ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (40)

Eventhough I'm on a business trip (and even in a workshop right now *yawn*), I promised to post my updates from the weekend.
Now that the lower rear section was pretty much completed, I began to work on the propulsion system. First I built the support for the propshafts.

As usual, I tried to create the "victorian" brass and iron industrial look for it.

Here are the supports and shafts in place

Next I started on the rotors or airscrews. For this I cut two rather large discs.

Then I drew the 8 blades and began cutting

Done :)

Then I mounted it on the shaft

both in place

Another side/rear shot

Current side view - and as you can see I already opened the side wall of the command island

Deck view

rear view with the rotors

close up - BTW, those two "noses" are actually caps from a superglue tube, and some skulls from the fantasy Vampires added.

and then it was time to start on the "Shrine" on the island.

As you can see, I played (for the very first time) with some LED's for this.

Next I did cut the gothic style walls for the shrine, as you can see, it will have two shutter doors.

The center part will be filled with the painted glas, for which I'm using transparent paper

The motive is like a Sister with angel wings and the slogan "Ultima Ratio Imperatus" (hopefully last resort of the Emperor). So strong Imperial mythology with a Cathedral look and feel to it.

I did a freehand with pencil first.

And then traced it with a black pen onto the transparent paper

Painting started with the highlights and shadows first, as it is painted on the back of the paper

But it really looks good form the front

red and blue next, again painting highlights and shdows first

more colors and details

and done!

In the window - just mounted by tape so far

Also the main front mounted

Then I worked on the door itself, decorated a bit

and fully operational :)

Both tape mounted on the island

Looking nice, isn't it?

I hope this updagte was worth the waiting.

Cheers

Klaus

Short Update from Philly

Just to let you know, I'm on a business trip to Philadelphia till the end of the week.
I have a camera full of updates, but I don't know if I get to update the blog.
I did some really cool stuff before I left, so I hope you will be excited once i get to post them :)
Cheers and thanks for your patience
Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (36)

Well, another update from andrea1969:
great, isn't it?

He also posted a link to a animation of the forward quadruple Lasguns:
Take a look

Well, but I haven't been lazy either :)
I started with the Torpedo launcher for the left side

and mounted it


Here's another look into the "guts" - from the rear towards the nose

Then I added the second tank and started detailing

Looking like twins

From the rear you can see that I also added the second bomb shaft

And then it was time to finally close the rear end

Nice curves, huh?

:)

Really, this .25mm plasticard is heaven-sent!

Here I added the drop deck for completeness

Just one more stip of pc

And then I can start looking into the rear rotors

Cheers

Klaus

3D version ot the ATHENA

Not much of an update from me.
I started working on the left side, finished the second torpedo launcher and mounted the second tank. Still a lot of details and rivets to do.
In the meantime andrea1969 a "3D God" from Italy, spared some time and made me this absolutley stunning gift:

I don't know how fast he's done it, but looking at the amount of work he put into his own project, the absolutely breathtaking "Black Templars "Eternal Crusader" Battlebarge (CG 3D project)"
it must have been very quick.
You really must check his stuff out!
Cheers
Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (35)

Last night I finally closed most of the still uncovered sections of the ATHENA's right side. For this I used again the very nice .25mm plasticard. It is almost as manipulatable as a sheet of paper. Really nice.

Of course I also had to do a lot of riveting :)

Then I decided to change my previous procedure for the left side. While I left the areas of the tank, torpedo launcher, and bomb shaft open last time, I decided I would cover them completely this time and mount the itmes on top. But to save plasticard I used smaller pieces in areas that will be covered by the launcher and tank.

As you can see, the drop deck will cover some of the inaccuracies that I have in the skin.

Well, since I talked so much about paint schemes and asked for your suggestions, I did get some feedback.

For example Meph at WIP provided me with these two very nice suggestions:
Meph 1:

Meph 2:

And another very cool suggestion came from Mortis at WIP

:)

Well there is still time. I have so many things still left to do that nothing is set in stone when it comes to the paint scheme.

You want to try yourself?

Here's the "blank" ATHENA, fire away, give it a try.

Cheers

Klaus