Jabberwock Pt.17: The Final Design

By this point, I'd established the best ideas from the various models; it needed to combine:

the caterpillar tracks of the Landship, 

the crane of the Llanberis Slate Museum/ railway breakdown crane,

the vertical-boiler narrow gauge steam engine,

hints of the iron horse.

I started off by going down the wooden model route, as with the Landship...

...before modifying the final drawings.

In the end, the best option was to modify the laser-cut design used for the steam locomotive.  This time, an important factor was to have the separate elements removable, as this was part of the plan for working out what parts would need to separate for transport.

The model was built on the by-now tried and tested route of using bits from models, bits of fabric, and then spraying black, then browns and greens, then a metallic dusting and some highlighting and drybrushing.

The tail of the monster is represented by the 'steering tail' idea, from World War One tanks.

The tail plugs-in to a socket under the footplate...

The caterpillar track units on each side were semi-enclosed, compared to the Iron Horse, but missing panels and damage would hint at the mechanical bits inside, without leaving too much to be modelled.  Hints of the gubbins inside would work better at suggesting the machinery.

To give a hint of legs, there needed to be stabilising feet on swing-out brackets.

The crane, rather than being bolted to the boiler, was mounted on a sturdy pillar on the front, and with the lattice of the neck draped in the ragged remains of tarpaulins, it created the effect of ragged flesh.

The head was the basic crane head, with lamps mounted on the sides as 'eyes', as per the Ingrow breakdown crane.

The vertical boiler...

...and hints of controls on the footplate.

The wings were tarpaulin-draped metal arms, assumed to be some kind of outriggers for carrying lighter loads when on the move, or perhaps for swinging smaller cargoes.

This shot really carried exactly the effect I was looking for.  Now it was time to crack-on with the building of the final sculpture, with this design as the basis...