Kittyhawk
Established Member
Not the usual sort of thing that comes out of the aircraftery.
It's a 'for me' build that been going for a while and often relegated to the back burner as aeroplane commissions came along. Its construction was not driven by any great interest in airships but more from stumbling across photos online and, from a modeller's perspective, wondering how on earth would you build such a thing, especially the mounting which would need to give the impression of the airship floating in air, tethered to its mooring mast. So, an irresistable challenge.
I wanted to build the Graf Zeppelin, LZ127, and the first problem was that just about every online photo was different. This was finally resolved when the penny dropped - just about every airship of the Graf Zeppelin era was referred to as a Zeppelin which tended to complicate things a lot. There is also a big variation in mooring towers and the one depicted is the Recife Tower in Brazil, sort of. The Zeppelin is cantilevered off the top of the tower so the stays are a lot higher up the mast than in reality, along with a few other modifications to provide the neccessary strength.
Calculations by a friend with an engineering background, mucking around with bit of wire and weights deduced that the airship weight for a length of 54cm should not exceed, from memory, 250g if it should be attached to the top of the tower by a wire of around 2.5mm diameter.
The cross section of the Zeppelin is circular but comprised of 28 flat sections around the circumference which suggested a boat type construction which further appealed as a former boatbuilder. So the model has a central keel from a piece of 16mm dowel, a turned nose and tail cap and 9 equally spaced circular frames of 3mm MDF. The 28 planks were cut to 2.5mm thick, probably now 2mm after sanding. Planking was straightforward but forward ends had to be steamed to get the bend. A steamer was fabricated out of scrap pipe and welded to a base. When hot and bendy the end was poked into a curved slot in a bit of MDF to set the shape. Its all a bit budget but it did the job ok.
In the end, the Zeppelin came out at 207g. The connection between the tower and the airship is via a length of 13 gauge bicycle spoke bent at right angles.
The attachments to the hull were a bit difficult as I didn't fully appreciate the scale which at a 54cm length is around 400 : 1. Consequently the windows around the front of the gondola are 2mm square, the propellers - one two bladed and four 4 bladed are 11mm in diameter, the engine nacelles 6mm x 9mm and attached to the airship by 0.5mm wires. All doable but tricky for a man with stumpy fingers.
But I'm happy with how it turned out in the end.
It's a 'for me' build that been going for a while and often relegated to the back burner as aeroplane commissions came along. Its construction was not driven by any great interest in airships but more from stumbling across photos online and, from a modeller's perspective, wondering how on earth would you build such a thing, especially the mounting which would need to give the impression of the airship floating in air, tethered to its mooring mast. So, an irresistable challenge.
I wanted to build the Graf Zeppelin, LZ127, and the first problem was that just about every online photo was different. This was finally resolved when the penny dropped - just about every airship of the Graf Zeppelin era was referred to as a Zeppelin which tended to complicate things a lot. There is also a big variation in mooring towers and the one depicted is the Recife Tower in Brazil, sort of. The Zeppelin is cantilevered off the top of the tower so the stays are a lot higher up the mast than in reality, along with a few other modifications to provide the neccessary strength.
Calculations by a friend with an engineering background, mucking around with bit of wire and weights deduced that the airship weight for a length of 54cm should not exceed, from memory, 250g if it should be attached to the top of the tower by a wire of around 2.5mm diameter.
The cross section of the Zeppelin is circular but comprised of 28 flat sections around the circumference which suggested a boat type construction which further appealed as a former boatbuilder. So the model has a central keel from a piece of 16mm dowel, a turned nose and tail cap and 9 equally spaced circular frames of 3mm MDF. The 28 planks were cut to 2.5mm thick, probably now 2mm after sanding. Planking was straightforward but forward ends had to be steamed to get the bend. A steamer was fabricated out of scrap pipe and welded to a base. When hot and bendy the end was poked into a curved slot in a bit of MDF to set the shape. Its all a bit budget but it did the job ok.
In the end, the Zeppelin came out at 207g. The connection between the tower and the airship is via a length of 13 gauge bicycle spoke bent at right angles.
The attachments to the hull were a bit difficult as I didn't fully appreciate the scale which at a 54cm length is around 400 : 1. Consequently the windows around the front of the gondola are 2mm square, the propellers - one two bladed and four 4 bladed are 11mm in diameter, the engine nacelles 6mm x 9mm and attached to the airship by 0.5mm wires. All doable but tricky for a man with stumpy fingers.
But I'm happy with how it turned out in the end.
