Bunkers, Boards and Bulkheads

Hi, All!

Another one of those cool porthole-shots...

It's been about four weeks since my last post. Sorry about that! What with work and blah blah blah and wotsit...

Anyway, I finally managed to put in a few hours on Lord Smudgington Smythely-Smythe's Hydraulically Motorvated Sextupedal Land-Traversing Vacational Domicile...

Lord Smudgington Smythely-Smythe and friend examine the new floorboards.

The engine room continues to take shape, with the addition of a coal bunker, floorboards, three walls and a few details. There is still a lot to do, but these things take time, don'cha know?

Walls are planned out on foamcore.

Bulkhead doors take shape from plastic board. Rivets, etc. soon to be added.

The finished walls, ready to be painted. note the rivet count as it stacks up...

The engine room will eventually occupy portions of two decks and can be entered from the main deck or the machine deck, one level down. At this stage, the walls you can see are the walls of the machine deck. More will be added higher up soon, along with a glass dome roof reminiscent of a Victorian greenhouse. Obviously, I will also add a back wall to the whole affair, but at this point, I am still undecided about the final design of this.

The basic coal bunker. Made from card, foamcore and a plastic girder.

A chunk of foam is used to bulk-out the coal supply.

The bunker is painted and gravel is added.

I wanted a coal bunker near the furnace, to be filled from the main deck via a large hatch.This will be visible from the engine room but not take up too much space in terms of gameplay. To add interest, I painted this red, in keeping with the various machine parts of the vessel, breaking up the blue-grey of the walls.

The coal bunker is added. the coal was painted jet black, with no highlighting at all.

As floorboards and walls are added, the engine room comes to life. 

The floorboards were simple to produce but really set off the colours of the engine beautifully. At last, I was able to glue down the engine and its various associated parts. I'll be adding a lot more details such as valves, gauges, pipes, walkways and ladders. I also have to make several lanterns, glaze the portholes in the doors and mount LEDs behind these to provide light later on.

Trim, handrail, ladder and shield, prior to painting.

The various bits are painted before being added to the engine room.

...and finally, the details are added to the model.

I decided that the pit in which the chain-drive sits looked a little dangerous, not to mention unfinished, so a trim was built from plastic board and rods, incorporating a red shield to partially obscure the cogs at one end. I also added a handrail and ladder.

Engine, chain-drive and pit. The walls have been glued in place. You can also see the beginnings of the upper level, to be accessed from the main deck of the vehicle.

Capacitor and chain-drive. A trim will have to be added to the rear edge of the pit, currently visible as unfinished wood.

Needless to say, all these walls and details were furnished with many rivets. Because I can. To be precise, I have added a total of 715 rivets since my last post, bringing the Rivet Count so far to:

3,899 !

I have now passed the count for HMSW Garganutua (3,630) with many months yet to go!

Indeed, I seriously doubt now that this project will be finished in time for my original target of August 2013, but I'll keep on plugging...

From above, before details were added. The main floor area measures approximately 30cm x 30cm (12" x 12"). The whole vehicle will eventually be about twice as wide and four times as long as this...

So there you go: not much exciting going on, but essential nonetheless. With the walls in place, I am now able to think about more cool details and clever bits, so watch this space!

Another shot of the almost-finished pit.

And I'll try not to take so long between posts next time!

The engine, from within the coal bunker.

All the Best!