Someone applied the Formulae to a WWII shipyard employee manual, and the result is exactly as beautiful and deranged as that sounds. South Carolina artist Tony Snipes is Kickstarting Employee Handbook: Portsmouth Aeroshipbuilding Co., a ~100-page dieselpunk art book dressed up as the onboarding packet for a fictional 1940s shipyard where the battleships don’t just float, they fly. Alt-history WWII. Sky dreadnoughts. Authentic mid-century workplace culture. Original dieselpunk illustrations. A signed copy for thirty bucks.

The campaign launched today and already blew past its funding goal, so your fellow degenerates clearly have taste. It runs through October 4. The Doctor hereby designates this “Essential Reading” for anyone who has ever sat through a mandatory safety orientation and thought: this would be better with aerial warships. High-5, Mr. Snipes. High-5.

Via: The Steampunk Explorer | Back it on Kickstarter

Somewhere in an alternate 1940s, Abraham Lincoln survives, the Reconstruction goes differently, and battleships take to the skies on the back of bold leaps in electricity, magnetism, and gravity. That is the premise baked into every rivet of Steel Seas & Sky Machines, the Portsmouth, Virginia exhibition showcasing the dieselpunk world of artist Tony Snipes and his fictional Portsmouth Aeroshipbuilding Co. Detailed sketches, 3-D models, and digital works, all locked in to an alt-history where the home front didn’t build Liberty Ships, it built Aerocycles and aeroships. The Doctor approves of this timeline.

If you missed the exhibition, Snipes has a live Kickstarter running right now for the Aerocycle Art Book & Model Kit, a product launch straight out of The Yard itself. An art book AND a model kit. In a dieselpunk universe. For actual money you can spend. This is the Omega7Red Formulae applied to “what if WWII-era industrial propaganda was awesome on purpose” and the result is exactly what you’d hope. Go back this thing. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but a tabletop Aerocycle might come close.

Via: The Steampunk Explorer