Imperial German Air Battleship Bayern - COMPLETED!

[proditor]

Donor kits are one of the old box scale Tirpitz kits, a snap together X-Wing, and hopefully a bunch of gear bits.

First cuts



The X-Wing parts start arriving



And they find a new home



Much more to come.

[ChernayaAkula]

Oh golly!  Can't wait for more! 

[Captain Canada]

Oh yeah...very cool so far !

[Taiidantomcat]

Sweet!

[dumaniac]

love the concept

Bernie

[proditor]

Okay, got some more work done.  I cobbled together the main turrets for the Bayern.  I used the old Tirpitz turrets and then put some of the clockwork parts in as electro-cannons.  The guns will be less than half the "caliber" of the Edison, but they try to make up for it in sheer numbers.  So while the Edison has 3 Tesla cannons, the Bayern will have 8!  I like how it sort of parralells the real world thinking on the size of the guns of the Germans High Seas Fleet pre-WW1.

Pictures tonight after the visiting family stops by for dinner.

[ysi_maniac]

 
Really waiting for more ...

[Radish]

Yes....looking good.....but surely you're bonkers

[proditor]

Well, we CAN spot our own. 

I'm taking pics, but holdiong off on posting.  I want there to be a bigger reveal than for the Edison.

[proditor]

Eh, painting slowed me down, but I think I figured out my airbrush finally!

So have some pics.



Yeah, too revealing, right?






Okay, have this one too.



Final painting should be this weekend, then I can finish construction.  Probably going to be a squeeker if we don't get an extension, but I'm on call at home this weekend anyway, so the hope is definitely there.

[Taiidantomcat]

That is a gorgeous scheme 

[proditor]

Thanks!

Got a lot done tonight: Built the stand, painted the decks, fit the main weaponry, fit the superstructure, put in the support arms for the wings.  It's going to take at least a day for the latter to dry, so I'm going to be pushing hard to get this done in time.

Exhausted now, and I listened to many chapters of Thuvia of Mars, so it's bedtime now. 

[proditor]

Captain Zebediah Gray tugged at the edge of his jacket as he peered into the aether.  He turned his head slightly and spoke over his shoulder.

"Make turns for cruising speed.  Course steady, let me know when the lookouts have our companion in sight."

"Aye captain!" one of the ratings veritably hopped in place as he relayed the commands.

A short time passed in silence, only the quiet sounds of machinery in operation droning quietly in the background of the bridge of the USAS Edison.  Hurricaine lighting filled the area with a dim red glow and the crew quickly and competently went about their business.  The silence was broken as the radio near the captain squacked out.

"Captain, GNAS Bayern sighted to starboard.  Battle bridge reports she is closing and matching our flaps."

Captain Gray nodded to himself and said quietly as he headed to side.

"Let's see what we have here..."     

           *                  *                  *                 *                 *               *               *                 *

The world changed irrevocably in 1910 when Edison and Tesla opened the doorway through the Aether.  A whole new universe was waiting on the otherside, and in short order, mankind discovered that they weren't friendly.  Bizarre corsairs in winged sailing ships, monsters, god-like beings, all of them saw our universe a plaything, and Earth, as the place to use as a staging post in this new strange land.  The world shifted to a war footing en masse and old grudges disappeared as the far larger threat loomed large.

To safeguard the passage to Earth, the world's leaders agreed that a fleet would be required.  In short order, a few a dozn bizarre contraptions were launched with varying degrees of success.  In the end, the Einstein-Tesla reaction field solved the problem.  Able to generate a  field that negated the majority of gravity's pull, it made flying battleships a reality.  Armed with the electric weapons that wouldn;t detonate the explosive phlogiston that comprised the space of this other realm, the world's ships soared to battle.

Each nation has brought their own specialities and biases to their designs.  The Americans are know to create ships of superb capability, always at the cutting edge.  They tend to be the yardsticks against which all other ships are judged.  The Brits tend to be slower and shorter ranged, but similarly armed, and heaver in armor.  For the Germans, the emphasis was very similarly on armor.  They tend to be lighter in armarment than the US or the UK, but they match the yanks for speed.

The Bayern is an older ship, designed for the German Naval Air Service in 1943, and launched in 1945.  She has the older solid wing design that is rarely seen these days, and the much lighter Heisenburg coils for the gun line.  Far less effective than the Tesla cannons, the German guns seek to redress the imbalance through sheer number of barrels.  Armed with eight of the coils, his firepower is roughly equivalent to 3/4 of the broadside of the newer Edison.

The photos below represent the GNAS Bayern during her neutrality patrol of the outer reaches in concert with the USAS Edison in March of 1953.

(Pictures next post)

[proditor]

[lancer]

Now that is a thing of beauty! The sleekness of the design really does lend itself to an aerial battleship very well. Superbly done.