By taking a little time in Photoshop I was able to remove several of the original features of this gauge and start cleaning things up to try to get more into the realm of a general instrument to measure whatever might be needed in supra-Victorian science.
I removed the main indicator hand because presumably when I print this new face out I will place it into a gauge that will have a real arrow to replace the pictured one. The numbers indicated here are also a little too much like something on a dashboard so I took them out too.
I then copied the small empty box on the left hand side of the original gauge and put another one on the right side. Then I filled it with a little bit of red to indicate that this would be the dangerous end of the spectrum for our measurements.
Changing the background color of the faceplate allowed me to make this one looks a little less clean than the original pic and I also came up with a name for this instrument. This aetherometer would obviously be used to monitor the amount of pressure of particulate interaction within the aether itself. Very useful when manning a personal airship. I will probably try to also find some sort of gradient pattern to superimpose over the face to try to give a more aged appearance.
Cool idea, I'm looking for ideas on customizing the gauges for my car I'm restoring (a Corvette-powered 1981 Jaguar XJ6.) We're doing hardwood floors and steam-punking as much of the interior as possible. It seems the only way to go with the gauges is to build the whole thing custom and/or simply change the faceplate "image" - a much better option IMO! I'll be extrapolating from your idea. I'm still about 2 years off from such finishing touches, but how to make the most of the gauges has been giving me fits!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an amazing project to undertake! You will have to post some images of your process for others to be able to see how this comes together, I know I would love to see it. Do you have any idea yet what the gauges, for example, might end up looking like?
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