Still Floating Around...

Hi, All!

Returning slowly, but in style...

Remember me? Good grief! I thought I'd take a short break from all this blogging stuff and I'll be damned if it didn't turn into three years!

First of all, let me thank everyone who sent emails and inquiries over the last couple of years regarding my whereabouts, health, etc., or expressing their wishes that I should continue with my creations and this blog. I hope my latest piece will satisfy you all!

"Oh, get on with it, Colonel," I hear you cry...

Concept sketch.

Just like most VSF/Steampunk enthusiasts, I had often toyed with ideas for an airship of some description, but it was always just another idea on the list until a friend commissioned me to make one for him. "Rivets and stuff?" I mused, "For money? Good Lord!"

So dusted off the old tools, replaced all the paints that had turned to plastic in their pots, and got on with creating.

Two steel light shades provide the main structure.

The first question I had to address was how to make the balloon - how big, how to get the right shape, and also because I'm incapable of keeping my mouth shut if an idea is trying to get out, I'd suggested that, "Wouldn't it be great if I built lighting into it too...?"

Bloomin' idiot!

Plastic board completes the shape, while a nice chunky computer fan adds a rear propeller.

Low voltage wires are installed to hang the model from, as well as providing power to hidden LED strips. A broken LED lamp and a golf tee become the nose cone.

I looked at various options and finally settled on two light shades joined together, exactly how I had created the rocket ship in my last post. However, this combination alone wasn't quite right as it didn't really allow for large cabins/gondolas, etc., so I added a collar of plastic board in between them. A big fat computer fan (no, not Nigel...) was added as a propeller. The base of a broken LED lamp became the nose cone.

Side gantries are constructed.

Now it was time to add the interesting bits.

I started with the side gantries, which I constructed from plastic board. The wood work was textured using heavy sandpaper, then planks were defined by scoring/scraping with a knife held at 90° to a straight-edge. Ping-pong balls were cut and poked through holes in the end panels to create domes, and finally the port-holes were made from disposable contact lens cases.

Let there be light!

I had wired LED strips in place earlier. The gantries were laid on over these and... OOPS! Everything glowed! Planks, metalwork, the lot! I realised that it would take far too many coats of paint to cut out the light that was diffusing beautifully though the white plastic - so I poured myself a wee drink, took a breath, and pulled it all apart again.

The basic structure complete and card bands glued on. As you can see, light is still getting through in some areas at this stage.

Oh, well. It's a learning curve, innit?

The answer was to line everything with black card. Or, in the case of the bits I hadn't built yet, to make them from card first, then finish them with plastic. Windows were made from acetate sheet, frosted by sanding it with very fine sandpaper.

Rivets! Rivets, I tell you! Hahahahahaa!

After that, the rest of the construction was fairly straightforward - and it wasn't long before I was gluing on rivets! Just like old times...

A bridge provides a nerve-wracking means of moving between the fore- and aft- gondolas...

The model starts to look nice and solid with the generous application of rivets...

Somewhat comically small wings provide a means of steering the vessel.

A bottle cap adds an extra touch to the rear propeller.

Needless to say, this took some time... Until, finally, I was ready to start painting the bugger!

I didn't want to use dark, heavy colours for this one, and I knew I wanted lots of copper. So I started with a brown undercoat everywhere, then applied base colours for wood, copper, steel and canvas.

Base colours go on. I'm not bothered about tidiness at this stage. Everything can be fixed later and windows will be scraped clean. 

Wood tones were finished first.

Copper is tidied up, the windows are scraped clean, and the model starts to look finished!

I admit, I started to get a bit excited at this point, as it really started coming together. I was particularly pleased with the wood tone.

Once the painting is done, handrails are added to the bridge...

...and the rear balcony.

Grey and silver highlighting gives a nice feeling of weight to the engine block.

Once all the colours were on and mistakes corrected, I finished off the woodwork by washing with dark brown ink, then highlighting with an almost fleshy sand tone. The copper paint was generously daubed with chestnut ink. This was messy, thank to the rounded shape of the balloon - every stray drop ran for miles! Consequently, the canvas had to be painted and repainted until it was nice and white.

Nose cone detail.

Very interestingly, the constant painting, repainting and highlighting of the canvas actually resulted in a rough canvas-like finish! An accident? Or sheer genius? Hmmm... Probably the former!

And all of a sudden,  there it was! Done!

Rivet count on this fine fellow..
1,866 !

Atmospheric, innit!

Light through the small windows in the cabin doors nicely illuminates the bridge.

The rear balcony.

Night flying!

Wish I owned one of these...

Sailing away to new adventures...

I hope you've enjoyed this post! I'll try to bring you more in the not-too-distant future!

All the Best!

To Infinite Tea... And Biscuits!

Hi, All!

Bringing the Empire to the stars!

Has it ever occurred to you how much a plastic wine glass looks like half of a steam-powered rocket ship?

Me too!

With this in mind, I recently decided to prove the resemblance...

Wine goblets with removable stems - this feature proved very handy in handling the model as it took shape.

My junk projects usually evolve from useful/interesting looking bits I've spotted. Howver, in this case I actually went out looking for plastic wine glasses of the right proportions. And as luck would have it, I found them - on special! Cheap is good.

The goblets are glued end-to-end and strips of card are added as the first details.

I had been wanting to make a somewhat Flash Gordon/Trigan Empire-esque rocket ship for a long time, but since this is a mostly VSF blog, I felt I should endeavour to produce something in keeping with the rest of my creations.

Hence the rivets.

And chimneys.

A mock-up fin is made from card to fit the curve of the rocket, before using it as a template for three plastic ones. Note the spotlight reflector used to create the thruster.

The fins are stamped with holes to create a Victorian iron-work look, then lined with plastic strips to add bulk.

This was actually a very simple build, although curves can be a bit of a challenge. All the usual O'Truth techniques came in handy - decorative hole punches, thin strips of card lined with rivets, portholes punched out of plastic - I've talked about all of these before, so I won't bore you.

Slovenly Bob loiters by the rocket as rivets are gradually added.

"So why did it take you so long to finish, Colonel?" I hear you mutter. Well, stop muttering please. It's rude.



In fact, the most testing part of this build was actually the painting. And it was all my fault.

A hatch is detailed from little scraps of plastic.

Beads and styrene plastic tubes form the rocket's chimney-style exhausts.

I made a number of mistakes which just ended up taking ages to correct:

• I undercoated in a light grey. This meant that the copper I wanted to use looked really watery and thin, even after three coats. In the end, I had to paint all of it out with brown paint and do it again. Should have known better!
• I tried doing the main green with ink. This just doesn't work for Victorian machinery, whereas paint gives a nice solid feel - and so I had to repaint the whole thing. Also should have known better!
• I kept buggering up the red and white on the Union Jack bas-relief motif. Just because I was getting frustrated by now. 'Nuff said.
  

A Union Jack is fashioned in bas-relief from 0.5mm plastic board. This is then bent into shape to fit the curve of the rocket.

Scraps of card and offcut plastic form interestin extra panels to break up the smooth lines of the rocket a little. lots of rivets are added. I also finally settled for a bead, half a ball-point pen and a cocktail stick to create the nose-spike.

Anyway, frustrations aside, I am very happy with the final result, and I can tick off another design idea that's been rattling around in my noggin for ages.

UGLY ink... At this point, I was getting a little grumpy.

Oh, yes... I suppose I should report that the Rivet Count is 881 !

Not bad...

The finished rocket (finally!) lands among alien ruins somewhere in the deep reaches of the Empire.

Lord Smudgington Smythely-Smythe leads his intrepid shok troopers into the unknown!

So there you go. I'll be back to work on Lord Smudgington Smythely Smythe's Hydraulically-Motorvated Sextupedal Land-Traversing Vacational Domicile soon, but in the meantime I have a rather nice card table I need to recondition (adding a chess board for good measure), a rock album to release and a few games of skittles to enjoy on the skittle board I built last week...

"What do you mean, they've never seen the Union Jack before?!"

Thanks for bearing with me, folks!

Anyone for skittles?

All the Best!

Hangin' Out Around The Back

Hi, All!

Finally! A nice, safe balcony!

I've finally got around to finishing a few more of the bits of Lord Smudgington Smythely-Smythe's Hydraulically-Motorvated Sextupedal Land-Traversing Vacational Domicile that I've been putting off.

There are gaps! Gaps, I tell you!

For some time now, the unfinished rear wall of the engine room has been bothering me. Because of the way I constructed it, with the engine protruding out of the back, closing everything in neatly and making it all straight and tidy was going to be a bit fiddly.

So I did other stuff for a bit. Well, over a year, actually!

Brass rod is detailed to anchor the wall against the engine.

The unpainted brass assembly is tried in place - the wall straightens out nicely!

As you can see, the wall needed to be straightened, anchored against the engine, balconies attached, and a capping placed along the top. The capping serves to disguise the still slightly wiggly wall, and also provides a straight edge for the removable barrel vault roof to line up against.

The painted anchor pieces fit beautifully! Now for the rest...

In order to anchor the wall to the engine, I needed something strong and rigid, so I decided to use square brass tube, to which I added plastic details, shaped to fit against the engine details.

And gaps on the inside, too!

Simple strips of plastic are dotted with rivets and fixed in place to hide the gaps. Note that these do not match - my engine is a whole millimeter off-centre!

Once the wall sections were nicely (mostly) straightened out, the capping was added, and the balconies were constructed. This was all pretty simple stuff really, if a little time-consuming.

The capping (unpainted) in place above the wood-effect balcony. The wood grain is visible from below as well as above.

The capping runs the full width of the engine room. Both balcony floors are now in place.

The balconies were 'floored' with plastic rather than the balsa I've used for the other deck areas. This enabled me to keep the floors thin, without losing strength or making them fragile. The wood grain effect was achieved by dragging coarse-grade sandpaper in one direction only along the plastic. Planks were then outlined by scoring with the side of a sharp knife.

Edges are constructed and detailed to fit around the balcony floors.

With the edges in place, the hand rail is built. Note the now painted capping, complete with rivets!

Once the flooring was in place, edge pieces were build and painted separately before gluing them in place - ensuring that the distinction between wood and iron remained nice and clean. A hand rail was then added as with so many other parts of the model!

This stage of the model required a few rivets to be removed, but overall the count increased by 198...

Bringing today's Rivet Count to...

13,767!

Not bad, if I say so myself.

So there you go. The engine section is very nearly done - just a few ladders and bits and bobs to add before I move on to the chassis for the entire machine! Exciting!

Stay tuned, folks, as I shall also soon be bringing you a steam powered rocket ship!

My rear end. A sight to make my mother proud!

All the Best!