Up Up and Away (spring clean challenge)

Why only have one when you can have two !! Was my next thought so here they are two of the balloons. To allow easy id on the tabletop for both myself and any opponent i am likely to face i have made the second one slightly different by adding an additional balloon globe to the canopy.

Putting together all of the bits took some time , from gluing the gondela together along with the decoupage for the balloon as well as the twisting of copper wire to represent rope from start to finish took approx  1 week .

below is the finished article ….

This project begins with an old dream to create an airship for my Goblin army way back in the early 1990’s when GW ‘s ideas about Goblins was querky technology through and through.

The likes of goblin doom divers appeared in lists but i had the idea of those nutty professor types wanting to rain pain down from above in a more controlled way….

Now we all know that several flying constructs have made there way onto the market over the years… more recently the Mantic offering of the Wingit for both KOW and Vanguard … but I would like to think that the tech my Goblins are using is maybe not quite so far down the time line , and having watched the recent film Aeronauts on demand TV have reawakened the idea of an airship.

First problem is what to use for the balloon…what is round a light enough to be held in place above my precious minis…..my first thoughts were craft polystyrene balls …..but these turned out to be off the table as suitable sizes unavailable …….next idea mmmmm . Xmas tree decorations same sort of shape, and have the added bonus of a small neck similar to those balloons from history.

Next what to use for a balloon basket, no over the years I have collected lots of different bits from models and minis and my bits boxs hold some interesting things, including some MDF armour pieces from “Wargames Factory’s “Orc fort that I won off this very sight following the Salute coverage a few years ago. And along with other sprue off cuts created a gondela for my crazy Goblins to stand in.

Due to the shinny finish of the xmas bauble I decided to cover it with paper and PVA glue (decoupage style) in order to  both cover it in a more paint friendly surface but also add texture resembling sewn together cloth. After several layers of paper and glue dried I painted and washed the surface to bring out the details. Smaller details like rope were also added with twisted copper wire.