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Just too awesome!

It's great to see you making progress again! Those turrets look so cool! And I love the look of your cockpit. Looking forward to seeing you get more work done on it.

Great build on the air ship and very impressed with your thread.

Thanks very much for looking in Tommygun1918 and Warboss!

I have found it to be a truism for the several years I have been on Dakkadakka now that if I can only sit down in my chair at the little desk I practice our hobby at, I'm happily engaged for as much of the evening as I can spare. Sometimes though it seems very hard to just sit down.

The Kitty Hawk is now at the stage of needing a little of everything: detail painting, hull painting, crafting, application of decals, fiddling with magnets- there's got to be something that seems fun to do every time!

More follows soonest.

Wow that ship is well-armed, they remind me of the quad turbo-lasers on the Millennium Falcon!

Just curious are you spray priming indoors sir? I recently matte coated my finished BattleTech minis outside and experienced some nasty bloom...

Howdy Private Benjamin- thank you for looking in.

Normally I use shaker cans out on the exterior walkway leading to my apartment, for the ventilation- but I'll carry everything in as soon as I'm done, so the propellent and paint gases are (in theory) left outside, but the item(s) dry inside. The exception to the rule is if I'm leaving immediately after priming or painting with a shaker can: I get a lot of stuff done before I head out to work (in 3 out of 4 seasons ), leave a window cracked to assist air exchange and then roll out.

If I'm primering or painting with my airbrush, all bets are off- all of that happens inside whether I'm leaving afterwards or not.

Sorry to hear of your contra-positive experience with your Battle Tech miniatures, hopefully recoverable?

More follows soonest.


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And thank you for the kind words, Colonel Jacka! I'm grateful that so many fellow Dakkanauts take the time to look at my thread, let alone comment- it is greatly appreciated. Hopefully I can continue to produce a project here and there worth looking at!

Absolutely fantastic stuff Meer_Cat! That's one awesome zeppelin!

Thanks very much, Olthannon!

I know this project has been carried out for a while now- I'm pushing to wrap it up both to see the fruition of the initial concept but also to be able to just get on with something else!

Although, what that might be will take some thinking. I still have a lot of Nekomimi Winterguard figures and heavy weapons and even a couple of TomCat war-walkers to mess around with, but my heart just isn't in it now that Resin Munitorum isn't producing any more. Hopefully he'll get back into it, but until then, I may sandbag what I have left and get started wtih some other segments of the plastic Mountain of Shame that need attending to.

More follows soonest.

Great to see you back, Meer! I'm looking forward to the lined up size comparison photo of chonky kitty That story about your old coast guard ship is hilarious. And, not to be disrespectful, but I know how stress can build up without hobby time. Would it be do-able to put your mom on speaker phone and multitask with hobbying at the same time?

Thanks for looking in, Syro- very good to hear from you! I'm afraid talking with my mother takes all my (meagre) attention; she's suffering from onset dementia and I have to be very inter-active to keep a solid conversation going and not just 'talk at' her. She still has excellent long-term memory and we talk about things from the past (up to as recently as fifteen years ago) but anything more recent than that it's hard for her. And I'm happy to be able to do it, and learning a lot that happened when I was a kid and didn't think to ask!

Hobby time will come, and I'm solidly back in the groove, so that helps; like tonight:

I've been dreading this step because if I get it wrong, I have to go back and rethink the entire bridge- started by masking off the areas of the plastic hemisphere that I want to stay transparent:



Then hit it with basic hull color:



This is the first, lightest coat I could manage with the shaker can- can't afford any drips! I'll hit it tomorrow morning before I go to work and that should coat well enough that I can pull the masking off tomorrow afternoon. Looking at it at this stage, this thing is begging for 'Flying Tiger' teeth on the sides of the bow, gonna have to see what I can manage freehand.

Also got a bit more done on the guns:



They're almost done- just need olive drab buffer coil retainer bands (between the red buffers and the black barrels) and muzzle burn and then I can start weathering the turrets.

The crewcats are done with primering and I hope to start them soon- of course, have to suss out what uniform colors they'll be- this is a whole new Corps! If anyone knows a point of contact for Resin Munitorum, ask him if he's going to produce figures again!

More follows soonest.

Ah, sorry to hear that, Meer. I didn't realize/remember about the dementia. You're definitely making the right choice, and it's great that you can hear those stories. Do you have a way to get audio recordings of those stories? It could be cool to record an oral family history. I made some recordings when my grandmother told stories of her youth (when I could do it surreptitiously enough not to make her nervous) which my family appreciated. I know that I desperately wish I had more recordings of my dad's voice.

I hear you, Syro. It's like the lyrics of the song say: you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. I've got letters from my father from when I was in service (Coast Guard was the first, then Marine Corps then Army) and it's funny: he was an Earth Sciences teacher but never wanted to learn to use a computer; he was just at the wrong point of his tech-usage wave as desk top units were becoming affordable and common. No recordings I'm afraid, of any of us. You were smart to get what you did.

Some progress tonight:

This photo shows the base color on one turret, and the base plus a grey wash on the other:



They all got the wash and I'll probably do something similar on the weapons gondola. The quad 40 turrets are done, except for a very faint rust wash that I will carefully apply to the rivet heads:



I haven't used the grey wash on the gun breeches yet and may not- I kind of like the contrast with the turret armor.

Started customizing the close combat Nekomimi Officer (Major Tanya) into the zeppelin Captain by heating and flexing the figure and trimming away the lightning claws she used to have- I think the posturing is going to work well with the command chair I've started to fabricate:



The bridge arrangement will be the classic 'Star Trek' layout with the captain's chair in the center, navigation/astrogation at the front as a pair and possibly some computer screens (or something made from old bits of circuit board) on the aft bulkhead.

And started painting and assembling said navigation/astrogation console:



I have no plan in mind for this- this is definitely 'seat of the pants' kitbashing and customizing. There are apt to be severe alterations as we go.

I had to add one more coat of rattle can paint to the nose section- hopefully I can pull the tape off tomorrow and see if it worked.

Thank you for looking in, more follows soonest.

Some more work in before heading up to the farm tomorrow after work for the weekend:

Applied temporary bases and started the bridge and weapons crews:



Touched up the quad 40 turrets- tried a light rust, didn't like it, painted out with flat white and then hit just the rivets with the grey wash, I can live with the result:



Discarded the idea of using the neon green painted lens as computer screens- they're just too big and clunky; drawing inspiration from Warboss, TommyGun and others, entered the styrene shaping fray with a very easy-entry beginning and built these screens, primed, basecoated and now just needing some touch up paints:



Finally, it happened just as I feared: despite being very deliberate and careful the last coat of paint on the bow section bubbled up:



Am I dismayed? I am not Am I sanding it down and starting over? I am not You know what that pattern looks like to me? Damage from a plasma cannon, that's what it looks like to me. I'm going to paint it up like blast damage and leave it as is (unless I sleep on it over night and can't stand the idea, in which case I am dismayed and will sand it down and start over).

Ya try sumpin' new, ya learns new things.

More follows soonest.

I'm really liking the look of those turrets Good thinking on the plasma burn as well. I like working without much planning too, something more relaxing about not needing to measure every tiny minutiae of a build (Why orks are my biggest army )

'There are no mistakes, only happy accidents'
Keep fighting the good fight my man! Is the finishing line in sight?

Thanks, Syro- too true. Maybe I need to look into starting up an Orks Army! I am by nature an Imperial Guard kind of person, and it's hard to combine the words 'restful' and 'WAAAARGHHHH!!!!!!; in the same sentence, but I do see the attraction!

Thanks, PaddyMick! Ah, Bob Ross- we lost you too soon. Hard to believe that guy's nickname was 'The Beast' when he was a drill sergeant in the Air Force! And yep- the finish line is in sight. The bridge is the last major component to build and is well underway; I've started painting the bridge and gunnery crews; there are decals to add and I've received the last magnets I'm going to try to use in the mail to attach the weapons gondola. One way or the other, I'm finishing this critter soonish: I've got a million other things I want to try!

Thanks all for looking in, and all the encouragement.

Only a little bit of time to work tonight, nothing worth posting a photo of, at any rate. Started the uniforms for the crew. Took the masking tape off the bow section and now in addition to painting on plasma burns I've got to clean up the masking lines (trim hides a multitude of sins) where it leaked a little. Overall, didn't come out too badly though.

Hopefully a proper update tomorrow, with pics.

More follows soonest.

I'm glad to hear that it didn't turn out badly. Looking forward to more

Thank you Syro- pic follows, there is some clean up needed!

Got a little more work done on the crew figures tonight:



I'm actually not as worried about precision or painting down to the smallest detail, as their visibility will be very reduced, given their position's inside the ship. I am looking for ways to provide good contrast (make things pop) for the same reason- without going overboard and making it look too blocky. The uniform coats are one example: I may change some colors because to the Mark 1 Eyeball the officers' Graphite Blue is visibly and markedly different from the enlisteds' Pale Grey, but in photos they both look chalky white. Of course, the coats will receive washes and that may accentuate the difference.

Also fiddled a bit with the navigation console computers:


I may end up only installing one, as the obvious thing to have somewhere on the bridge is the ship's wheel, not sure yet if that will be forward at the console or set to one side or even behind the captain's console.

And here is the nose section with the deck sole and navigation console dry fitted- lots of work yet to be done but seeing the end in sight:



Some trim along all the painted edges to hide the spray paint leak through the tape, add the chin guns and maybe the flying tiger teeth on the sides and we're getting towards done. The blue navigation light is already wired and run, just needs to be fitted through the aft bulkhead.

Thank you for looking in, more follows soonest.

That's too bad,I have gotten that paint peeling when I have painted oils over acrylics or on a rare occasion, acrylic over unprimed surfaces.
The colors on those guns look great.

Thankee fer lookin' in, Tommygun1918! If the one 'plasma burn' goes well, I may add other authentic battle damage! to other parts of the ship. Or not, I really want to get this beast wrapped up!

The hour I had to work tonight got the nose cone cleaned up a bit, with both good and not-so-good outcomes:





Adding and building up the styrene strips did cover up the paint leaks and added some texture to the otherwise very flat curves- gives it a bit of a 'Buck Rogers' spaceship look to it, very 1930's retro, which I like. I'll do a bit more of fiddling with trim and/or filler to smooth out some of the transitions in the corners that you see and then paint. I may add a strip of styrene right up the middle, to divide the canopy into two hemispheres, just for visual interest.

On the not-so-good side, it doesn't show as badly in photos as I can see with the Mark I Eyeball, but there re some smudges on the clear plastic that I can't get off with any cleaner I've tried so far, so they're just going to have to be abrasion from combat, airborne potato virus spores or the infamous space dust when the captain takes the Chonky Kitty supra-orbital.

I'm not unhappy with tonight's progress at all- I think it is a major step forward and the installation of the flight deck furnishings can now commence, followed by getting the dad-gummed aft bulkhead in place with its magnets and then I can finish up all the crewcats and get on to decals.

Thank you for looking in, your encouragement and your constructive criticism. More follows soonest.

As the song says: 'ere we go again! Rather, I guess that's Orks, innit?

Anyway, wanted to brush paint the trim added to the nose section, and the styrene just wasn't having it. So masked up again, and used the shaker can:



If this leaks I'm just gonna paint the blinking canopy and be done with it. I was as careful as could be to ensure good line up and adhesion for the tape (and I'm using painters tape for crying out loud) so it should be okay.

Got my order in from K&J Magnetics- these are 3/4" by 3" bar magnets, and I'm using the strongest adhesive I know of- greenstuff- to fasten them to the weapons gondola:



I'm worried that the very smooth magnets won't give the epoxy anything to grab onto, and didn't know how to rough up the metal surface to make a key, so we'll see what happens. If the greenstuff doesn't hold, I'll drill through and use cut-off rivets to mechanically attach them.

And used the time whilst the paint was drying on the nose section to get a little more work done on the crewcats:



Everybody is wearing anti-static boots (a'la The Hindenburg) even though the lifting gas used in the 41st Millenium is probably not flammable. Except the figure on the left- she has two artificial legs and I figure she is either the the exo-orbit (out of atmosphere) pilot or a fighter pilot (before I ran out of hull space, there was supposed to be the main gondola, the battery gondola and a fighter hanging under the hull, like USS Akron or Macon). She's probably a fighter jock, as those guys don't give a fething hoot in Hades about danger. Or regulations. Or non-Ray Ban sunglasses. The two under-officers have their waffenfarbe colors for their respective branches: aerial operations (blue) and gunnery (red).

Thank you for looking in. Maybeso tomorrow I'll take a break from these aspects and see about applying some decalage- but I really want to save that for last, just in case something goes wrong.

More follows soonest.

Leakage from the rattle can wasn't too bad, but there was some- so I used some old 'art lining' tape to edge it that had been hanging on my painting desk so long that the store I bought it from has since closed out of business. I'll apply some white wash where the crud is built up between the two hemispheres (the tape was gooey) and that's it, it's done. I'm gluing the deck sole in now, then the rest should go in pretty quickly:



The deck sole was interesting in itself- the edges kept wanting to curl up. So, with the extravagant number of magnets I've got lying about now, I put one under the foma board deck and one on the other side of the deck sole and magnetically clamped the sumbich in place.

Whilst waiting for things to glue up, started gluing this tank up:



It's a bit bigger than a Leman Russ and is just begging for a Nekomimi crew- it's the perfect size for them. If I can just find some more Nekomimi figures....

Also worked on the crewcats- applying washes- pictures tomorrow if I get enough
done to be worth photographing.

More follows soonest.

Tonight I've glued in the navigator's console, the navigation and ship-handling computers and the battle display screen:



I've kind of goofed putting in so much detail, as it will largely not be seen except in the rare event that the bridge is removed for some reason. I was excited at the possibility of gaming aboard the model, but by the time you put in guns, consoles, etc there really isn't any room anywhere to do so! I can't help but do my best, even for things that won't be seen- as evidenced by the fully painted driver of the Athena command vehicle (located towards the front end of this thread) with its fully painted and detailed driver that you absolutely can't see.

Also started making the ship's wheel:



Test fitted the weapons gondola with its new, 3" long magnets and they a) look like they will stay attached with their greenstuff mountings and b) produce a somewhat slimmer profile for the Chonky Kitty; next step is to glue on 'cradling' steps to keep it aligned up/down and side runners to both keep the gondola aligned left/right but also block light from leaking out the top (we'll see how successful that is).

More follows soonest. Thank you for looking in.



And lastly have started detailing the aft bulkhead and the false 'wall' that will go behind it that will have the magnets embedded for attaching to the metal stovepipe hull. Noy much to go, save the crew, for this stage to be complete.

Well that airship is progressing at an amazing speed.

Even with the set-backs, it's nice seeing all this progress And certainly nothing wrong with always doing your best, that's admirable.

Thank you for looking in and the kind words, NotOnline!!! and Syro.

I'm not unhappy at the rate of progress, we do what we can do when we can do it. I do wish that the space available had allowed more for a gaming scenario, but in the end the goal was to build a zeppelin, and that I have done. (Maybe I could go to 15mm scale for gaming! )

I do have to say, I'll be glad to get this wrapped up, just to be able to work on something different. This project has called for a lot of different skills though: stove pipe manipulation, angle grinding, rivet making and application, wiring, soldering, electrical power calculation, painting, weathering and magnetism, to name the most obvious. They guys at work want me to bring it in when it's done- I think they're having trouble visualizing the ship.

I bought a tablet stand to hang the zepp from when it's finished- the pipe cradle just isn't giving me the up-vibes- which is supposed to be able to hold up 10 pounds. I may have to fix or freeze the flexible joints though, so they don't fold under the weight. At a guess, I'd say the Kitty weighs in at about 7 pounds.

More follows soonest. Thank you all for the encouragement and constructive criticism.

Everything is coming along steadily, Meer_Cat..it's good to see you making progress.

Wowza. I haven't checked in for a while, so the progress you've made is extra impressive. The sheer amount of stuff going into the interior-- guns, panels, that little First Aid kit-- really bring the airship to life.

Thank you both for looking in! I keep stumbling over things in my bits box and can't help but think: "Ooh! This will look cool as a {fill in the blank}!" I really need a much larger airship for everything!

Take tonight, for example: tonight was supposed to be detailing the aft bulkhead, preparatory to finishing the crew and entombing them in the bridge forevermore, mwahhahahaha! I mean, permanently locate them in a position of viewing advantage, yeah, that's it.

Instead, reading today's installment of Girl Genius comic (which is one of the major sources of inspiration for this whole build) I saw an interesting representation of the bridge (one of them, anyway) of Castle Wulfenbach, the flagship of the aerial empire composed of a huge fleet of airships of Baron von Wulfenbach. It answered the question of how to use the great vertical space in the bridge section, while minimizing the drawbacks of the limited horizontal space. The answer of course, is wrought iron platforms in the air.

Note: bridge space on many/most warships is limited, and even moreso on airships. If you've seen the movie Greyhound with Tom Hanks (based on a story by C.S. Forester- better known for his Horatio Hornblower books), you've seen how tight the space was on the bridge of a WWII destroyer- and that ship was twice as long as my own USCGC Duane!

So, start with some basic building components: a hanger that a 6-pack of socks came on and a couple of Strongid paste syringes (no needle, it's adminsitered orally to horses to prevent worm infections in their intestines):



Add some creatively carved styrene bits to make your ladders (naval 'ladders' are really steep civilian stairways, ha ha):



Glue it all up, add a couple of rivets to the bases (pay attention, League of Extraordinary Riveters) and you get two command platforms, one for the Captain and one for the helmscat. The bridge guard and aerial operations officer (AOO) will be down on the deck and the supra-orbital pilot will probably be consulting with the Captain (if there is room on the paltform for both):



And that- completely unplanned modification to the bridge- used up my time for tonight. I'm excited to get all these pieces installed (the platforms and ladders are being primed now) and see how it all looks, but I think I've finally got my bridge arrangement finalized.

Thank you for looking in, more follows soonest.