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Outstanding!!!!

Your gona need a bigger boat....I mean, room!

I second the notion of a fuigurhead that ideas too awsome to pass up

This is a work of art !

Thanks
Here's a zoomable version for you


@mxwllmdr - just realized I didn't answer you yet...
No, I use no die cutter, just a simple hobby knife with break-off blades

@RS Jake - well, I plan to add LED's to the Observation and Jump Deck at the bottom, the bridge and conference room, as well as behind the mural at the very rear of the ship:


@Rawson - well, the figurehead is a tempting idea, but bear in mind that I already have this huge Imperial Eagle there



Now that the mural is completed and in position I built two autocannons for it, starting of with some rods and pipes
@Vik - here you can also see the plasticard tubes I use


and ending with a proper AC´that even fits the IG tripod


I will position them on the upper rear of the superstructure, for which I built some railings



In addititon I added some access hatches


And here you can also see the Nemesis CIWS in position

and the current shape of the ATHENA


I hope you like todays update
Cheers
Klaus

thanks for the helping hand with the rai- ro products... seems this could be a new means for me to really get my hands into the scratchbuilding again... i just checked their shop... i have yet to fully look through all their ranges... super tip mate!!!

and seeing athena zoomable... you did a wonderful job on her eyes!!!

Wow. Just wow. Really, anything I say will just fall short of what I mean.....speachless.

OK, now I won't be able to do this for a couple of years at the earliest, but I HAVE to get over to Germany and see this work of art in person! And have some beer, and see Vik, but mostly see this in person! (Sorry Vik)

Wow.

Good lord man, why don't you do this for a living?

Miscarriage of cosmic justice right there.

LOL...jake... you are a card

Hey Jake, let me know when you land
But honestly, if you're in the country, let me know - even though Berlin (Vik) and Karlsruhe are about 680 km (6.5 hrs driving) apart.

Well, since it's been asked several times, I thought I make it known officially

Currently the ATHENA is almost 1 meter long (98 cm) and the hull alone weights 1,25 kg (2.5 pounds),


While the ATHENA with all turrets, weapons, deck, and accessories weights 2,05kg (4 pounds).


This is a lot lighter than most of you thought, isn't it?
And as you can see with all the stuff carelessly dumped onto her, she is very sturdy and can handle moving around
Cheers
Klaus

well thanks klaus for the insights in the measurements to the athena! and indeed... i wouldn´t have thought her too be such a lightweight...and yet so sturdy!...well with my not even remotly finished airship you could very well do pressups^^

That is one hell of an impressive 2kilo lump of talent you got there, Klaus......

Yep, I didn't think she would be that light. Especially with all the accessories on her!

As for travel, we are still debating on what kind of itinerary we want, but I am thinking a lot of driving or train travel to tour Europe, so that's not so bad.

This is of course if I get my top pick for our travel plans. The wife wants to do a Caribean Cruise....we're still in debate about it.

And like I said, 2014 at the earilest. So don't start getting ready yet!

And if I don't get my way, I'll send pictures from the Caribean!

wel in 2014 at least your kids will be on safe ground... with babies i woldn´t advice someone to travel there... climate shouldn´t be too sunny and hot for such small kids...

All I need to do now is add a bag of Helium in the body, a remote control....
NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!


Yesterday I recieved my LED "Starter Kit" from TSDS TSDS on Facebook - http://www.tsdsinc.com/
This LED Lighting Stips Complete Basic Kit consists of a 9v battery connector, two solder-less connectors and two 6" strips of LED lights for 10.99$

Instructions are really simple.
You can cut these stips into smaller sections of 4 LED and either use the solder-less connectors or solder the connections yourself.

So I decided to do a first test with two small sections of 4 LED each.

The first section is to light the Mural of the rear hangar. For this I cut a stip open into the rear wall and mounted the LED section.


And connected with the battery, it looks like this


I mounted the other section of 4 LED in the roof of the rear Jump Deck.



Really not bad.
I think this can work, but I will need to change some things:
- Light the rear hangar mural across its entire length
- Add a second light strip at the bottom of the mural, so lighting is more evenly
- For the 2 Jump Decks I will continue with 4 LED sections
- For the Observation Deck I will most likely 2 sections - 1 at each end.
- Make a seperate light circuit for the Command Deck (one long strip for the bridge" and 2 small strips for the conference room

For this I odered some more parts.
So this was a first test, successfull in my opinion, and until all other parts are here, I will continue with the actual build of the ATHENA.

Not sure what will be next though. Either finishing up the Earthshaker turret, or re-visiting the NEMESIS CIWS, or some railing, or, or, or...
Thank you for your time and I hope you liked todays update.
C&C welcome
Cheers
Klaus

This looks absolutely amazing, however i think that you should keep the mural LED like it is. it adds a bit of atmosphere.

Are you sure you don't want to make it actually fly?

You could probably reinforce the engine mounts and put an actual model helicopter engine in the body, with drive shafts going out to rotor cowlings on each of the mini-wings. Further lighten the body by putting a couple of Helium or Hydrogen bladders in the nose and tail, and I'd bet you could get that thing to fly.

Remote control at that. It's ok, Klaus, if you don't think you can do it, though....



Not like we have any reason to expect big things from you or anything....



LOL

i can see that these LED will be a cool toy to play with...what kind of batteries power this then?

and tho i see tarar2d2 point here i would light it fully...as otherwise you would loos so much hard work due to bad lighting... peeps need to see every detail^^

beyond cool klaus, the LEDs look great behind the window!

You are a consistent inspiration sir... great work as always!

My suggestion would be to put 2 more LED's on the ceiling near the circular stain glass windows, to give it more illumination.

Or on the exterior near the windows...... like ship running lights?

Mind totally blown with this...... like a bolter round to the brainpan, but in a good way :?

tarar2d2 wrote:This looks absolutely amazing, however i think that you should keep the mural LED like it is. it adds a bit of atmosphere.

I agree...This is just fantastic, really astonishing Klaus!!

THANKS guys!

as mentioned before I want to add a "drone" scene to the rear landing deck, with an observation drone and an attack drone. One lifting off, one being readied.

Thinking about the various design patterns and steampunk, I decided to try a Dragonfly design.
For this I cut the wings


And added clear plastic


To save space I wanted the wings to be foldable


The final assembled dragonfly

It looks OK, but not what I had in mind, really.

So back to the drawing board :(
After a lot of thinking I remembered some of the crazy German late war designs. Like some of the one-man rockets or suicide jet planes they designed as "Wunderwaffen".
Well, not really steampunk, but crazy enough for me
Some of the designs like the Me-329, Me-163, Ho-229, or even the Ju-322 kind of struck me, and I tried a new "Nurflügel-design" - something in the lines of a (sting-)ray.
For this I cut several sheets of plasticard (2 pieces 1mm thick and 4 pieces 1.5mm thick).


After lots of sanding I added the second engine


and now it looks like this


I think it really looks like a drone, and it takes a lot less space than the dragonfly design.
So what do you think?
Thanks for your time, and I hope you enjoyed todays update.
C&C welcome
Cheers
Klaus

That is just awesome Klaus! I love the rotating searchlight/gun pods. And I hope you don't mind me stealing that landing gear idea! That is Exactly what I needed!

I liked the dragonfly drone, but LOVE the second one!

Yes, Klause, What Dsteigass said. The landing gear is the perfect design. I think adatable to just about any size or modifications for all terrain. Very much like the whole thing but the front engine intake is wicked....


What will you use the dragonfly for? I assume you will use it for something......

Yeah..how did you do the intake fan?

That was done in the same method I use. very effective but ya gotta be careful with the fan blades or the pop off....

I think the new drone design is a better fit for the Imperium; I loved the dragonfly design, but it seemed a bit too graceful and elegant for a people that seem to prefer brute force solutions (" Whaddaya mean it's not aerodynamic enough to fly? No problem, slap another anti-grav unit on it!"

Damn, there's so much fun stuff on that ship!

PDA- Pretty Damn Awesome