This vessel is the most important part of my project so far. If this did not work, getting a skyvessel sea worthy, then the project as a whole would be a none starter for me.

First of all I wanted to build up the helm of the vessel and fill in the main gun turret to make space for my hero to stand, at this time of the creation process this was going to be one of my stormcast narrative characters though as progress went on that changed. I used part of the staircase from the cauldron of blood kit to make the staircase up to the raised helm.

I found the grots from the leadbelcher kit were about perfect night for the helmsman job and two of them even came holding the wheel.

I now had the basic layout of the deck covered so I moved to attach the Ironclad to its base. I sawed off most of the keel at a slight angle, trying to get the turbines as low down as possible and raising the prow a bit. I then drilled holes under what remained of the keel and glued in brass rods to give it additional stability, I then used plastic glue to stick all the contact points to the base.

Once the areas to place the crew were built up I worked on adding the primary weapon back to the ship. I chose the aethermatic volley cannon, this was mostly out of simplicity as I had a half built redemptor dreadnought on my desk who’s arm looked like a perfect donation to this project.

I added a railing to the back of the helm as I felt it made the area feel more enclosed, I also added one to the front where the whip-master now stands but that one was to exposed and snapped off.

Using the statue from the centre of the Cauldron of a blood kit I added a broken figure head to the front of the vessel. This was the last piece of assembly before beginning painting.

For the colour scheme I went with purple and green, as it would not clash with the water effect on the basing which was to come next. The grot helmsman was the only part of the crew glued on, all the aelves were pinned for easy transport and were painted separately. The initial section of painting was just to get all the parts in or near the water done to allow for the basing to start.

The basing did not quite got to plan as, due to me not being patient enough, I managed to get the masking tape, used to keep the liquid resin in place, trapped within the resin. I worked much of this out but a fair amount is very much a feature of the base now. Overall I am happy with the turn out of it, at a later point I would like to come back to the basing and try to add some wave like motion or interaction to it.

Once the base had cured, enough for my lungs to be willing to be in the same room as it, I finished off painting the remaining details and crew.

Overall I am very please with how my first Ironclad turned out. It showed me that my plans for the project as a whole have potential. The only issue I have is that for each vessel size (Ironclad,Frigate,Gunhauler) the base size is quite limited which restricts space for adding a bit of a diorama and character to the  base.