Ballad of the Steampunk Vespa: Part 3 Airbrush Breathes Life Into Scooter

Here again, is Quell, the Steampunk Scooter. In this pic, you can see the engine side cowl, where a convenient cog-shaped portal allows a clear view of the boiler's flames. I'm not sure how or when I decided on doing wood graining. I would have loved to hasve wood-grained the legshield... heck, I may yet, if I ever get access to a shop.
See, I think the wood works really well with the 80's angularity of the cowls. Softens it somehow.
Here we have the left handcowl, which allows the operator a clear (and perfectly safe) view of the workings of patented Tesla coil electro ignition system. Beneath this cover are the battery and spare tyre. If you click on the picture you will see a larger version, where the keen of vision will notice the aforementioned etherally scripted "Quell." You may also notice this brass scollwork protects one from gears within, whilst still allowing a view of their clock-like movement. I have to apologize for the quality of these pictures. They were all taken at night... as daylight hours have been spent on the final efforts of making the scoot road-worthy.
The beautiful and ample trunk. Transforming this vintage fiberglass topcase (donated from Jes's Sprint) into a small wooden steamer-trunk was one of the most enjoyable parts of this whole process. In the future, I'd like to give it a couple leather straps around the circumference, to finish off the steamer-trunk vibe.
Another angle on the Vespa's left posterior.

The top of the trunk.

This is my favorite picture of the trunk, so far. The flash gives some idea of how some of the layers of irridescent and metallic paint reflect and glow.It really gives the wood warmth which helps soften the angularity of 80's design.

Here's a close-up of the boiler. Though I really wanted to paint the flames with airbrush, I drop the airbrush right before this stage, so most of the flames were done with a regular brush. I think they turned out pretty good, regardless. To do them properly with an airbrush (because they are so small, like 3' by 4")I'd need an Iwata Micron...sigh... someday.

And last but not least, here is the front of the Steampunk Vespa. Simple, but I like it. This was stencil from a Dover book on Victorian embelishments. A similar but different design is on both sides of the fender as well. I like the shield design, it seems American without being too wrapped in the flag.

You can't really see it in these shots, but I coated the floorboards with truck bedliner and a no-slip coating. I also put a black rubber guard around the edge of the legshield.

Well Yikes! It's late. I've got a lot more to say about the Steampunk Vespa, and better pictures will be available shortly.So stay tuned for those, meditations on "why a steampunk scooter?", and goodies from Amerivespa. By the by, I'll be away at AmeriVespa for the next few days, so there will likely be a lapse in posting, and a delay in comments getting published. Don't worry, there'll be a lot cool weirdness next week. So be as strange as you wanna be, just don't be a stranger.