THE PRUSSIAN AIRSHIP PROJECT PAGE 4

Well after much debate (mostly with myself) I settled on some earth tones as opposed to the normal grays found on Zeppelins. I felt this was more in line with a Victorian period airship in the Colonial area of operations. I wanted to ship to have a Victorian feel and not look like a machine set to deal destruction. My feeling was that this Airship was sent to help administer the new colony, as well as explore and that any enforcement of those policies was secondary to the airships primary purpose.  The airships primary role was sort the same as a steamships role would be on a river.  It's one advantage was that it would not be locked onto traveling only on navigable rivers.  But be free to roam the countryside as needed. A couple of sessions with the airbrush and some detailing brushes and the basic paint was laid down.

The airship would however be able can fully capable of carrying troops (up to 12 additional figures) and weapons to any point that they were needed for enforcement of the colonies policies. The front observation / weapons gondola would be capable of carrying several different types of weapons, its main weapon, would be a Gattling gun.  The airship is also capable of carrying several hundred pounds of primitive bombs.  Although not very accurate these can be used to great effect on native villages and concentrations of troops.  Its main defense is the fact that is hundreds of feet in the air and the weapons of the period are for the most part to useless against it. 

Now one of the biggest challenges of the entire project had to be tackled. The ship needed a name, several insignia, and recognition symbols applied to the exterior. To do this I had two choices, first to hand paint everything on, or second use decals.  I felt that hand painting posed some enormous problems.  First, a fairly good  painter but the preciseness needed to do lettering and the insignia in this scale would be nearly impossible and extremely time-consuming.  Using decals sounded like a great way to go except for one thing, nobody produces a set of decals for a Victorian science-fiction Prussian airship in 28 mm!

The next few pages of the 95% completed airship and its battle debut are high-quality (for web pages) images and will take one or two minutes to load with a 28.8 connection speed.  Let's face it why waste time was so-so pictures.  Enjoy!

MOVE ON TOO PAGE 5 OF "THE PRUSSIAN AIRSHIP PROJECT"

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