THE PRUSSIAN AIRSHIP PROJECT PAGE 5

Well as usual I jump in with both feet and this was no exception. I had long wanted to learn how to make my own decals and if I was ever going do it this would be a time.  Well long story short, after considerable investment in time and money and a steep learning curve I succeeded in being able to produce my own decals for this airship!  I felt good about completely producing my own decals since I sometimes feel that not painting your own insignia or heraldry on your miniatures is sort of cheating, but since I did paint / create them on the computer and then transfer them to a decal I felt the entire process was still mine. I drew the Iron Cross's, imperial ensign, and Navel "Jack" from research in my own sources as well as internet info. I used "Corel 7" as my drawing / paint program. It is a feature packed program not recommended for the average user but if you are willing to take the time and trouble to learn it is very powerful! There is quite a bit of joy in producing your own decals "just the way I want them" and being able to size them to exactly my needs was great! The down side is that my investment of over $1000 dollars makes the 10 decals you see here about $100 a piece! and a lot of time!  I hope soon though to have a limited range of decals available for sale on my commercial site WWW.HistoricalHobbies.com to recoup some of my investment.

A reader has pointed out that I failed to mention the name of the ship and he could not make it out from the picture. It is "Der HimmelKonig" or in english "The Sky King"

To the rear of the ship you see the twin boiler stacks with removable smoke. These were airbrushed cotton bandage material glued to a hidden wire. This is a trick that I would like to say I invented 20 years ago, at least locally. I was tired of seeing "round, white, cotton balls used to represent everything from a civil war musket fire to a blast from a German Jag Panther!

Being a collector of militaries for over 20 years I have a huge reference library on uniforms as well as a lot of original pieces.  I have several original "Waldorf-Astoria" cigarette card albums from the 1890s to 1900 with hundreds of watercolor pictures of period German uniforms and colonial scenes.  This this really helped in the painting of the crew and development of the insignia that would be appropriate for the airship in the Victorian era. With the application of the decals, some final detailing and what not the airship was deemed ready for service.

I am currently play testing and writing stats for this Prussian airship.  The first several games that has participated in approved it to be an extremely  fun vehicle to use.

This and the following pages have pictures of the Prussian Airship at 95% completion (I will always be adding something!) and its début combat at the HMGS "Fall In" convention, enjoy and fell free to email your comments and questions.

MOVE ON TOO PAGE 6 OF "THE PRUSSIAN AIRSHIP PROJECT"

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