MOC: The Areoraft - A Steampunk creation

[ApophisV]

Aeroraft:

This was my first venture into the Steampunk genre. The original idea was to create a flying raft in the size of this Pirates set, but as so often it grew and grew and grew and now it looks like this:

I tried to make the whole thing as realistic as possible (in terms of Steampunk's understanding of "realism"), the propellors all are gas powered (yeah, not really "steamish", but who cares ;-) ), meaning there is a gas engine that drives several compressors that are in most cases located near the propellors (see this, this, this and this), only the main propellor got his compressor in the wooden box in the middle of the ship.

Actually there are four types of propellors, the first type is the main propellor at the top, together with the supporting propellors at both ends of the ship they allow the raft to fly. The third type are the small brown propellors at the underside that are upwards down, they help to stabilize the raft. Finally the raft got four additional propellors that drive the ship, two steerable propellors at the rear and two at the sides.

Another possibility to drive this are the sails:

They can be retracted by using the wench on the port side:

The pilot got lots of levers and wheels to regulate the power of the various propellors to steer the raft up, down or let it fly curves.

(This WIP shot shows the cockpit section a little bit better than the finished pictures)

Finally, what is a Apo creation without of a lot of senseless stuff lying around? ;-)

The front section of the raft is used to store the equipment that could be needed, like a small boathook, a net, rope, barrels, chests and additional gas tanks (the grey one carries o2 in case of a higher flight or whatever.)

Okay, that's it so far, here are links to the Brickshelf galleries:

Main gallery:

Subgalleries:

- Overview shots

- Equipment

- Propellors

- WIP pictures

Comments and critics as always welcome!!!

[snefroe]

*wub*

[zero1312]

Neat *y* !! Looks like one of the airships from Final Fantasy 4, which is a great plus. ;-)

[Asuka]

That

[Corvus]

8-

[Starwars4J]

I think this is truly the finest steampunk MOC I've ever seen...it just looks so REAL! All the clutter...and yet it all looks like it belongs there and serves a purpose (unlike so much greebling done these days).

This is fantastic, I'm just about speechless :-D

[Brainbox]

the propellors all are gas powered (yeah, not really "steamish", but who cares ;-) )

Don't see why not. Steam is, after all, a gas.

Other than that, I can't really say any more about this fantastic ship (can I call it a ship?) than has already been said. The propellors are nice, and it's busy but not cluttered, as it should be. Very nice, truly.

[oo7]

As strange as they are, I've always had a fondness for these steam punk things. Not only are they fairly easy to make, but they just look, well.....cool! Great job, Apo!

Don't see why not. Steam is, after all, a gas.

I think he is referring to Gasoline as 'gas'.

[iamded]

This is amazing! Excellent job. Wonder how much this would pick up at S@H if it were for sale!! Wonderful! I love all the details. *y* *y*