ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (49)

As anounced yesterday the current area of work on the ATHENA is the forward gallery on the command island.

For this I started with building the signal lights (used for Morse Codes) - no clue what they are really called.
I started off with two Tamiya M4 Sherman wheels and some plasticard.
The extra plasticard with the "shutters" in place

And then some detailing for the handles and mount (as you can see, these extra items are all from the standard Imperial tank searchlight mount)

Then I began to build the machine guns for the 3 MG positions. This is the first sample barrel.

Then all 6 barrels, as these will be twin MG.

The actual MG completed, sans mount.

And with the mounts.

And the pieces in their approximate postitions.

The next item I started was a Flight Deck Observer (FDO) position. Actually it is slightly more than a pimped set of binoculars and a computer screen.

The binocular is mounted on exact eye height.

However, looking at the initially planned position (red circle - the green circles indicate the signal and MG positions), you can see that this was PPP....

For one, the FDO has a door in his back, for the other the Shrine door (which I completely forgot) will be in his way once opened.

So, any suggestions where else I could position the FDO? He needs to be able to observe approaching aircraft ready to land (from the rear), as well as monitoring flight deck operations and status.

I'm really not quite sure where to put him.....

Ideas, suggestions?

Well, while pondering this issue, I started with another crew member, a Enginseer or Techpriest.

He will also be postioned on the forward gallery, standing in the center, overwatching everything.
As you can see, he has a las pistol and an energy weapon (here a sword), and he will receive two servo arms on his backpack.

As usual, C&C and suggestions welcome.

Cheers

klaus