ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (61)

Now that my short vacation is over, and my wife back from her trip, everything comes back to a normal pace.
So todays update is rather short compared to the last.

As I said, I wanted to cover the blotch of color with some battle damage and scorched paint. So first I chipped some pieces out of the plasticard and then I applied some black paint with the airbrush.
Then I added a plate of plasticard and rivets to simulate quick patching.

The plate will be painted in plain Astromican Grey, and the scratches and chips will be Boltgun and then some weathering.

I spent some hours adding details, and I can tell you by now I dread those good looking portholes. It is quite some work to cleanly paint the brass rims....

Right before finishing for teh night I added another sign.

"HQ MCMXIX - 1919 Atmospheric Strike Fleet". As you can see there is some room left on the rigth side. Maybe you have an idea for a short nickname? Or a logo?

Let me know

And the command island as of last night.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (60)

I wasn't quite convinced with yesterdays camouflage result, so I decided to give it another try. This time with the airbrush.
So first I masked of the image I drew yesterday.

And then I applied the 3-color cloud pattern.

Looks nice so far.

But to be sure, I had to do the basic details (sans weathering, washes, or damage),

and since I liked it, I decided to do the whole command island in the cloud pattern camo.

Maybe you can see on the right edge of the upper rear deck, a big splotch of blue gray - well a severe airbrush accident....I'll have to add some battle damage and scorched paint there...

As you can see, I spared the door to the shrine.

But everything else is done.

Once I get to all the details and weathering, I'm convinced it will look rather decent :)

Since I left the door without camo you can guess I have something special planed, can't you?

Yep, the door will be golden.

But not just plain gold, but with some ornamenting and scribes.

Sorry for the blurry image, but with the different reds, the outlines do look 3-dimensional.

So I continued the slogan on the golden part.

Plus some ornaments

And here's the complete slogan:
"Nullus Mundus Ultra Meum Ius Est; Nullus Adversarius Ultra Meam Iram Est"

"No world is beyond my authority; no enemy is beyond my wraith"
Unfortunately the world lengths are unevenly distributed (due to the long "Adversarius"), so I had to do the fonts in different sizes.

But I think it is OK, isn't it?

Oh, and lest we forget Bis, the Gargoyle.

Pretty much done with the rear end

And the facial impression is coming along too.

Well, that's it for today.

I hope you like it.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (59)

Yesterday I got the itch.
The itch to start painting.
And since the completion of the ATHENA forward gallery depends on painted floor and wall, I decided that this would be the target of my scratch :)

Looking through the images I collected, I decided to use the Honorguard image as starting point. After priming with black, I drew the outlines with a pencil.

Then I traced them with a brush and a deluted white, to prevent any smearing or erasing of the pencil lines.

Next I did the base colors and background, so I'd get a feeling for the colors.

Then I did the highlights and shades for the blue.

followed by the red highlights and shadows.

Then I did the gold colors.

And finally the parchment.

Then it was time for some detailing.

and slowly but surely it came to completion.

Finally the slogan:
"Imperatus Vincit Omnia" - the Emperor is always victorious :)

Then I decided to get a final decission on the paint scheme. So I did a base color of Astronomican Grey

And then I looked at the cloud pattern suggested by Tommygun

Hmmmmmm......

So I did some detailing

No weathering or battle damage, no wash yet.

What do you think, is it worth it, or should I try something else?

Oh, BTW, I also made some progress on the Gargoyle :)

Cheers,

I look forward to your comments and feedback.

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (58)

Well it's been a busy weekend, and I've been working on a secret santa for my wife (more at the end of this post), but I did get quite some work done on the ATHENA too.

@DevL: Why 1969 for the NEMESIS gun?
Well, it isn't my birth year, I'm a bit older (born 1965), but it is a tribute to Andrea1969 the 3D artist at Warseer, that is doing some nice 3D CGI work, including some stuff on the ATHENA. He's also from Trieste, Italy, and that's why the NEMESIS is also a Trieste pattern :)
And here is his current shot of the ATHENA:

@Nash: Thanks for pointing out the Fleur-de-lys, I keep forgetting it *sigh*
Also, why so many people on the outside of the ATHENA?
Well, I want this to be a dynamic and busy display piece :) And, If you look at modern Aircraft Carriers, there's quite a lot of crew on the outside too....

Well, lets wrap up on the NEMESIS gun, shall we?
So here is the shot of the Mount, as well as some cabeling and the ammo hatch as well as the service hatch,

Closeup

and with the NEMESIS in place.

On the ATHENA together with the Hydra turret.

To determine what else I must/can do on the ATHENA I taped off the individual sectors available for "action"

The rear area will have the Ground Attack plane togther with service crew and pilot on the lift.

In the forward area I will have another Ground Attack plane being readied by the crew.

In the central section I will most likely have a 6 men squad stand attention to their officer - these will be the "Repelling Party" (speak the ones fighting off any enemy boarding party).
Most likely I will also have the Techpriest overseeing something...maybe a robot mopping the floor? *chuckle*
Then directly behind the forward Hydra will be another lift, with a small ammo vehicle/cart on it and some crew members ready to arm the second GA plane (the one in the rear).

Between the forward Hydra and command Island will be a part of the command crew

I think they really look great, now that their're painted.

So this is where they will be positioned.

That will pretty much fill the whole mighty 70cm of flight deck :)

Well, next item on my still very long list of things to do ( http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.com/2009/11/athena-steampunk-airship-43.html ) was the

"Rear turret for Jump Deck - this will be a ground attack gun, maybe a Vanquisher"
Well, due to a nice gift from Jade Lancer at WIP, I have some Executioner barrels :)

So I decided to build a turret with a triple Executioner gun.

It will be positioned under the Jump Deck, at the rear end. Thus giving AA capability also in the lower rear area of the ATHENA (no sneaking aircraft from below).

To give it more punch, it will also be armed with 6 Anti-Air Hunter missiles, mounted left and right of the main gun.

And while I was waiting for some pieces to cure, I created some Purity Seals:
Pretty simple. Small circles cut from some of my plastic rods, glued onto some of the large rivet disks, and then some small strips of plasticard.

Here you can see the missile launchers in position.

And the aproximate position

The opening you see here will be covered with some hatches, that can be used the reload the missile launcher.

Here the cover and hatches are in place, as well as the rotateble mount is completed.

And in the final postition.

Beneath the ATENA Jump Deck. I don't have a name for it yet, but I will ask Jade Lancer first, since he "sponsored" it.

Oh, and here's what I'm working on as a secret santa for my wife.

She's a huge fan of Kim Harrisons "Rachel Morgan" series. In the books is a small friendly Gargoyle, called Bis.

Well, here's my first ever China Clay sculpt.

He will be leaning on the book, with his ands crossed over it.

Well, I think it's a good start, but still a long way to go.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (57)

Now that the basic build for the CIWS is completed, I started the detailing.
Here you can see the rear exhaust for the gun.

On this side you see the ejector port for the used cartridges.

and here the port for the ammo feed.

From front, with the service hatch. There's still some cleanup to do though.

Next was the sights.

And then I did some ornamenting for the ammo drum, using a Fleur-de-lil again.

And all pieces together - but not yet glued as there's still some detailing and cleanup necessary.

So I hope you like my CIWS "NEMESIS Mk MCMLXIX - Trieste pattern".

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (56)

To complete the gatling CIWS I continued with building the sight housing (right) and the ammo drum.

Here's a quick mock-up for looks and scale with the sight and drum.

Also note the new off-centered postition - this is neccesary to give it a better field of fire, more room for the ammo re-load hatch, and ejected cases can easily be dumped off the side (eventhough I have to look if this could potentially interfere with the side navigation engines and rotors).

The ammo drum still needs the skin.

So I wrapped some .25mm plasticard around it, and while it cured, I worked on the ammo feed.

The ammo drum mounted.

And a quick blue-Tac shot with the ammo feed.

Here you can see the proposed layout of the platform.

In the background a large two-door hatch for the ammo and a standard sized hatch for access.

In re-load position.

And finally a size comparison to the Hydra.
Not so small after all.

I'm fine with the looks, but it will all depend on the details and ornaments, if the gun really fits the ATHENA or not.

*fingers crossed*

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (55)

So with yesterdays discussion in mind, I took the gatling back apart.
Fortunately I was able to do so without breaking anything and now the twin mount is still available for a potential future project :)

With the Mauser BK-27 in mind I drew a breakout sketch of the pieces and started measurements from the existing barrel.

From this I built the gun body that will hold the gatling barrels

Based on this I calculated the size of the side walls,

as well as the central section.

Then I mounted the outer walls - with 3mm spacers to give the walls a total width of 5mm.

Then I used .25mm plasticard to cover the gap.

And a quick assembly (without glue),

to see how it looks :)
With the finished Techpriest for scale.

Eventhough the mount is bigger than initially planned or yesterdays build, I think it fits pretty well.

So tonight I will build the ammo drum and feed, as well as the sights and sensors.

Cheers

Klaus