ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (26)

As mentioned the Imperial Guard is all about ornaments and Imperial iconography. And since the ATHENA is one of the Empires finest pieces of warmachinery, there need to be many icons and ornaments.
So what would be better to protect the forward prow of this fine ship than a large Imperial Eagle?
But not a standard eagle, no it needs to be something big and really impressive.

So the idea was to build a layered eagle, and I cut 3 layers of 1mm plasticard for this. The first large layer gives the complete outline. The second layer shows the legs, chest, and inner part of the wings. the final third layer shows only the chest and top part of the wing.

And glued together, they make a mighty fine eagle

But what's an eagle without the heads

Cut in a slight angle, so they are pointing outwards

I am very satisfied with the result.

It truely commands the forward view of the ATHENA and nicely fits the IG and steampunk theme.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (25)

Here's your weekend reading :)
Twin-Synchronized-Anit-Aircraft-Auto-Cannons.
I decided my forward deck (on the nose) definately needs some light AA weapons, and so I started building these AC's.
I started with the barrels and several rings in two different diameters

Here you can see the muzzle breaks (without the cuts) and the first set of rings

Since these central rings need a larger diameter, I slipped a second, larger ring over them

Then the rear barrel "root"

More rings on top of the root, and done were the barrels

Then I built the actual gun housing - rather straight forward

Some decoration and rivets, case ejectors, ect

rear view

Then I started a gun shield for it

and mounted it to the AC

This will be the position for the AC, right over the lasguns

The actual mount is rather simple, just another piece of tube

And as my boss used to say:
"Once you know how it's done, it's just a matter of practice"

So I build a second AC right afterwards

This AC is mounted in a more A-A position

And here they are in their final positions

Now I will look into some more ornaments, maybe some aromor protection ect.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (24)

When I showed you the scetch for the Naval uniforms, you may have realized the note
"Officers wear ceremonial sword"
Guess what?
I looked through my sprues, and there is no such thing...


So I decided I had to build some myself. As base I used the Cadian banner bearer and cut the sheath out of plasticard, and I used the handles of the larger Cadian knifes for the swords. The centered handles of the smaller knifes don't work - at least they don't look any good.

For the hand guard I cut plasticard rings in half

May need a bit less than half of the ring, but you get the idea.

Here I also tried a different form.

And within a few minutes I had 8 ceremonial swords ready.

Once they are mounted on a character there will be some detailing required, like the ornametal cord and stuff, but that'll be quick greenstuffing.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (23)

I finally got me a display cabinet for my DEI GRECI contest entries.
Two winners and two non-winners so far.
As you can see, the ZEUS is to big and needs to remain on the other cabinet (top right), but it didn't participate in a contest anyway :)

Here is the Kazushaaah, the artillery contest winner.

The THANTALOS, 2007 Fast Attack winner :)
Unfortunately the base for it doesn't fit, so I have to see if I can cut the base plate to fit the cabinet.

The Shrine of Agathe the Fierce, that participated in the 2009 Turn Counter Contest, but didn't fare well, as well as the BOREAS, participating in the 2008 Walker Contest, also not successfull.

After I built the cabinet and moved the contest pieces I went to work on the ATHENA.
As previously mentioned, I had to rework most pieces.

But now it works like a charm - elevated fully

fully lowered

The new rear plates

I decided to move the postition behind the launcher, rather than besides it.

Now I just have to decide where I will place the ammo hatch.

Reloading operations

and folded down, in storage postion.

Cheers

Klaus

ATHENA - Steampunk Airship (22)

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last view days, but I had the chance to participate in the Beta testing for Aion, a new MMOG, and that consumed quite some time - I can tell you it is qute a time sink - just as bad as WOW - but lots of fun. I have allready ordered the gamen, so there's a good chance I will lack some updates.

Nevertheless, I did work on the ATHENE. I started with the folding (Ammo) crane for the rocket launcher ... hmm still need a name for that one....

Here are the basic parts

folded once

and folded down completely

Then I added the hydraulic cylinders

and it works pretty well

nfortunately I glued one of the pieces wrongly, so I have to take it apart again, and re-assemble the hydraulics again.Also I will change the 3 bars in the rear, and replace them with a steampunk-style plate.

Thanks to Lucius von Kalteisen and Fireball at WIP I have some new IG crew torsos and legs I can work with to create a good crew for the ATHENA.

For this purpose I createda first Naval Fleet paintscheme test

Cheers

Klaus

2009 Artillery Contest Winner

:)

My contest entry for the "Work in Progress - SUMMER OF SHELLING" artillery contest 2009, STALINZ ORKAN won.
:)

With 29,41% of the votes it was a relatively clear win in a very diverse and challenging contest.
Thanks to all participants for their great entries, and thanks to all voters.

This won't be my last Ork project - promised.
If you haven't, please visit my STALINZ ORKAN blog and see the day-to-day (historical) progress of this project.

I had a lot of fun, and I hope you can enjoy the read.


Thanks

Klaus