Guns of West World
Guns of the "West World" Universe
These drawings represent the idea I had in mind for the tech of West World. One of my original notations before I began seriously writing in 1998 is that I wanted "Jules Verne technology." Obviously, I imagined a cross between western and sci-fi. Just recently, I discovered a genre the encapsulates this look - steampunk. The drawings that follow are all my work, but not necessarily my design, so to speak. I actually searched the Internet for images of "Steampunk guns," and then combined the bits and pieces that I liked into something that would fit the West World universe. A lot of inspiration comes from the artwork of Matt Kohr for his "Cowboy Cave" project (www.mattkohr.com). Most of the other inspiration comes from actual steampunk props that various people have made. The most significant change that I made is the inclusion of a revolver chamber for the guns that fire "laser bullets" in the West World story.
LaMott Revolver
This is the LaMott Revolver - a pair of which are the chosen weapon of the mysterious Gnomon Chase. Here is an example of one of my drawings that relies heavily on the artwork of Matt Kohr. In addition to combining a couple of his ideas, I also included the revolver chamber of an actual Confederate La Matt. The original was a nine-shooter, with a lower barrel that fired as a tenth shotgun blast. In the "West World" universe, this is a laser-firing six-shooter, with the lower barrel firing a shotgun spray of "proton shot." Obviously, this is a big gun.
Windchaser Revolver
This is the typical hero weapon conjuring the old west Winchester. As such, it is a fitting gun for the hero of West World - Tom Shallowhorne. It's pretty much a standard revolver, with a few, subtle sci-fi touches.
Harkens Smoothbore Pistol
This gun is not a laser revolver - typical of West World - but rather a "proton shot" muzzle-loader. Early on, I knew that Return to West World was going to have pirates, so I thought I would include a cap-and-ball style gun in the first story as well. Based on the real-world Hawkens smoothbore rifle, this became Davy's "Goliath" in the first novel, and "Goliath II" in the second. Also, the gun that Maria steals from Ms. Keym would be this type of gun, only a double-barrel version with dual triggers.
Koldt Revolver
The Koldt revolver is probably the most "steampunk" looking design for the West World guns. The look is based on an actual steampunk toy prop. The only changes were the inclusion of a revolver chamber, a hammer, and a small valve gauge on top of the pistol grip. It shouldn't be too hard to realize that the name is a sci-fi variation on the Colt. Within the storyline, this would be the typical issue sidearm for the Yewess Army.
Smythe and Westin Revolver
Just a fun design that I had to do! As of yet, I haven't described a character using this type of gun, but I would image that Ms. Keym certainly had one in her arsenal. Again, the pistol grip is a Matt Kohr design, but the entire front end is based on a Nerf Maverick Rev-6, quite possibly the most widely used steampunk gun on the Internet. Picking a name to use, I went with the famous Smith and Wesson; it would have to take two names to come up with this gun.
Feel free to let me know what you think of these West World guns - westworld-novel@juno.com