1/72 Zeppelin-Lindau (Dornier) Rs II

[lcarroll]

    Very interesting work you are doing here, Stephen. Hand carving is not a common technique these days and by the looks of the results of your efforts you do it well! It brings back fond memories for me, I did a hand carved scratch build of my Father's ship, a Royal Canadian Navy Destroyer as a teen ager for presentation to the Captain who was retiring using the same technique as yours here. It was a very rewarding experience as it was a one of a kind model and turned out (in my opinion at least!) a top class model.
    Great start to your Build, and I'll be following closely.
Cheers,
Lance

[Bughunter]

Very careful handling of a huge piece of wood - I have to follow that!

Cheers,
Frank

[lone modeller]

Evening All,

Welcome Manni and Frank - I hope that I can offer you some new ideas along the way.

Lance: many thanks for your complimentary remarks: what a shame you could not provide any photographs of the ship that you made as I am sure that it was a first class model if your current builds are anything to go by. I am very slow at carving, which is a good thing because as anyone who has attempted it soon learns, it is easy to remove material but nearly impossible to put it back, as I have already demonstrated with this model! I did not have to use card templates with this hull but I do use them when I am making some moulds.

I have completed the steps at the rear of the hull, without making a mess of things and having to start all over again. So...

Shaping and scraping 2

I cut out the whole of the lower rear of the hull - two cuts, one horizontal and one vertical. I then sanded the upper corners smooth as these will be visible when the steps are complete. Two lines were drawn on the horizontal surface to mark where the steps will be.



The third line is the centre line and is used to make measurements to keep things symmetrical. The block which I had removed from the hull was cut into three sections, using the dimensions measured from the hull horizontal surface above. The centre section was carefully put to one side and the two side pieces had lines drawn on them to mark the top of the step. This surface is not completely flat: it slopes more at the front end than the rear. One side was then glued to the gap in the hull rear and allowed to dry out overnight. This was then filed down to the lines on each side and polished with fine glass paper to leave a flat surface as shown on this trial block which was my first (failed) attempt to carve the hull:







The third picture shows that the fit on the trial piece was not quite as good as I would have wanted (and achieved) on the real piece: it was after all done to prove a concept and it worked. When the one side step was finished the above operation was repeated for the other side:



The centre section had to have the sides adjusted with some glass paper to make a really tight fit, but once it could be pushed into the gap I again drew lines on the sides to mark the edges of the hull bottom. I glued the inside surfaces of the hull, tapped the centre piece into place and let the glue set. The top could then be shaped as before with a file, polished with glass paper and the very small gaps filled with putty.







They have now been sanded smooth and I am ready to tackle the hull under the bow. You can see that I have been trying both the round and half round files on the test hull and have concluded that the half round file is the more suitable tool. I just hope that I do not make a mess of the next step as there is a lot of time invested in the hull now!

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

[RLWP]

Loving this!

Richard

[lone modeller]

Evening All,

Thanks Richard for the encouragement. Working with wood is rather different to working with plastic or metal, but I do find it satisfying.

I have completed the scraping and shaping of the bow, and managed to do so without taking off too much material, and I have kept it symmetrical. I do have a card former which was made from one of the section drawings in the DF but the problem is that it only applies to one part of the bow - the rest has to be estimated by Mk 1 eyeball. I used a half round file for this task as the curve is larger and flatter than the round file. This gave a broader curve and made the overall shaping easier, but I also had to take care not to remove too much wood. I had drawn the centre line on the bottom of the hull before I started - this was essential if the bow sides were to be symmetrical. I carved one side first so that it was almost complete, and then I carved the other until it was in the same state. I took out material from the mid point between the centre line on the bottom of the hull, and the line on the side of the hull marking the vertical section. To start with the edge of the wood looked awful but by gradually extending the line of cut laterally in both directions by using the curve of the file blade, and continuing to remove material from the central area, the desired shape gradually appeared. Finally I took a little wood off each side alternately as shown in the photos below, until I judged that the keel was thin enough and the curve was as close as I could get to the card former. I have never shaped a bow before - this was a first attempt, so please be considerate and leave the micrometers in the back pocket when looking at it!

The pencil marks on the port (left) side show where I still need to take off more wood. By marking the area in this way the other areas are not accidentally worn away and the desired shape lost.



This second view shows the marks on the starboard (right) side of the nose where I had previously used the file. This area had also been marked with a pencil as shown above.



The left and right sides respectively of the completed hull showing the line where the vertical sides meet the planing (under) surface. The marks at the rear are filler used to smooth the joint where I replaced the wood when making the stepped rear as described in the previous post.





I have also finished scraping the underside of the hull - you will see that there are two small longitudinal steps towards the rear. These were taken down with the flat file by gently putting pressure on the file as I drew it forwards and backwards, following a pencil line that I had marked previously. All of the hull has been polished with fine grade glass paper.



The hull is now semi-complete: I have still to drill out the cockpit opening and add details and then drill approximately 40 holes for various attachments: more on that later. And now for some retro-modelling: I have to fill and seal the wood grain and to do that I will use a very old, and for me well tried, method - a mixture of talcum powder and shrinking dope - a la Airfix Magazine sometime in the early to mid 1960's!

Memories, memories..... 

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

[RLWP]

Curvy!

Richard

[Des]

Very well done Stephen, you managed to replicate all the complex curves perfectly, using wood was a great idea.

Des.

[coyotemagic]

Nice hull!  Very impressive woodworking!
Cheers,
Bud

[Juan]

Have to agree with all of the above, outstanding woodwork.

[Bughunter]

Really good work on a interesting project!

Cheers,
Frank

[IanB]

Wow, Very impressive carving! I still think you should make mouldings from it, even if it's just to save someone else all the effort!

Ian

[RAGIII]

Like all of the others I am impressed by your woodworking / carving skills!
RAGIII

[lone modeller]

Evening All,

Many thanks Richard, Des, Bud, Juan, Frank, Ian and Rick for leaving positive comments. I greatly appreciate them all.

I have decided that as showing a photo of the hull coated with talcum powder and dope filler would not cause much excitement I will move on to the wings. These are to be made from halves of 3 x 60 thou card sheet which has been laminated. These need to be scraped and shaped so:

Scraping and Shaping 4: Wings. I used the flat file again to remove the bulk of the unwanted plastic - rather more on the trailing edge than the leading edge. I have managed to get a fairly sharp trailing edge as per the original aircraft.



I added a strip of 30 thou card to the undersides of the leading edges and shaped this and the underside of the wing to give an aerofioil section to the wings. The wing halves were then polished with glass paper and the joints between the laminates filled with Mr Surfacer. This in turn was rubbed down and polished:



To join the halves I drilled three holes in each half so that I could insert steel pins to reinforce the butt joint. The pins were cut from a paper clip: the wire is rigid enough to make sure that the joint is very strong and will not move when I need to fill it and sand it smooth later.



I used CA to hold the pins in place and ordinary cement on the plastic surfaces, having first checked that the halves would line up properly when joined! After it had dried out overnight I liberally coated the joint with Mr Surfacer and vigorously sanded it smooth. I cut out the aeileron gaps and sanded these at the same time so that now the wing structure is complete and awaits the addition of the ribs.



I will add these when the stub wings and elevator surfaces have been made and are ready too.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

[RLWP]

I have decided that as showing a photo of the hull coated with talcum powder and dope filler would not cause much excitement

Yes it would! I couldn't decide how to do this for the floats on my Nieuport X so I clad them in styrene sheet. If they had been curvier I would have been stuck

Come on, show and tell

Richard

[boggie]

I have decided that as showing a photo of the hull coated with talcum powder and dope filler would not cause much excitement

Yes it would! I couldn't decide how to do this for the floats on my Nieuport X so I clad them in styrene sheet. If they had been curvier I would have been stuck

Come on, show and tell

Richard

Yes please Stephen.

As Richard has requested.

Your build is amazing and every step is of great interest!

Eagerly awaiting your next progress report.