic, it was all about the external looks.

But because this project is for myself, of course I wanted decent hardware in it so it's a bit more complex integrating it into the whole steampunk look.

My point is that it really depends on how you look at it. I feel that if you're just starting in modding, walk away from steampunk, it will annoy you, frustrate you and the result you won't be happy with it.

It requires a huge attention to detail that simply cannot come from a beginner (or at least that's how I see it). That said, if you have a certain experience and are used to spending countless hours on detailing you might find steampunk easier and more rewarding than a conventional mod. That's as long as you have the right painting skills, as it's all about the effects.

A huge thanks to Luciel for his valuable and hopefully useful advice for budding steampunk modders out there. Have you made or are considering making a Steampunk project? What do you think of steampunk as a modding style? Let us know in the forum...