ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (14)

I spent last night mounting the stubby engine wings and then cutting some ornaments to cover up the scars of the "operation".

After that, the usual placement of rivets.

and the same on the other side.

Then I mounted the fins,.

Well, I'm really satisfied with the shape now.
It has the actual elegance of the real Zeppelins, yet it transports the carrier layout quite realistic.

So in photoshop it looks like this now:

On this image it still lacks the gondola for the jump deck.

I'm not really sure how I will base the ATHENA. The initial idea was to hang it from the ceiling, but with the increased size, I'm not sure if that will be possible.

I still fance the ceiling mount, with one interceptor in the air, one lifting off, the ground attack readied on the lift, and maybe at the same time some stormtroopers jumping off the jump deck....and all this over the ZEUS diorama *lol*

Ah, the nurses with the straitjaket are here...gotta go :-P

Cheers

Klaus

Something completely different

Todays update is rather unusal :)
Yesterday the "special" postman rang the bell and delivered a rather unusual and heavy package (80kg).
It was our long expected beach chair - one package, about 20 pieces.

And 2 hours later, I was "King of the Garden" again.
Call me Tim Taylor :)


Well, other than that, I did only very little on the ATHENA. I used some of my left-over plasticard pieces to cut the two additional enigne wings.

The fins inside.

and the fins outside.

Tonight I will mount the wings and fins, and then do some more detailing on this level.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (13)

Not much of an update today.
Due to a severe case of Migrane, I couldn't get much done. I did cut the new rips, plus one solid wall, to geive the now elongated blimp body some stability.
So far I have only mounted the wall.


On a side note:
In a previous post (here or on WIP) I recommended the Polystyrene sheets from Rai-Ro ( http://www.rai-ro.de/english/katalog/seite40e.htm ), as these were cheaper than my previous source. And despite that I did a fist test-purchase and was satisfied, I am no longer. I don't know what and why, but these new sheets have a very impractical behavior, especially anoying when cutting round forms.
The initial cuts are smooth and easy, but when cutting deeper, the blades begin to stick and I have to use a lot of pressure and power to cut, often leading to unlovely cuts. It feels as if there is more tension withing the sheet...really I have no clue what it is and why.
But I will now go back to my initial source and order my sheets from here ( http://www.conrad.de/goto.php?artikel=297445 ) again.
Eventhough this is more than 1 Euro difference (3,95 vs 2,40), I think this is worth it - I almost cut my chest yesterday, as I had to use so much power to do a cut, and the blade finally slipped, barely missing :)
So, despite a small update, I hope this is usefull to you.
Cheers
Klaus

Successfull operation

Well, the votes are pretty clear in favor of Option "B", the elongated body. So I started the operation last night.
Since I had planned to access the jump deck at a later stage anyway, it was rather easy to seperate the main body from the gondola.

Then I seperated the nose section form the main body.

Measuring I added a 20cm sheet of plasticard.

With this I have enough space to place the command island further up front

So I added the 4cm high strip of the first deck to connect the nose and the main body again.

Once the glue is cured and everything is bonded I will add the new rips to bridge the area.

With these additional 20 cm, the ATHENA will look like this

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (12)

I continued with the command section and worked on the roof.
It has two chimneys, a radar dish (the winged skull), and two satelite dishes, plus some cables and consoles.

Mounted on the island.

Actually I think it looks pretty cool.

Also from the outside.

But Urgh!

Mounted on the body...

as I and ConcernedLurker allready suspected, I went a bit over the top with the island....

From this point of view it isn't looking soo bad.

And I really like the details.

So lets see, how the ATHENA would potentially look.

For this I did some photoshopping and planked the rips.

Version A (as is, just virtually planked)

Version B (elongated and 4th wing added)

Version C (slightly elongated and heightened body, no extra wing)

So, which version would you vote for?

Version "B" would be rather easy to accomplish, as I only have to extend the upper deck by a sheet, and add some rips. That could be done within a nights work. Version "C" would require a lot of work, and new rips and everything.

So, use the poll and vote :)
Thanks

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (11)

Due to the almost insane amount of rivets and detailing I'm slow on updating.
So here is now the upper half of the island.
As you can see, I added a shrine to the Machine God on the outside.

Above this shrine will be the exhausts :)

Here is the other side - viewed across the flight deck.

The balcony will receive some armor plates too (more rivets *sigh*)

The entire island on the airship.

I must admit the blimp body looks a bit delicate compared to the island right now.

But I'm sure this will change as soon as the rips are covered (more rivets *sigh, sigh*).

Also if I add some external bomb bays (probably between the wings) this would add some "beef" to the body.

The rear view is still rather plain, so besides the 3 rotors there's a lot of detail to be added too (more rivets *sigh, sigh, double-sigh*)

And another top view across the flight deck.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (10)

I spent some more time on the layouts of the ATHENEs aircraft and concetrated this time on the Ground Attack plane.
I'm kind of torn between a A-10 like appearance (A and D) and a THANTALOS like layout (C and E). Currently "E" is my favourite, as it looks very clunky and mean enough *grin*
But we'll see what happens till I get to them anyway.


In the meantime, I continued with the ATHENAs upper deck. First I cut the lift platform, and then lowered it, so it looks as if it is just coming up.

I plan to have the ground attack and its pilot, plus servicing crew around it, so it looks as if it's readied, while in the circeled area, there will be an Interceptor lifting off.

Then I worked on the bridge, or island.

These are the two lower floors.

View across the main deck.

View from the outside.

Front view.

Next will be the balcony for the 3rd floor, including a weapons platform, and then the two upper floors and the chimneys.

Cheers

Klaus