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:

http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2008/10/steampunk-pirates-2-robur-conquerors.html

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:

http://jv.gilead.org.il/rpaul/Robur%20le%20conquérant/

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' !