Wooohooo! 100th ATHENA post!!
With the build and masking complete, I moved all the pieces into the garden for priming and initial painting.
The first can of black got me through the gondola and bridge, as well as half the body :)
After the initial black priming I added streaks and dots of light grey to create a kind of cloud pattern.
Some blue, a bit of white,
and some more black completed the basic camo pattern.
Then all the small pieces and items received a black base coat.
Some of the turrets, the rotors and radar bridge also got the camo pattern.
After 3 hours with spray cans in the garden she was ready to go back onto my desk.
First I added burn marks on the damaged sections.
Then base colored the port holes.
With the airbrush I added shadows and basic light areas to the port holes.
And then I painted the brass-colored rims of the port holes.
The armor patches were painted with Astonomican Grey.
And I started to paint the steampunk ornaments with Tinny Tin (from Vallejo).
And then disaster struck!!!
I took a short break, setting the ATHENA to the side and leaving my little man-cave.
About an hour later I came back, and when returning to my desk I knocked the ATHENA over and she fell off my desk to the ground!
I was so shocked I didn't even take pictures, but believe me, it wasn't a sight I'd ever want to see again.
Broken pieces on the floor and the ATHENA on her side...
After some initial cleanup and first repairs I remembered to take photos.
Here the rear section.
As you can see the body was cracked open, some of the plastic card ripped - I already glued some armor patches onto the major damage. The rear balcony broke off the support, but was generally undamaged.
The very tip of the nose chipped and some of the glue lines broke open.
The right forward wing broke completely off (actually it broke out of the body, leaving a huge hole). I glued everything back in position.
Some of the supports for the railing broke off (really minor damage)
And in the bridge section several items rattled around. With the windows masked I couldn't see what exactly was broken.
So I decided to cut her open and see to it.
In the end one of the ceiling lights and the admiral broke loose.
This was an easy fix, and I decided to take the entire top section back off. This will now give me the opportunity to get at the windows in case the masking didn't work out properly.
With the initial shock overcome, I continued with painting the ornaments.
First details for the bridge section.
And the radar bridge.
With the slogan "Semper Paratus, Semper Vigilans" - Always ready, always watchful"
The lower section of the bridge completed
Well, of course without any real details and without any weathering yet.
The next section I will paint is the forward section with the KERES launcher.
Gee! I forgot how many details I added here - and they are sooo hard to get to....
Well, I hope you like this update.
Cheers
Klaus
