ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (71)

Thanks for your feedback guys.
It's been quite a while since the first post on the ATHENA (22. May 09 - http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-project-code-name-athena.html ) and she went through several changes in between.
@fuzzbucket: so you deserted me for a whole month!?! *just kidding*
Well, I hope todays update will prove, that the new bridge won't be as flat as it looks right now and get your approval.

Some of you may remember this group of characters that I did for one of the contests at WIP. The group was called "Morning Briefing"and show two officers being briefed by two NCO's on the current combat situation.
I want to include these guys on the new bridge of the ATHENA.


So I sketched out how the upper deck of the bridge should look like.

Scribbled some measurements down.

And started to cut the roof of the upper level.

Set onto legs to give it the proper height,

so I can evaluate how it will integrate into the outline of the ship.

Then I realized I miscalculated the side walls, so I had to do some more cutting.

Better :)

Then I started with the side wall, which contains a window for the briefing room.

I always have some clear plastic at thand that i can use for windows.

Here you can see the mounted window and the ornamented frame.

But such large windows are not the best to have on a combat ship, are they? That's why I added the rails seen in the previous images. In order to protect the conference room during combat operations, I build some armored shutters that will be on these rails.

This is how they look in position.

Rivets and details added.

Doors for the bridge.

Now the bridge has two doors in the rear wall - protected from wind and rain.

The frontal view.

And the beginning of the frontal plate.

And its look from the side.

Then I sketched out the windows and ornaments.

The ornament is cut from .5mm plasticard,

and mounted to the frontal plate.

I think this looks quite nice,

and in harmony to the lower level of the bridge.

Next I started the side walls to the bridge.

With windows and ornaments.

And together with the two Hydras, it begins to look impressive :)

To the other side wall I added some patched-up damage.

More patches for that side.

I'm quite satisfied how the new bridge comes along.

On Sunday then I began to work on the glass roof for the conference room.

Again adding rails for a shutter.

The shutter in the closed position,

and open :)

Such a large piece of armour needs some ornamentation, doesn' it?
How about an Imperial Eagle?

Looks cool.

Next was the actual glass as well as the frame ornament.

Everything in place.

As last piece last night, I built a small access ladder to the upper roof.

I hope you like it, and I look forward to your comments, feedback, and suggestions.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (70)

Wow! The 70th ATHENA post!
Certainly more posts than I needed for any other project - the ZEUS only required about 30 posts :)

Well, last night I continued with the forward plates of the bridge's first floor.

It takes some time to cut all the ornaments and fit everything into the angles.

But I'm very pleased with the lines.

I will leave the rear walls open for the time being, till I'm 100% sure how the rest of the bridge will look and maybe I'll use this area for another Mural Window or such...

With the two Hydras in place.

And to solve the mystery of the missing doors in the front plates.

The actual nose area with the 2 Twin Auto-Cannons and the rocket launcher, can be accessed via the two doors marked in red.

And for the area between the nose and the bridge, I plan to do some hatches, like in the image below. But before I do that, I have to look into the final position of the big turret, as well as all other weapons I may place there (potentially the vertical lunchers for the Manticore and some AA missiles).

We'll see.

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

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (69)

Thanks guys,
from your feedback it seems that it was the right decission to change the ATHENA all together.
With this settled I immediately started to work on the new bridge and deck layout.
As previously mentioned, I'm looking along the lines of the US Arleigh and the Russian Udaloy Class destroyers.
They do have some nice deck lines.

So I experimented with the turret positions and the layout of the first level.

I think it will look rather good, and it has enough space for the Hydras, the Nemesis', and the landing pad for the Strix.
So, even though I did remove the elevator, I will not go without. I just had to remove the partially sunken elevator - with an elevator that I can later simply outline, I am more flexible than I was with the sunken one.

Since I want to keep it along the original design lines of the ATHENA and the Steampunk theme, I drew some ornaments on .5mm plasticard.

Drilled the holes into them...

...and then cut and glued them to the side walls.

After that I created the portholes, cut from a plasticard-rod.

Not to forget the rivets :)

The first side walls mounted.

Yeah, I think this will look rather good.

Then I created some more ornaments for the forward plate.

and mounted it.

It's gonna have some nice angles towards the front, and will be without portholes or doors.

I'm very pleased with the side view. I think these will be some elegant lines.

The necessary scale shot :)

Eventhough the lines and angles are a bit modern-ish, I still think they fit the ATHENA well, don't you think?

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

BTW, in regards to the weapons discussion, I am considering to have two banks of AA-Missiles, maybe two vertical launchers for Manticore-style missiles, and a main turret with a tripple Earthshaker(?) - this could give her some long-range direct and indirect firepower :)

Cheers

Klaus

Change of plans!

"Oh noes!" some of you may cry :)

Yeah, I admit, currently I have a hard time concetrating on my projects and finishing them up. But I think this change of plan will find your approval :)

So, lets see why.
As I stated in my last post, I wanted to experiment with OSL (Object Source Lighting) for the Ork mole.
However, I am not very pleased with the results:

It is not yet convincing.

I think I need to use stronger colours and deeper shadows - and I need to paint during day time, so that my overhead lamp doens't give me false impressions and colours.
This means I have to experiment a lot and try different things.
I will do so, but not non-stop and not daily.

So what's the cange of plans then?

Well, the re-design of the ATHENA!
Yes!
She's back on my desk :)
I hope to hear some happy cries and see some dances through the internet :D

As discussed I am no longer satisfied with the "Aircraft Carrier" idea. The reason is simply scale.
If I was to make her a "plausable" carrier, she'd have to be a lot bigger - even with VTOL aircraft.
So lets take another walk around her hull and upper deck - I have already put the "island" aside.

Hull side view with all weapons mounted.

Here you can see the Gatling/missile launcher combo beneath the jump deck.

Front view with the quad-Las canons, the twin auto-cannon, and the huge Siege cannon.

The torpedo launchers.

The rear propellers and twin AC's.

The deck, with the multiple rocket launcher (http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.com/2009/09/athena-steampunk-airship-21.html)

And here are the two Hydras as well as the Nemesis Close-In Weapons System.

And the STRIX on its elevator.

Looking back at my original plans you can see the ATHENA was not designed as a real carrier - but I got carried away while building *grin*

So what purpose should she serve then?
Her main task will be to support ground attacks by delivering massive firepower and at the same time either establish air-superiority or at least defend herself against any aerial attacks.

For the ground attack role she currently has:

• Siege Cannon
• 2x Mk XV Imperial Torpedo Launcher with Mk VIII Draconis Melta Torpedoes
• 2x Quad Las-Cannons
• Missile/punisher combo
• multiple rocket launcher
• 2x 500lbs Bomb racks

For Air Defense she currently has:

• 2 Hydra turrets
• Nemesis CIWS
• 4 twin Autocannons
• 4 twin Machine Guns (they were mounted on the island, and I will re-use them)
• STIX Interceptor VTOL

From a pure space point of view, the weapons arrangement could look like this.

So I decided to "open her up" again, and removed the entire deck.

One of the reasion for this is that I no longer need the elevator, but I may be able to use it as a display piece for the STRIX...

A new sheet of plasticard on the rear.

This layout gives me a good 30 cm for the actual bridge area (on which I want to mount the two Hydras and TWO Nemesis turrets), as well as it gives me room for another big turret - symbolized by the wooden box.

So what do you think?

What kind of weapon should I use for this large forward turret? Any more weapons that would be plausable or neccessary?

Well, let me know :)
Thanks for reading

Cheers

Klaus