Monday, July 15, 2013

ATHENA - Steampunk airship (92)

I had a pretty busy weekend with lots of good weather, family and friends.
So hobby time was relatively limited.
But I got to work on the CIWS a bit more.

First I completed the main turret body - I had to do some gap filling and sanding.
 












Next I drilled the holes for the main gun axle.
 












and then I was able to glue the two sides in place.












The gun body fits nicely and elevation and depression is like on the original NEMESIS.
 












Once this was verified I mounted the barrels to the gun body and started with the sights box.
 












 I'm not sure if the weather was too hot for me, but when building the sights housing I created some rather big gaps, so I had to fill and sand a lot...
 












While the putty cured I started with the ammo drum.
Using the marked disk as scale again, I drew the 3 sections onto the plastic card.
 












When cutting such rather "delicate" shapes I tend to keep the main section still attached to the plastic card (cutting the curves first).
 
 











The three sections look rather good, but they are not really identical.
 












For this purpose I tape them together (ensuring they are aligned perfectly) and then sand them together to the same exact shape.












Once I was satisfied with the shape, I glued them together, separated by 1cm strips of plastic card.
 












While the basic shape for the ammo drum now cured, I sanded down the sights box.
This NEMESIS will be a mirrored model, so the sides for the sights and ammo drum will be swapped.
 
 











That's as far as I got.
Yes, it looks a bit warped right now, but as soon as I glued the spacers in position, the sights will align properly.
Cheers

Klaus