Wednesday 28 July 2010

Robur's Albatross Update


I thought I'd post a quick update outlining the small progress on Robur's Albatross - there has been far to much 'sand' and not enough 'steel' in my commitment to the Blog recently, so I wanted to show that at least some wargaming related stuff has been taking place!

As per the excellent suggestion of El Grego after a previous post, I have uprated the drive propulsion, with the addition of two further propellor booms at the rear - these I wanted to look as scientifically unfeasible as the rest of the flight apparatus, so came out rather long and spindly.
As you can see, therefore, I added a pair of canard wings forward, in order to balance things out a little visually. She's also of course had a matt black undercoat slapped on, which has helped to homogenise her previous rather Frankenstein's Monster appearance.

So then, we have gone from this:



To this:


I think she is coming together now, although of course the next, and perhaps most important phase is the colour scheme.
I would be comfortable enough doing a Pre-Dreadnought pastiche, I suppose, but I think Robur, being similar to Nemo in disdaining the conventional world and society of Man, would have something more distinctive.
Strong, dark colours might predominate; even black would be nice and threatening I suppose, but whatever it turns out to be, it has to be unique, I think - any suggestions welcome!


I have been very lucky in stumbling across an excellent Blog page that discusses the insignia of Robur, which is described by Verne in the books, so I think some part of the scheme should reflect the flaming sun of the protagonist's coat of arms:


The upper bow section is looking a likely contender for displaying this.



For some more conventional and contemporary views of the Albatross as originally conceived, some excellent illustrations can be found here:


Each is 'clickable' for an enlarged view - I particularly like the last frame showing the Albatross in conflict with the retrograde lighter than air 'Go Ahead' !

5 comments:

  1. Hi SoS,

    Stunning!! It looks magnificent and what a superb job! On the subject of props I have been considering some 1/300th ideas for 'Flyingclads' using the clear plastic circular bases GW use for such things as BFG. Worth a thought methinks.

    All the best,

    Ogre

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  2. The canards really change the silhouette - I like it.

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  3. I do like this very, very much. Very inspiring, Robur must make a cameo appearance in Aeronef sometime...

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  4. Very nice mod. I find black with red to be a very good mix, and am using it for one of my VSF alien factions. The yellow and black on Robur's flags from the blog you link to also looks good.

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  5. Thanks guys, glad you think she's coming along all right, have to see if I can move things along soon, perhaps with a dash of both red and black, and make sure Robur is ready for an Aeronef debut!

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