Celestial Orb (continued)

I strted a thread about my Celestial Orb over on BG, but as it's currently incommunicado, I'm posting some progress pictures here- when Bg comes back, I'll link between then:


Main crew door: though I haven't quite worked out how we get from this hatch to the ground...


Some of the life support equipment: oxygen tanks, CO2 scrubbers, that sort of thing.


Cargo/fuel hatch: well, I'm not going to get all the coal and booty,er, archeological specimens through the small crew door, am I?


Cargo door open: note the complex linkages to seal the outer door, and the iris mechanism of the inner door.


Close up of the pipework linking the boilers to the combustion units: I was going to run this from the centre of the boiler plates, but on test fitting, that just looked silly, hence this more sensible arrangment.

You'll also have noticed some other added details, such as rails around the engines, don't worry, there's more where that came from!

I'd been wondering how this was getting along, she looks a fine vessel. That cargo door mechanism is exquisite.

Herr Döktor wrote:
Main crew door: though I haven't quite worked out how we get from this hatch to the ground...

An automatically extending telescopic ladder thing.

It's looking interesting...

SQUEE!!! It's heere, you've moved the thread HEEERE!!!!

*composing myself*

Unless the panel below the hatch is permanently affixed to the surrounding panels, might that not open at the top and swing down to reveal a retracting ladder? (I'm thinking of something along the lines of an attic ladder that extends once the attic door is opened and swings down.)

Indeed! I believe there were airliners from the 1950s or 1960s which used something similar.

It might also be desirable to install a folding ramp below the cargo hatch.

I am outraged that I cannot have one, that is life sized that I can actually fly away from this planet in. I love this piece. I truly do.

I spent yesterday evening lightproofing the sphere- this involved undercoating it with white primer, and then applying a coat of silver (the metal particles help to make the paint opaque), followed by a coat of matt black; then, sitting in the dark with only the light of my monitor to help, I spent a pleasent few hours chasing away light leaks with some thick black acrylic paint and a no. 3 brush! My family now think I'm mad(der).

Today was spent adding rivets, well, hexagonal boltheads to be precise, but the effect is similar, then I started to apply some paint:



Matt black undercoat, a mix of Citadel Tin Bitz and Dwarf Bronze airbrushed on top, with accents in a mix of the bronze and Mithril Silver, with shading and bolt 'dirt' added with matt black, I still need to go over the bolts with a drybrushing of a lighter bronze.

The actual engines are still in the base colour, they will be a bright brass/gold, with airbrushed heat blueing and soot.

and I still haven't sorted out a way of getting down from the hatches!

That is really beginning to look good!

The beloved says "WOW!!!"

Why, thank you both!

And speaking of your beloved, where is he, and how's his Lucifer?

He's sat on the other computer messing around with ebooks. The lucifer is progressing - very, very slowly, but progressing none-the-less.

Jolly good!

It just gets gorgeouser and gorgeouser....

I can hardly wait for you to start building the full-sized model!

ENVY
Regards,

DB

Impressive