Automaton Atkins

[ffutures]

This is Automaton Atkins, the automaton soldier described in previous entries. The left hand is a grenade launcher, other is a human-style hand. Not sure about the look of the head, I'm thinking of changing it to look like a painting rather than a photograph. Comments gratefully received.

Comments

[sirernest.livejournal.com]

what time period are we talking here? I'd say photograph or steel engraving.

random idea for the next one: the prussian rail gun ... autonomously that train prowl the rail lines around berlin, carrying an enormous cannon and only communicating and getting orders from the prussian generals by wireless telegraph.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Say 1900. I'd prefer photo on the whole, but I'm not satisfied the head looks right. Steel engraving may be a possibility.

The rail gun is a nice idea. I'm not sure it quite fits with the background I'm developing for this setting, except as a red herring to divert attention from the real threat, but it's a good example for the section on calculating engines (e.g. dedicated computers rather than automaton brains) which I'll be writing soon.

head

[suaveswede.livejournal.com]

Don´t see what you have against the head. Of the doctored parts i´d say
it blends in the best with the rest of the original image.The right hand gun seems a little dainty.

Re: head

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The RH gun is actually part of the original picture. It's supposed to be a .50 rifle, which would normally look big, but since Atkins is supposed to be about eight feet tall it's presumably built to scale with him.

Re: head

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Forgot to say that my main problem with the head is that it looks a little asymetric. A bit too much like something a masked wrestler might wear.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

When you say "automaton", is he entirely mechanical or a clockwork cyborg? I'm asking because -- to me -- the picture still looks very much like a man. In particular, his putting all his weight on his right leg and bringing the left slightly forward is a posture that humans use to give their leg muscles a chance to relax. Not what I'd picture an entirely mechanical construct being built to do.

I had assumed he was a man with a set of mechanical hands and so on, until you said in your last comment that he's eight feet tall.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That's a good point aboout the posture - maybe I need to make the legs symmetrical, since he's a steam automaton with a Babbage engine brain. Unfortunately I've been through a couple of dozen Victorian magazines and can't find anything that's really appropriate, and my attempt at modelling it with a CAD package looked way too modern, so I'm having to work with a picture of a real soldier.