ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (74)

Sorry for the lack of updates, but the last weeks were horrible.
First I got an "angina" which developed into a suspected pneumonia, and now calmed down to some very heavy coughing. And on Friday we had to put our 16 year old cat JoJo to sleep.
It was very hard for me to let our litte princess go, even though I did know it was time - almost too late for a pieceful and dignified end.
I hope she's now at a better place, beyond pain and cancer.

As you can imagine, this completely "took the wind out of my sails"... but since I don't know when and how I will continue, I wanted at least to wrap up what I've done since the last update.

Here you can see the space available as landing platform.
Big enough for the CHARON,

the THANTALOS,

and the STRIX.

And then I started to work on the main turret. As discussed I'm aiming at a triple Earthshaker.

The gun tubes with details.

A first positioning test.

Size matters :-P

The base plate of the turret.

So I continued with the actual gun mount.

And then started with the first armour plates.

Side walls.

And the final turret.

It still needs a lot of details and ornaments, but the basic turret is done.

As said, I don't know when and how I will continue, as with JoJo most of my motivation is gone.

Maybe I will do something completely different, maybe I will submerge into the wold of some computer game again...I really don't know.

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (73)

Hello, hello!
The 265th post in this blog - thanks for your patience!


@darthrex354 - well it is a kind of a zeppelin, but it will also have 4 engines for altitude (those are on the 4 shorter, stubby wings in the center) plus it uses Anti-Grave technology to stay afloat...or as Eltnot says: "it levitates just because it is awesome" :)

Well, it seems the new radar and sensor array really evoke differnet opinions. I do agree that the new bridge has a more modern look and feel to it, especially the new radar bridge. But on the other side, the angles are almost identical to those I used on the ZEUS. But I really think the paintjob will make the difference in the end...
We'll see.
Anyhow, I did continue and added the cables to the sensors and radar.

To the front I mainy added rivets and a parchment for a scroll.

BTW, I was asked about templates an plans...

...really not much of a plan or even template. Sorry.

Hte last major item for the bridge is actually the stack area with the chimney.

Here is a first mock-up test.

and with the two chimneys.

I received some ornaments too.

Here is another rear view.

She will NOT receive an hangar. It will only be a landing platform and some hooks.

This will give me a large rear wall area, that I can use for a big painting of Athena :)
But at the first level you can see the two angled sides, these will receive doors - kind of a small hangar, but not for the large VTOLS, rather for small drones (shamelessly stolen from Tinners at WIP - http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/index.php?showtopic=16981).

Finally some shots with the Hydras in place...

I hope you like it.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (72)

Thanks guys :)

Yes there will be plenty of room for personell - especially for the liaison officer with the Lord Gordons Praetorians. I think he will have his pith helmet under his arm and will be acompanied by an English Pit-bull :)

Well, first I had to also complete the right side of the 2nd level - including the ornaments and access ladder.

Next I began to experiment with a sensor and radar array.

Looks a bit like a carry-away handle :)

I tried multiple version, but I think with the straight rear and angled front it will look the best.

Here is a rear view of the current bridge.
As you can see, there's plenty of room inside.

To complete the sensor bridge required a lot of experimenting, calculating, and even more putty and sanding.

Next I experiemented with the actual radar dome (using a table tennis ball).

But this version with the pylon isn't really convinving, is it?

So I tried to mount it directly on the "bridge".
This looks a lot better in my opinion.

So I added a bunch of antennae and sensors.

Plus an access ladder.

It still needs ornaments and rivets, as well as cables,

but I'm quite pleased.

And I think it neatly integrates into the ships lines, doesn't it?

Well, that's it for today.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your feedback, comments, and suggestions.

Cheers

Klaus