A British Aeronef

[gamer Mac]

After seeing all the Aeronef builds on the forum I decided I wanted to make my own.
I don’t play any VSF games but I thought I would try this just for fun.
The basic shape was carved out of polystyrene and then covered in mounting card. The card was scored to represent planks.

Basic Hull



Top view


I added rivets around the edges

Rivets and planks



Hull rivets


The main hull is basically complete. I am now concentrating on the wheelhouse.

Wheelhouse



View Ports



Front view



Side door


Next is the command deck

Command deck



Command deck top view



Next thing to build is two small steam engines, one on each leg of the main hull. I was going to build two skylights, one for each leg as well (Mancha, Honest I did not steal anybodies idea , but I will now copy yours )

Any suggestions or comments are very welcome

Cheers
   Mac

[Mancha]

I love build threads and I'm glad you started a dedicated thread.  The wheelhouse looks great.  I love the viewports, with the hydraulic lift.  I assume you're using that punch-through-from-the-back technique for your rivets?  Those are the straightest rivets I've ever seen!

[~ Tom Teriffic]

   whimper . . .

Oh great, now I have Aeronef Lust too!  And how do I explain _that_ to my wife???

Really beautiful work!
 ~ TT

[Ray Rivers]

Excellent start!

Looks very, very kewl.  Will be following with keen interest.

[dijit]

Ever since I first saw 28mm aeronefs I've wanted t do one too, but convinced myself 'no I dont play VSF, I don't need one' and then you go and blow that whole argument out of the water (or air) - shame on you! Great work by the way, looking forwards to seeing what happens on this one.

[gamer Mac]

Didn’t seem to get very far with my build today. But while I was in Tesco I bought a new tripod, only £5, so I thought I would try it out.
I have been building two steam engines for my Aeronef. Also been putting together the propellers.
The engine will fit approximately here



The parts for the two engines and the prop shafts for the propellers. The propellers are going to be able to rotate through 360.



Still got a lot of work to do including adding more rivets and some pipe work.


Ignore the foam board. Its only there to hold bits in the correct place.
For the propeller I was going to use just circles of clear plastic. What do you think?

[Skrapwelder]

This just looks better and better. I really like the configuration.

On the propellers, I think clear, plastic discs will look fine. If you can scour the plastic a bit to give it some motion lines that might look good. If you've got a dremel drill you could put the disc in the sanding disc bit and then score the disc while it spins to give a circular effect.

Very nice piece.

[Mancha]

Cool engines!  Looks like they're gonna take up a lot of play surface though.

[gamer Mac]

I am intending to build a walk way over the top of the engine. It will hopefully have enough room for figures and a metal rail to stop then falling into the prop.

[Vonkluge]

Just happened to "Float" by here and looked at your work, outstanding so far!   I have built three 28mm "Airships" used in Gaslight Victorian Sci Fi Games out here. Your rivets look good. So many people have terrible looking rivets. I made a press plate that uses different size burnishing tools for different size rivets. This one here is my British HMCS "REDOUBT" and was based on the terrible Scheltrum kit for a French Areonef. I tossed 90 percent of the kit and then modified the rest a lot! My stuff takes some time as I come up with ideas as I build and if I am unsure I'll let it sit for weeks till the answer dings into my brain

The hull below the deck is about 2 inches and not visible in this picture. It is White above the Waterline and red below. The Decks are real wood. None of the Decks were part of the original desgin. The rear prop area was a 2 week think! The center Deck was thought of after pitching the original parts in the parts box and thinking about it for a year! By the way I agree with Mancha that you are loseing a lot of play area but you might put a smaller deck or several round circle "service" decks, WAIT you said you dont play! so who cares...  I have a complete build write up for 2 Areonefs on my site. www.historicalhobbies.com

Bill Witthans

[gamer Mac]

WOW
lovely stuff. Had a look at your site, amazing stuff. I love your vehicles and ships. The painting is outstanding
Looking at your ship, compared to mine, they will have similar deck space when finished.

[Vonkluge]

Yes, deck space will be about the same. While I game with mine quite a bit the games rarely "happen" on the airships. The ships are mostly bringing someone or something to or from the battle field, lending support, or just flying around for "eyecandy" They tend to be very powerful and domineering on the field thus requiring a close hand to keep from skewing the game. We do this by keeping their damage threshold before retiring off the field quite low. They are used mostly in colonial games and as such the gains made on the ground rarely justify risking the loss or even major damage to such a rare and valueable piece of crown/state property!

[gamer Mac]

Done some more work on my Aeronef engines. They are just held in place with elastic bands at the moment until I decide the final position.




I was going to have the props moveable but they have turned out too fragile. Only one still works the other one will have to be glued in place.






Still got some more details to do.

[Vonkluge]

Hey Mac,

What goes in the center section that apears empty?

Bill W

[Mancha]

Ah, I like the propellers off to the side like that.