forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
WW1 Aircraft Modeling => Under Construction => Scratch builds => Topic started by: Dirigible-Al on July 14, 2014, 10:14:27 PM
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Hi All
My name is Alan Pask, I have seen some familiar names on this site so some of you will know me from the GWITA forum. Of late I have been interested in the more unusual subjects with this one being one. I have seen a few models made of the Drachen Ballon but to my knowledge there is no kit available (there was a few years ago by Italeri? I think but try and find one).
It is a shame balloon subjects are covered so poorly in the kit and modelling world, it should be remembered that this was mans first form of flight and in fact the only form of flight for over half a century. Tethered spherical balloons were first used for observation purposes by the French Army in 1794. During one battle the French aeronaut got into difficulty so the opposing Austrian cavalry rushed over to help the French bring him down safely. Once on Terra Firma the French let the Austrian cavalry officers take turns ascending in the balloon. When all the frivolities were finished the Austrians returned to their lines and started fighting again (such is the madness of war). No significant changes were made of the Spherical observation balloon for nearly a century and it was in fact used right up to and including the Great War. Its role and importance however did take a turn during the France-Prussian War of the 1870’s. Rather than primarily noting defences, troop positions and movements it proved devastating as an artillery spotter when combined with the Krupp Cannon. After this conflict all the major powers had an interest in the Observation Balloon however it did have some flaws. Aerodynamics were little understood in the late 1800’s and even a mild wind would make the spherical balloon want to rotate, weave from side to side, up and down or all of the above. Worse the many tethering ropes would oscillate causing the whole balloon and basket to vibrate, sometimes so violently that the observer would find it difficult to hold binoculars to his head. The answer to this would be to use the wind and put some guy up there in a kite. For a short time observation kites were developed but I know very little about these, in any case they made obsolete by the invention and patent of Captain Von Sigsfeld and Major August Von Parseval. Both young offices in the German army, they combined both ideas to come up with the Kite Balloon. Its simple design enabled it to always face the wind and using current airship technology an internal balloonette was fed by an air scoop inflating it as the main envelope deflated. This made it keep its shape. At the time Germany was striving to be the world’s number one industrial and commercial powerhouse and in such a climate it was not difficult for the pair to find a commercial backer. Sadly Major Sigsfeld was killed around the turn of the Century in a ballooning accident and thus never saw the full potential of his invention. The full potential was of course was reached during the Great War when huge numbers were employed and huge efforts were made to bring them down. It must be noted that one German company alone made over 4000 of these, when you also bear in mind Germany was not the only country making these it must make the Drachen or Sausage (French) Balloon one of the most numerous air machine types built in this era. Other, better balloon types superseded the Drachen although they were used right up to the end of the war. Observation balloons reached their peak in the Great War but continued to be used even as late as the Second World War when front lines became static.
Of the Drachen/Sausage Balloons I have seen made by modellers most seem to be an all yellow scheme with a few being all green. This is understandable as a great deal were made like this but there were also a very large number of two tone, multi colour and even camouflaged balloons floating over the front (and the sea!). I was about to say here what I will build but that would be like telling you the plot of a film before you watch it so you will just have to find out! I managed to download plans from the internet as well as a copious number of pictures. Before building this I had done a little experimenting on insulating foam. This stuff is extremely easy to cut and sand and I figured out this would save weeks when building blimps and balloons yet also be nice and light. Its properties change dramatically when paint or glue is added. It becomes hard but at the same time cannot be sanded, this means I have to get the shape right from the beginning – no half way thru alterations. When gluing pieces together I found the glue cannot go anywhere near the edges, if so it will form a flange when sanded that cannot be removed. I intend to build this by using its soft, sand able qualities to shape it with the aid of a drill and sanding tools, then coat it with varnish to get a hard skinned envelope that the rigging and other bits will attach to.
To start this off I cut out cardboard discs at a slightly greater diameter to the plans. I glued together about four sheets and did this twice to get a nice, thick and solid template. I made a small drill guide by wrapping 0.25mm plastic card around the drill bit and plopping it in boiling hot water. I then cut out loads of small right angle triangles from 0.75mm and glued them around the tube and onto a plastic card base to form a drill guide that will cut a perfect 90 degree hole thru the insulating foam. Thru the holes I put a 6mm rod (a hollow aluminium 6mm rod will form the spine) and attached the cardboard discs either side of the insulating foam. I then cut out the discs with a carving knife. I glued sandpaper to the bottom of the 90 degree guide I made, attached it to the drill with the 6mm rod poking thru and slid the discs down the rod so the ends got smoothed off perfectly flat. To form the semi spherical ends I made a sanding tool out of plastic card using the GA’s as a guide and simply gluing sandpaper to the inside. A cut of piece of 6mm rod was put thru it. Simply sliding two of the foam discs down the rod while the tool was spinning in the drill shaped it in seconds. With the two ends done I glued the centre foam discs on the aluminium rod and the semi spheres to get my envelope. I then finished it off by putting the rod end in the chuck of the drill, spinning it and putting a straight sanding tool against it made from a thick strip of plastic and with sandpaper glued along its edge. I now had a perfectly smooth ‘pill’ shaped cylinder.
Some pictures of Drachenballons show the envelope to be drum tight whereas others have bulges between the rib tapes. I do not know whether this is because they are underinflated or bursting at their seams but I would like to build the later because otherwise this will just look like a solid object rather than an inflated one. I marked out all the rib tapes (I call them these only because they look the same as the ones on aircraft wings, I do not know what they are called) by cutting out cardboard templates and marking their positions on the foam with marker pen. I then made another sanding tool by taping with stick backed foil a strip of plastic card to the inside of a cup. I filled the cup up with hot water to shape it to a curve. I then cut it in half and glued it back together to form an ‘m’ shape. Sand paper was attached to the bottom and I glued a handle to the top. I could not spin the envelope in the drill doing this otherwise it would cut the wholes too deep and I want this effect to be subtle. I stuck a 4mm drill bit into a piece of wood and slotted the aluminium rod over it so the whole thing could rotate. I then turned it by hand 3-4 times with the sanding tool against it. To my surprise the marker pen had gone quite deep into the foam so the rib tape lines still showed even after sanding.
With the envelope shaped I will now move on to do the steering bag next.
Cheers, Alan.
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Cannot get them all on one post.........
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And finally.........
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Hi Alan,
Welcome to the forum.
I like the Heath Robinson approach with the drill ;) Works like a charm!
I will be keeping an eye on your progress - I foresee good things coming from this build.
Cheers,
Bob
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Welcome aboard, Alan! Glad you finally made it over with your lighter than air art! Your BE2 airship (sorry I forgot the name) was a masterpiece and I'm certain this drachen will be equally brilliant.
Cheers,
Bud
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Alan,
Glad to see you have made it this forum! Like Bud I really enjoyed your former build and am looking forward to this one!
RAGIII
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Having seen your BE2 balloon conversion I too am looking forward to seeing more on this one. An interesting subject and certainly one which is not well covered by either kit manufacturers or even most modellers (including yours truly). Great stuff - keep it up please.
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An interesting build, Alan. What scale is it?
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http://www.shapeways.com/model/1065323/1-144-caquot-type-m-observation-balloon.html?modelId=1065323&materialId=6
http://www.shapeways.com/model/1425244/1-144-avorio-prassone-kite-balloon.html?modelId=1425244&materialId=6
http://www.shapeways.com/model/1659112/1-144-zeppelin-parts.html?modelId=1659112&materialId=6
http://www.shapeways.com/model/1625037/1-144-parseval-siegsfeld-quot-drachen-quot-kite-balloon.html?modelId=1625037&materialId=6
Alan, I found a few balloon kits. They're only 1/144 scale, still...
Cheers,
Bud
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This is a very interesting subject and a build I will be following closely, what you have done so far is looking extra good.
Des.
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Hi Alan :)
It is nice to see you here as well sharing your fascinating builds , really looking forward on seeing this come together and by the look of things you are off to a great start !
Terri
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Hi Alan, nice to meet you. Really looking forward to seeing someone scratch a Drachen. Please keep the updates coming. This should be good...
Lindsay
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Great project, Sir!
Glad to see you over here. Remember your 'Sea Scout' very well.
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Hello Alan and welcome to the forum.
This sounds and already looks like a fascinating project. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it progresses.
Best wishes
Nigel
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Hi Allen,
She's looking good! Definitely one you hardly ever get to see in model form. Great to see you here!
Mark
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Hello Rick, Lone Modeller, Des, Terri, Lindsay, Old Man, Nigel and Mark and thanks for your comments. I still have 2 of your buckles left Bob. It is 1/72 scale Squiffy, I would have loved to build it in 1/48 but because most other LTA stuff is huge I made a decision to do them all in the same scale. Hi Bud, the 1/144 stuff is really interesting especially the AP Balloon as some of them were motorised so you could make a dirigible out of their kit.
I hoped to post the build of the steering bag but completely cocked it up and will have to do it again. I was a bit over zealous on the sanding. Should get it done in the next few days.
Cheers, Alan.
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i saw a 1/72 vacuform drachen on ebay i forget what company, i lost the bid war. this is a neat subject. i remember when you hung the be2 fuselage on a dirigible a while back. i think roseplane made it.
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Welcome to the forum, Alan. Thank you for sharing the build
of a really unusual subject. Very interesting and enjoyable to follow.
Cheers,
Ernie :)
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Hi All
I have been dragging my heels a bit on this one because it is now autumn in Europe and that means lots of fruit and berries everywhere. Fruit and berries make wine and cider and although making it is a bit of a chore drinking it when it is done is the opposite (although drinking it AND making aircraft at the same time is not recommended).
I took a little longer to get this far anyway because of the mandatory cock ups that are made when you do something for the first time. If I had decided to make the steering bag out of cardboard discs and glue paper around it I would have finished ages ago but I am determined to make as much of this as I can out of the dense foam because I am still experimenting/learning on how to use this and what I learn now will be of use in future projects.
The first thing I did was make a sanding tool out of cardboard the same diameter as my plans. I drew a two dimensional shape on the foam sheet and ground out the curved outline with the sheet in one hand and the tool in another. I then flipped it over and did the other side. This method seemed fool proof but it did not work for some reason and the steering bag looked like it had an unhealthy dose of Blackberry grog. To make this fool proof and 100% accurate I made a cardboard pattern of the steering bag. I placed the pattern on the dense foam and cut around it with a hacksaw file used for cutting tiles, and run a round file over the edges to make it plush with the flat sides. I made another ‘U’ shaped sanding tool for the steering bag with the non sanding arms the same length as the pattern side’s height and the sanding part (bottom of the ‘U’) a semi circle so as to cut a profile half of the steering bag. The idea is when the ‘U’ tool touches the glass table on which they both rest the exact amount would have been sanded off. THIS WAS EASY! I ended up with two perfect halves and a semi sphere I cut with the drill and another ‘U’ shaped tool for the top of the bag. It fitted perfectly but somehow looked wrong. After looking at the plans, looking at the model, looking at archive pictures, looking at the plans, looking at the model, looking at archive pictures, looking at the plans… you get it, I came to the conclusion the plans are wrong and the steering bag was too small. I guestimated the correct size of the steering bag and did what has been previously explained all over again. This time it looks right. The irony is I have used more foam making this steering bag than the envelope, that said if I ever make anything like this again I now know the best way to do it.
I just need to shape it now, similar to how the envelope has been done. Another small mistake I have made is the metal rod running thru the middle would have been better left sticking out the back so I can attach the steering bag firmly to it; instead I sawed it off flush with the envelope. Fortunately the rod is hollow, I will now most probable have to go hunting around for another smaller hollow rod that fits inside the original one to extend it.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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What a fascinating model! Thanks for taking the time to photograph your project and share with us.
Here is an image of a contemporary poster to celebrate your work
(http://i1011.photobucket.com/albums/af234/Jamo_kiwi/WWI%20posters/HarburgWienballone.jpg)
Cheers
James
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Very interesting and ingenious workflow Al. Nice.
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Hello, Al. Could you please give us the dimensions of this balloon, and any other types you may have the information on?
I would like to have a go at making one or two.
Thanks
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What a fascinating and unusual model. Very interesting reading your construction notes….and glad to read that others have their problems when experimenting with new ideas! It looks a though it will be an outstanding model when it ids complete.
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An exeptional great build.
Martin
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Looking great! But then again having followed your last project I was expecting your talent to show through again ;D
RAGIII
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Alan, looking great, would have loved to see one in 1/48 scale but your job in 1/72 scale is very nice. By the way there were two 1/72 scale vacuform kits made in the early 1990's? by Rosemont Hobbies. The Drachen and Caquot. Of course they are no longer available unless someone is selling them at a show or on ebay.
Dave
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Thanks for the picture James, it shows how big these things are when you see the people in front of it. Thanks for your comments Bo, Martin and Rick. As for the problems Lone Modeller, if this was really simple it would not be challenging or fun. I do remember seeing a vac many years ago, It must have been one of the Rosemount ones you mentioned Dave but the sickening thing was I had no interest in buying it at the time. The decision to make all LTA stuff in 1/72 was a really painful one because all my other stuff is in 1/48. I would have got away with 1/48 so far but if I make any of the larger blimps then this scale will be completely impractical, as for a Zeppelin it would be impossible unless I move house. I would like all the LTA stuff to be in the same scale. Squiffy, the dimensions of the envelope are 90mm x 337mm and the steering bag is 40mm although the plans have it at 38mm wide. I cut the ‘J’ shaped guide at 43mm wide knowing that 2mm would come off when it is sanded and I will probably loose another 1mm when I do the finishing touches. I would now have difficulty getting more plans because I only have internet access at work (outside of working hours) and the internet is heavily restricted, I can no longer get these sites. I got onto these sites when I worked elsewhere and printed them off. I then stuck them on the photocopier and blew them up to 1/72 scale. If you Google image ‘observation balloon’ all the stuff you will need will pop up. When I was able to do this I got plans for the Drachenballon, the Caquot , the A.P. balloon and the spherical balloon. The A.P. balloon is probably the one I will do next because of its wide and varied use and I like the fact that it can be made as an observation, a barrage and a powered dirigible balloon. If you are looking at doing a Drachen I can always mail you the cardboard templates and plans when I have finished as I will have no further use for them but I will only do this if you are building it out of insulating foam or similar material because they are of no use otherwise.
I had another go at this on Sunday and sanded it more into shape, I have no pictures because the battery had gone on my camera and I did not want to trundle down the shops to get more when I was enjoying such a lovely and unusually hot day in my garden with my home made ginger beer.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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Hi All
I am not by any means a fast builder but this is dragging along slowly even by my standards, I had hoped to have it finished by November but that’s not going to happen. Just spent two weeks away on the annual holiday with the missis. I would have liked to have brought it along with me but if I had I probably would have returned with just the model, not the model and the missis.
This one is not covered so well by pictures because I forgot to snap as I built. There is a mistake on the plans which I did not spot until now (although it is just as well it was spotted before the steering bag went on). The plans show the steering bag rising vertically from the midway point of the envelope however after looking at archive pictures it actually curls around the rear end of the envelope all the way to its domed top. Luckily I oversized the steering bag so the alteration will not make it too short. I rectified it by cutting a triangular section out of it just below the dome. To get the cut dead straight I glued a couple of blocks of old business cards either side of it and ran a long sharp blade down them. The semi spherical domed top was then just glued back onto it again. As you can see by the picture the rest of it was sanded to shape, the front of the bag on a flat piece of sandpaper and the seams by the same small tool I used on the envelope. The two fit together perfectly. I just need to do some finer detail while it is still soft like the creases in the fabric where the ropes pull on then I can harden the whole thing with Varnish.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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I have already commented that this is an unusual subject, but it really is fascinating. You ingenuity in solving some of the construction problems is also fascinating…. Never mind taking a long time - good models are always worth the time and effort, no matter how long the time.
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Have to hand it you Alan , your pretty crafty ! Wonderful work so far 8)
Terri
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In a Word.... Brilliant!
RAGIII
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Like Rick.
Martin
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That is looking very cool - can't wait to see it once complete!
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Hi Guys
Thanks for all your kind comments. I have hardly touched this over the last few weeks as I simply have not had time.
I cut some grooves in the envelope and steering bag, these might look a bit gairy (if that word is correct or even English) but I have deliberatly oversized them because they will fill up with varnish and hopefully appear much softer, more like ripples if this works. now all the shaping on the envelope is done it is time to change it. I put extreamly thinned varnish on it in copiouse (probably got that word wrong as well) amounts, then when it was nearly dry but tacky a thicker coat, then once again the thick gloppy (another one!) coat. The properties of the dense foam have now changed and it is now hard but brittle around the surface, this does mean that I am screwed as far as any more alterations are concerned so I had better have done it right but on the other hand turnbuckles can be fixed into the skin and the odd knock does not put a cavenous dent into the soft version of the foam. The only floor varnish I had in the house had dark oak wood stain in it, I would not have used this if I had something else. It has given it the strange effect of filling the grouves with darker varnish, a not needed but interesting effect. I will now turn to acrylic and put a few coats on of this, acrylic only because I seem to have more appropriate colours in my acrylic paint collection than my oils. I starten by wacking some primer on it. This then showed all the imperfections and knock holes which I filled with my own filler concoction (wall filler power, PVA and acrylic paint).
Seeing other builds of this subject most people tend to leave out the two air intakes underneath. I heat shaped some plastic card by taping it around two cylinders with metal foil tape (that is the only stuff I find that does not come off in hot water and it conducts heat). I then shoved them in a cup of boiling hot water for a few minutes. There was no science involed in cutting them to shape, I just used judgment of eye and kept putting them up against their possition. Speaking of possition i have had to re do the lines on this three times now, the first was because the first coat of varnish dissolved the permenent marker pen ink (as well as the glue between the bag and the envelope) and I re did this with black wax pencil. I may still have to re do them again because after every layer of paint they become less vissible and I do not want to loose where they are. I glued the air intakes in place with PVA and then super glue although it was a bit dumb doing this now rather than before it was primed.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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Holy GASBAG, Al!
What a great subject to model and model so well ;)
Looking forward to seeing more from your build.
Cheers,
Bob ;) :)
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well Al, I thought your first gasbag was Terrific but this one is even better! It has the look of an envelope full of gas! Beautiful work on this unusual subject!
RAGIII
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Extraordinary stuff, Al! I agree with Rick completely. This is turning out to be your best ever.
Cheers,
Bud
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Extremely well done Al, you are creating a very unique and superb model of an unusual subject.
Des.
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Exellent work Alan.
Martin
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That is a wonderful piece of scratch building of a very unusual subject. I really like these odd-ball subjects because they are so rarely seen. Yours is exceptional.
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great christmas tree decoration, don't think my wife would go for it though.
;D
seriously though your sculpting is superb
Roy
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Thanks Roy, Bob, Rick, Bud, Des, Martin and Lone Modeller for your kind comments. Warren, that is a valid comment about it being on a Datafile. I will ping them an email with the suggestion.
I have been at it with the acrylics and you can now see the colour scheme. Although I cannot criticize anyone that builds one of these I do find it a bit of a shame that of all the varied and different colour schemes these were made in almost all the Drachens I have seen built have been finished in the most boring colour they were made in, all over clear doped linen. As with most subjects of this era I had only black and white photos to go by so the colours were guess work. The darker colours could have been red ochre, my heart said it was but my head said it is dark green (a shame because it would have looked awesome green and red).
I had a bit of bad luck as I originally painted it all in a slightly lighter colour then put a darker wash over it. The effect looked great but it was a bit shiny for my liking so I put a wash of Revell Matt Varnish on. This stuff was thicker than the porridge the missis makes so I watered it down quite heavily and when it dried it left white frosty marks all over the dam envelope so I had to paint most of it again and you never seem to get it as good the second time round as the first. The light coloured seams are masking tape cut in thin strips and just stuck on. I figured that as they are already the correct colour it will save an enormous amount of time masking then painting all those lines. To make sure they went into the right place I had been re drawing the places where they go with marker pen every time the marker pen lines went faint due to progressive layers of paint and varnish. After sticking on the masking tape I put a layer of Johnsons Klear over it so they stay on and it pulled the dam ink thru from below and turned all the masking tape a dirty grey colour so I had to laboriously paint all of them the colour they were originally. This is why it has taken me so long to make this next post. I have not been able to get rid of the gloss shine so if anyone has any suggestions they would be very welcome.
I have been trying to include a lot of the things I see left out of other Drachen builds and one of those things are the three inlet valves. I made these out of masking tape too because this is very forgiving as far as sticking to awkward or rounded surfaces. To make the centre covers bulge out I put plasticine on the under side and in the middle and super glued it in place. The two centre covers each have eight metal clips around the edge which are very prominent in archive photos. The only way to do these is to cut very thin strips of foil or paper painted silver and glue them on. Unfortunately I attempted this at a time when I had little patience and after loosing the second tiny sliver that I pretty much chased all round the envelope with my glue soaked paint brush I just painted the dam things on. I may one day replace them. You can see on the photo the two in the rear. There is also one on the belly about half way along.
Despite my efforts to include as many things as I can that are on the original I did not realise until it was too late that I missed out the ripping panel. This is usually on the underside of the nose and would have been dead simple to include. I have two possible options here (three if you include doing nothing) I could try and carve one in the side, I saw a GA of one with a ripping panel in the side middle of the envelope but I need to see picture of this before I replicate it. Another alternative and the easiest one if it is true is this – I have a close up picture of two ground crew mucking about with a different type of valve called a ‘blow off valve’(I have one myself on my bottom). If this is what I think the name suggests it is then there may be no ripping panel. The said valve is on a different type of balloon so once again I would want to see an archive picture before I go ahead and put it on. There is some sort of valve/funnel on the top of the steering bag. I have only been able to guess what this really looks like and have assumed it is an outlet valve made out of the steering bag material itself. I made this from Milliput.
I now have the rigging bands to put around it which will be once again masking tape which I hope not to need to paint this time. There are over 200 attachment points on these bands and I will have to do a little bit of experimenting before I start sticking things on it. I may even make the basket first so I can practise with this. I have around 200 turnbuckles I made so these may be used. Fortunately last Saturday I was at the Yeovilton Fleet Air Arm Museum where I picked up a reel of EZ Line. This will definitely be used. I have painted myself in a corner in that by making the envelope straight the Drachen must be fully airborne. When they are on the ground not bearing the weight of the basket the envelope is bent upwards like a banana whereas in the air it is straighter because the weight of the basket pulls the middle down. This does mean however that the basket will be suspended and I do not want loads of slack rigging. While I muck about experimenting with this, rather than see nothing built I will now put a little time into the GB subject.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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coming on nicely, the colours are really making the shape come alive.
Roy
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Alan,that is a real cool build!Had the same problems with shiny surface on my caquot balloon,I solved it with a thin coat of Lascaux Clear matt varnish,these are swiss-made artist colours.
For my Parseval I was thinking of etching the tri-foil attachment points ,what do you think?
(http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k152/matzmodel/1-P1110331_zpspmdsfghm.jpg) (http://s87.photobucket.com/user/matzmodel/media/1-P1110331_zpspmdsfghm.jpg.html)
I attached the ropes to a plastic card sparately ,cut a thin strip off and glued this to the envelope,saves you from a lot of frickling around with the balloon...
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That is a wonderful pair of balloons - the Drachen is really coming on well and is very impressive indeed. And I thought that scratch building biplanes caused headaches.
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Going to be your best yet !
Terri
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Thank you Warren and LM for your kind comments. Hello Terri, I am hoping it will be the best one yet though I have a spherical, a Caquot an AP type and a Japanese sail balloon planned and me thinks the Sail balloon might be the pick of the bunch. Thanks Malaula for the Lascaux Clear matt advise, I would have put a thin coat of white glue over it which would also do the same trick but I am not so keen on that idea and the Lascaux Clear matt seems a better plan. What a fantastic Caquot you have there, you have captured the effect of the different shades of fabric squares brilliantly. Metal etch for the attatchment points is a good idea and probably the best way to do it but I have no idea how to etch metal foil myself. I have tried burrying turnbuckles between two strips of masking tape but got nowhere with this one. Next plan is to take some of the turbuckles I already have and simply whack them with a hammer and trim them to shape, this will give them a nice thin apperance. The 'thin' turnbuckles will then be glued onto the masking tape strip and hopefully made to look like the three armed clamps on the real thing.
Cheers, Alan
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Hi Alan,thanks for the compliment!I had treated my balloon the same way like you did with the Revell-stuff,it's important to dilute it not more than 10%,and to apply it in thin layers.Nevertheless it turned out quite glossy in the end...until my Friend and fellow forum member Jorgo supplied me with the Lascaux stuff and an airbrush.
I tried rigging with EZ-line, but I think it's much too thin.On the real thing those were ropes ,larger in diameter than aircraft rigging.After trying all sorts of wire,monofilament and several elastics I got hold of rigging rope intended for classic ships .This is real rope,the guy who makes it has a miniature rope-walk and offers rope in 0.10,0.25mm and larger diameters,in grey,black or brown. It's glueable with CA and fun to work with. I used 0.10 and 0.25 mm on my build.
I'm really lookin forward to your attachment-solution,if it only looks half as good as your valve you can make 200 more for my parseval ;)!
Cheers Mathias
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The colours you have added to the balloon really give it life, it looks brilliant, a wonderful show of your modeling skills.
Des.
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You are creating a blinder, Alan. Beautiful work!
Cheers,
Ernie :)
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Somehow I just managed to find this build and couldn't help it just to find it brilliant :)
Lukas
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Hi All
I have got this one un-stalled. The hang up was how to do the basket. I actually made three of the dam things with each one being better and more appropriate than the last and that does not count the failed effort of weaving one out of coaxle wire. If I had to carry on making them the tenth one would take a quarter of the time and be four times better than the first. The biggest hang up was finding the right material for the weave effect. I had up until now used an umbrella that worked very well but this has since disappeared, possibly because the missis went to use it and saw lots of seat shaped holes cut into it and chucked it. Finding something as good was a chore, I went down to a haberdashery shop and bought loads of different remnants only to find none of them worked. The problem was the watered down paint soaked evenly into the material thus not showing the weave effect. I then by chance was given a rally coat at work as a gift and told it cost £150 (so I hope they do not read this) I was the right colour and made of nylon so this should surly work – it didn’t. I then thought I would try putting a waterproof agent on it and voila! It worked perfectly. Heavily watered down acrylic brown just sank and rested in the crevices drying to good effect. So with that part sorted here’s how I did the whole thing:
The box centre is just .25mm plastic card glued into an open cube with a few extra layers on the bottom. The ribs or fat bits or whatever you want to call them are a mix of x2 thin copper fuse wires twisted together in a drill and x4 thin wires done the same. These are then glued around the box in all the appropriate places. Once all the copper is on I painted the whole thing in light beige. Inside the basket I put eight super long turn buckles, this is not present in any basket I have seen and is one of those compromises between what is real and what works when construction something, the rigging will be attached to these. Once a large section of the coat material had been painted I put tracing paper on the basket and marked out the pattern, transferred it to the coat and cut out all the little pieces. These were white glued in place around the basket. I noticed on pictures the interior appears to be lined with a darker material; I assume this is untreated linen. I copied this by cutting some tracing paper to shape and white gluing it inside. The nice thing about doing it this way is the tracing paper crinkles into something that naturally looks like a sheet of linen. This I then painted brown along with the see thru bits around the basket. I painted some fishing line dark beige and cut dozens of short lengths off and white glued them into the see thru bits as they are in the real thing. I have noticed a few ropey bits having seen the photos that I will clean up and having now built it I found out the arrangement underneath the basket is wrong, the twisty bits should go corner to corner but I am not going to start another one just for that.
Time to do the passengers, I may do just one to save time but they are 1/72 Airfix WWI German infantry figures to which I will do some minor surgery.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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Awesome basket AL! Your 150lb coat was sacrificed to great effect :-X Glad to see you back at this one!
RAGIII
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Just catching up on your build. Love what you have done thus far. Looking forward to your progress.
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Seems like a lot of work and effort but it has surely been worth it. This is a truly unusual subject but it is one of the more interesting ones for that. Excellent basket - waiting to see the completed model now.
Stephen.
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The basket is amazing! Well done Alan.
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That basket is spectacular, Al! That rally coat will provide you with enough material to make many more basket in the future.
Cheers,
Bud
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Thanks RAGIII, Juan, Stephen and Bo for your nice comments.
You are right Bud, I will never need to go looking for more basket material no matter how many of them I make - unless the missis finds it and chucks it away! Just for the record if anyone thinks I am nuts cutting up an expensive rally coat I would never have worn it anyway besides it cost nothing to either myself or the person who gave it to me, it is just one of those expensive bits of merchandise no one buys. If anyone wants a square of it to do 1/72 wicker let me know.
Cheers, Alan.
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Blimey. What a fascinating topic. I have to say balloons as such don't do much for me but what you've achieved is spectacular.
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very good soloution. The basket looks great.
Bye,manni
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Thanks Manni and Toby for your positive feedback (anyone would think they were on e-bay reading that sentence)
I have to say I have got lazy when it comes to figures because in this era you do not need to have someone sat in the pilot seat unless you want one there. Balloons do not just sit on the ground fully inflated or ascend without people in them so I am forced to put someone in the basket. I purchased a box of 1/72 Airfix WW1 German Infantry because I know there will be something in there I can use. The two best candidates were the surrendering guy and the bored looking bloke in the big coat. I tried to use the former as he stands, the idea being his hands would be grabbing the rigging but they would not match up with any of the ropes in this one but a good idea I think for a future build. Instead I swivelled his arms around, chopped off the hands of another bloke and bunged in a bit of filler and voila! I had a guy holding something at arms length. To finish him off I added a belt and a couple of turnbuckles to his waist and a thin strip of filler to his hat to make it a cap, masking tape was used for a scarf. The other guy had his helmet chopped off and the cap was shaped out of filler. I messed up that guy a bit because in cutting off the flash the soft plastic turned into lots of flaky bits. Now to get rid of this you are supposed to very briefly run him over a flame and they should disappear. When I ran him over a flame most of his features disappeared including his face. I got over this by wrapping the scarf around his face and I have seen a balloonist wearing a scarf like this so I am not entirely cheating. I have noticed since photographing them their boots need doing again, the paint has been taken off by the clamps I held them in while doing all the other stuff, once again soft plastic has its pitfalls. The camera may seem over sized but the ones these guys used were massive. I made this from four strips of 1mm plastic card glued into an oblong and carved into shape. Bits of foil and copper were added for detail and it was painted over in silvergrey with the lens cover being clear plastic. Between the turnbuckles on his belt and the turnbuckles on the camera there is supposed to be wire or rope but I may omit this.
I have now put it off long enough and I really do now have to face the mother of all rigging jobs to move this on any further.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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Those figures look fine - I dread figures because I just cannot get them right. I wish you the best of luck (and lots of patience) with the rigging - what do you intend to use? I guess the finish date will be about three months even if you were to tackle this full time!
Stephen.
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Alan,
The figures are excellent, the guy with the camera and the camera itself fit the subject beautifully. I confess to getting a really good laugh out of your adventure with the camera man figure, my style of challenge and response exactly! :-\ I call it "Mr Bean builds a model" in my case! Nice recovery.
Cheers,
Lance
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You are doing an excellent job with the figures, they will certainly bring the model to life.
Des.
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Awesome detail in this scale.
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Thanks Juan, Lance and Des for your comments.
Hi Stephen, Three months is a little optimistic for me because I have so little time available for this at the moment. I could probably do it in one day if I had an entire day midnight to midnight I could devote to this. For the rigging I will use beige coloured nylon thread with the tips soaked in superglue so they are like 'needle and thread'. I will push the hard, glued end into the soft body of the envelope and glue it in place. Once all the rigging is in place I will hang a lead weight where the basket should be so they are all taught and then soak the entire rigging in superglue and leave it to dry. I had a couple of test runs on an abandoned project and it worked but it is all very tedious and involves going back to lines that popped out and re doing all the subsequent attachments all the time - not looking forward to it.
Cheers, Alan.
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Alan,
The figures are really turning out great despite your attempt to disfigure the camera operator ;D Your usual excellence in lighter than air flying machines!
RAGIII
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Firstly sorry to everyone for neglecting this for so long. Long work hours and commute has meant it has gone forward at a snails pace. My circumstances have changed now so I will try and get this finished.
There is a long band around the envelope lined with buckles to hold the rigging. I made this from a thin strip of masking tape painted CDL. Marked on it was the attachment points. I counted 91 each side after studying good pictures and was confident with the number. With the masking tape attached to the side of the envelope and another with 28 attachments on the wind sack I stuck under it turnbuckles so only the eyelets could be seen. Attached above the eyelets on the masking tape I glued three very small strips of foil to look like the buckles on the real thing. This as you can imagine took ages.
Alan
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Superb work, Alan :o
Well done!
Bob
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After experimenting with several different ideas I decided to rig the balloon with cotton thread soaked in superglue. I found this retained its shape without sagging and was somewhat forgiving to knocks. The cotton thread was too thick for the the wind sack and basket ropes so I split the thread to make it half the thickness. I did the wind sack first. As his is attached to the envelope I cheated a little and usd the one strand of EZ line in the middle of each row of rigging. For the basket I attached the balloon to a jig and drilled a hole in the bottom where the basket would be. When I started rigging I noticed I had somehow got the number of attachment points wrong. Mathematically there had to be 92 as the basket Is rigged only to the flat sides of the envelope. I have unfortunately no choice but to continue with this error, some know all at some time may notice but those who have not counted the buckles would never know. I had to be careful to get each generation of the rigging from the buckles down to the envelope the same length each side. After finishing I noticed one side did not match the other so I cut a quarter of it off and started again. With heavy weights on the ends of the threads and the thread put thru the hole I soaked the cotton thread in superglue. That is about a quarter of the rigging now done. I now need to do the Lin's that hang vertically down towards the ground and winch.
Alan.
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That really is a labour of love but it is also unique and therefore worth persevering with. It will be a very fine model when finished.
Stephen.
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Cheers Bob and Stephen for your comments. This should be downhill from now.
Alsn
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Nice to see you coming back to this project, it's a terrific model. Looking forward to final steps.
Ciao
Giuseppe
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Wow Alan , this is coming along spectacular !
Alexis
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Your hard work is paying off. Gorgeous Balloon!
RAGIII
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Thank you Giuseppe, Alexis and RAGIII for your kind comments.
I started work on the two wind flaps that hang from the rear sides of the Balloon. I made these mainly from paper so it can be shaped easily. Turnbuckles were made and super glued to a square piece of paper cut to size. A second piece of paper the same size as attached over the turnbuckles and will form the inside part of the flap, I used liberal amounts of PVA for this. Finally a third piece with 3mm shaved off each side was added to the outer sides with an unholy amount of PVA. While it was floppy with the PVA I clamped the top edge that attaches to the balloon between 2 rulers so it will dry dead straight and crinkled the rest to make it look like it is in the wind. They both turned out fine and as planned the turnbuckles only made an impression on the balloon side that will not be seen. When they were both bone dry they were painted with biege enamel and then various coats of acrylic biege, yellow ochre and chestnut brown with the darker two significantly thinned with floor cleaner. I have added the buckles the same way as the rest using thin strips of foil, one's done and the other I have left to do. This is still taking a fair amount of time despite now having more of that precious commodity. Combined, the 2 flaps have 80 turnbuckles which require 80 buckles which require 240 thin strips of foil cut and glued above the turnbuckles.
Alan.
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Incredible work, Al. Hopefully you can find the time to finish this project.
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Wow, this looks like a labour of love. Tremendous levels of skill and patience!
Richie
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The wind Flaps look Great! Paper is a really nice way to simulate fabric if done as well as you did! The stitching is amazing!
RAGIII
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echoing all the long earned accolades in the previous 5 pages.
Q: what's "GWITA forum" mentioned in post #1?
my search led me to guitars!
thanks
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Q: what's "GWITA forum" mentioned in post #1?
my search led me to guitars!
thanks
I haven't been involved but deconstructing the acronym suggests to me "Great War in the Air"? ???
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echoing all the long earned accolades in the previous 5 pages.
Q: what's "GWITA forum" mentioned in post #1?
my search led me to guitars!
thanks
For me it was even funnier, I made a search and Goggle suggested: "Do you mean the GAITA forum?" - (Gaita= Bagpipe in Spanish) ;D
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Thank you for your kind comments.
Kenshaw - Although I have not done much more since the last post I do endeavour to finish this.
Richie - Temptation to start something else is a greater challenge than patience.
RAG III - I like using paper and do so every now and then, it is alot cheaper than plastic card an has some interesting properties.
S.E Charles, KiwiZac and Beto - GWITA was a great forum on WW1 modelling and is sadly no more. It is Great War In The Air but after this post I too will try searching on Bing, Yahoo and the others out of interest to see what they come up with.
Alan.
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Great work with wind flaps!
Ciao
Giuseppe
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Hello all
I am getting closer to the end now and have the bulk of the rigging on. I must apologise for the poor quality of the pictures, I am using a tablet to take pics at the moment because my camera has finally bitten the dust. I will post better pics next time.
I need some help of possible. I tried to do the German crosses by cutting out white ones from a decal sheet and then cutting slightly smaller ones and making them black with permanent marker pen. The idea is to then put them on top of the larger white ones. I am sure I have done this before but this time the black ink just disintegrated and paint flaked off. I tried removing the carrier film and not surprisingly it refused to leave the backing paper. Unless any of you have any better ideas I will just paint the black crosses on the white backgrounds as they are already on but that will not look as good as decals.
Some of the lower parts of the rigging are attached by ringlets. For these I used my old pall copper wire. By tightly winding it around a thicker wire I pulled of what resembled a spring and cut with an exacto blade down vertically to get my rings. At the very bottom where the ropes meet the main wire cable there is quite a large pulley. I originally made this with some PE spares that were the sights to a Spandau with copper wire running thru the center and a spacer between them. I was delighted with the result but during painting it became another victim of the carpet monster and I have no more spare PE. I built another one by heat stretching a disposable pen refill, pushing it on copper wire and rolling an exacto blade over it. This have me two thin plastic discs that I glued to a piece of the copper wire I cut off at about 1.2mm. With all the rigging from the main wire cable to the envelope now on i made it taught by tieing a few weighs on the bottom ( a Swiss Army knife attached to a paper clamp attached to a large crocodile clip attached to the cotton rigging ). I have now soaked that with super glue. On the right it looks a bit messy, this is because I have not cut off the loose strands from the knots yet. I will not do this until the super glue had cured and the weights are removed. I have found they come off easier and cleaner when they are brittle with super glue.
Alan.
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Here we go, a couple of better pics.
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That is an amazing piece of scratch building - and a unique subject. It really is taking shape now.
Stephen.
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Simply remarkable, the envelope looks like the suitably-inflated real deal. And the spiderweb of rigging...incredible!
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That is an amazing piece of scratch building - and a unique subject. It really is taking shape now.
Stephen.
Simply remarkable, the envelope looks like the suitably-inflated real deal. And the spiderweb of rigging...incredible!
I think Stephen and Zac have said it all! Amazing work all around!!
RAGIII
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Belongs in a museum.
Superb!
:o :o
Bob
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All that looks remarkable...
I regret now that I look so rarely to this section of our forum.
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Thank you PrzemoL, Bob, Stephen, Zac and RAGIII for your kind comments. I solved the decal/cross problem, the cross underneath is hand painted and you can tell so I had to do the side ones with decals but I failed to print or mark the crosses on decal sheet. I even bought new permanent marker pens but they were not as permanent as their name suggests. I got around it by making a stencil and drawing the cross inside the hole. The cut out piece was used as a guide to cut thin strips of white decal to go around the black cross. Thin white decal does not come out as white, it is darker because the surface underneath shows thru. I have often in the past painted over the white bits but I feel on this one it appears too white and I am contemplating darkening it, does anyone agree?
The wind flaps are now on, one small mistake was to use cotton to tie them to the envelope because the surplus bits can be seen behind it and they will be tricky to take off, invisible thread or monofilament would have been better.
The only big job left is to make the display stand, once that is done and the balloon is on I can finish the rigging and do alot of tidying up around it.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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I write with great relleaf a critical part has been done. I made the final display stand, took the Drachen off the build stand and all the rigging stayed in place. The cotton soaked in super glue method worked. The basket was my biggest concern as the thread there is half the width but that stayed in place with no sags and sits square unsupported.
The display stand was made from an old rusty flag pole holder. I cut about a third of it off because is is made of solid steel and is very heavy, what is left is more than enough. Where the flag pole slots in I used a 22mm copper pipe which luckily fits perfectly. At the top of the copper pipe I drilled thru both sides a 6mm hole. To hold the Drachen I used a piece of 6mm hollow aluminium tube and inserted in it 3mm steel wire. I bent the end of this by beating it round a steel curtain rail to form a semi circle. By inserting it into the copper pipe I can set the angle simply by knocking it further in. I was going to fill the top with epoxy resin but it is so firm there is no need. About 30cm of steel wire pertrudes out of the aluminium pipe, the very same aluminium pipe runs thru the length of the Drachen so that slotted into it and holds it in place nicely. I will tidy up the top part of the copper pipe at some stage.
Now it is on its final stand I will do the bottom part of the rigging and add a bit more detail to the basket. The whole thing will need a good clean up as it has had quite a few unfortunate knocks.
Thanks for looking in Alan.
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Looking at all of that rigging I think that I will stay with 3 bay biplanes and pushers! The model looks brilliant from where I am sitting - and so different. It is also larger than I had thought which makes it even more eye catching.
With reference to the crosses - they look fine to me but perhaps the camera does not reveal the true colours. Personally I would leave them well alone.
Stephen.
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Al, that looks incredible! I like how you mounted the stand, but really the rigging is so impressive and I'm so relieved for you that it all held together as planned. Bravo!
Looking at all of that rigging I think that I will stay with 3 bay biplanes and pushers!
;D ;D
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Hello Stephen
It is big, 1/144 would be more sensible but I did not do that scale because I wanted to get as close as I can to the actual number of ropes and attachments on the real thing and did not want to attempt this on a smaller scale. I also had a back up plan, if it all went horribly wrong I could make a diorama out of it all, something easily done with all the kits and figures available in 1/72. I appreciate the input on the crosses. I did not however explain properly the reason why they looked too white. The thin bands that run vertically between the fat green segments were white and they did look ridiculous so I weathered them and they now look fine. Next to them the crosses looked too white but since the last post I came to the conclusion that canvas or bleached linen, which they probably are, is not going to be as white as white paint applied around a cross by a bloke with a brush so I will leave them as they are.
Hello KiwiZac
I am very relieved too! For a while now I have been cursing this and not considering any other balloon projects but now having seen this technique work I will tackle another balloon or two and maybe add them to the stand like a tree.
Alan.
One last thing, a 3 bay biplane in 1/72 is no easier to rig. On this I do not have struts, wings and God knows what else to rig between.
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Very nice work, Al. And a quite unusual subject, too. Looking forward to seeing the completed piece.
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Thanks Kensar for your nice comment. I now have all the actual parts for this completed so just a bit more rigging to do and a big tidy up before it is finished.
Drain valve on the front was made by glueing an piece of 25mm plastic card to the bottom of an 8mm drill bit with double sided tape then trimming and filing round it. I then did the same with a 4.5mm bit and made 2 discs from a 3mm. A very thin strip of .25mm card was cut and wrapped around a 6.5mm drill bit, clamped and then dunked in boiling water. By cutting along the length I got a load of plastic rings. I picked the best one and glued it to the larger disc. Inside this went the 4.5mm disc, the two 3mm discs were glued together along with a dollop of filler on the top then filed into a cone shape, this then went in the middle. Next I cut four very short lengths of thin zinc coated copper wire and stuck them between the ring and the 4.5mm disc. Next I made four small 'V' shapes from the wire and stuck them in so it made a circle of 'I', 'V', 'I', 'V' ect. Eight longer pieces of wire were cut which joined the bits already there and all met in the centre forming an eight pointed star. The drain valve is very prominent so this is something I wanted to look right.
Despite making two men I put just one in. I know when this is displayed people will think he is holding a massive cannon or weapon of some sorts but I wanted a guy in the basket doing something and could not think of anything more appropriate than taking one of the millions of photographs that were taken from these things.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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Missed one
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Excellent detail work, Al.
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Fascinating!
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Superb!
(https://i.gifer.com/WsBv.gif)
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This is a truly brilliant build. A real work of patience and perseverance.
Stephen.
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Basket, observer, and camera all look fantastic!
RAGIII
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Wow! I remember when this got started, was following along, but went away. When I came back recently, I couldn't find it, but now I did! What wonderful work! I'm going to save this thread.
WD
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Thanks WD, RAGIII, Stephen, Bob, KiwiZac and Kensar for your patience on this mega long build. I am nearly there now.
If you look at the picture in the last post the two long ropes that dangle from its nose attach to the top of the basket and they are the longest ones. They were originally made with half width thread, the same used for the rest of the basket rigging. I do not know weather they are too thin to be rigid or whether they took a battering while they were hanging and never recovered but they hung twisted and kinked when I tried to attach them to the basket. I have re done them with slightly thicker thread but still thinner than that of the main rigging and hopefully they will look no different to the rest of the ropes around the basket. Being slightly thicker they will hold more superglue and be a bit more rigid. I cut them off, re did them and attached two weights at their ends. The next stage is to soak them in super glue and leave them suspended until the glue cures. This is how I did the rest of the rigging.
I have had some bad luck. While the basket was on the jig it was attached to a block of wood to keep it the right height and position. Before I took it of it got knocked off the table and landed with the basket end down. The ropes were all bent, I straightened them and applied more super glue. They are acceptable but not as good as before but one achelees heel with this method of rigging is too much glue and the rope glistens like it is diamond encrusted. Another howler was when I attached a clamp to the very end piece of rigging, the cable that goes down to the winch. At the end of a session I cleared the tools away and forgetting the clamp was still attached I grabbed it and near on pulled the entire rigging off. Fortunately it took that huge knock well all but the second generation of rigging from the bottom which consists of four ropes. One had part of the knot pulled out of the pulley it is attached to. This has given it a feather like end and also because of the now slightly longer length of it it has warped the other three. Fortunately this is only slight and after adding more rigging around it the warping can hardly be noticed. The only way to correct it is to strip the whole lot off back to the envelope and start again and I am not prepared to do this having spent so long getting this far. One thing I can say is every now and then I re vamp my models, when I eventually get round to this one I most probably will re rig it.
Some of the shorter pieces that go from one piece of rigging to another are just wire painted beige because it was simpler to use wire. There are some parts that are actually bent or wavey (particularly round the wind flaps). I simply cannot replicate this with cotton thread so once again I used wire though stretched sprue probably would have been as good.
A problem I am tackling at the moment is the four ropes that hang free from four pulleys for the ground crew. You can see these are straight and verticals, they had the same super glue treatment as the rest. In flight these can be seen but sweep back (because of wind and the angle of the balloon). I am just running a few tests too see what works.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.
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This last post has sentences which bring back horrible memories.... I think that the important thing to remember is that although our mistakes look horrendously obvious to us, to most, (all other?), observers the finished product is just so amazing that we are blown away by the model. That certainly applies to me, especially looking at the rigging so far.
Perhaps we all need to remember that perfection is the enemy of the very good, (or in this case the very, very good).
Stephen
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I have had some bad luck.
I read this and, must admit, felt worried for your build Alan! A sad set of accidents but you've recovered well and I'm one of those observers Stephen mentioned in his post!
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Thanks KiwiZac and Stephen for your encouragement. I like the words of a TV artist who's name I have forgotten, "we don't make mistakes, just happy accidents". I will call these happy accidents because if I am catching and damaging the rigging now what will happen when I come to display it? I will attach 5 tubes to the base for the 5 cable and 4 trailing ropes that will house Thier ends. This should guard against knocks an even if one is snagged, because it is not attached to anything but the balloon it is less likely to cause damage. This whole thing has been a huge learning curve and the only way to find the right path is to go up a few wrong ones first.
All the rigging is on now and I hope to be able to do a final update by the end of the week.
Alan.
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I like the words of a TV artist who's name I have forgotten, "we don't make mistakes, just happy accidents".
The late, inimitable Bob Ross - a wonderful mantra for modelling!
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Cool , very cool indeed !
Alexis
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Hello everyone,
I have now sorted out the last thing, the four ropes hat hang down for the ground crew. On the real thing they are swept back, this is because the nose always faces the wind. They hang vertically on my one which looked odd. I tried to shape the thread I had glued on but despite test runs on some I glued to my furniture going OK the thread on the balloon seems to have a life of its own. I have tried to avoid using wire as much as is practically possible but despite this working better I chose to stick to the thread already there because at this stage I am not prepared to take off what has already been glued on, have to make good of what is left behind and risk another so called ' happy accident'. To make the wires swept back I added four posts that attach to the base with magnets. I feel this is cheating somewhat as I originally planned to have this entirely suspended with nothing supporting it from underneath. I know in some time in the future I will need to re rig some if this as nothing lasts forever and when I do then very bottom parts of the rigging will be wire. I originally set out to avoid using wire because once it is bent out of shape it is near impossible to put right. As there are already four posts guiding the four ropes I thought I might as well add a fifth one for the cable. I had posted previously that a handling accident had caused a couple of lines to be slightly bent, this was not he case. It as in fact the four previously mentioned ground crew ropes that did this, their extra weight caused the thread to warp slightly. A small lead weight on the end of the cable rectifies this. One slightly annoying thing about adding these posts to the base is that had I known I would do this I would have angled the cable forward rather than vertical because that is how it is on the real thing. Again because it faces the wind the balloon is pushed back from the winch on the ground.
This is the last post I will make regarding progress but it will be a little bit longer before I put this in the completed models section because during the seven years this has been on my workbench it has picked up its fair share of knocks. Over the last three months, while I have concentrated on the rigging, some of the buckles around the envelope have come off due to handling not to mention a few other things. So I will take this opportunity to thank all that have followed this and also apologise it has taken so long. If this was my second or third Drachenballon the build would have taken a fraction of the time. To be honest, when I set out to build this, I did not know how I was going to do alot of the stuff so I went up alot of wrong paths and also spent alot of time experimenting on ideas. From the start I set out to make a Drachenballon that appears to be completely suspended with nothing supporting it from below. I kind of half achieved this in the end. Another thing I wanted to achieve was a Drachenballon with most of is rigging, the few I have seen built elsewhere have had the rigging vastly simplified and for me that takes away alot of then appeal of the Drachenballon. I accept that I have not included every bit of rigging but I am happy that I have included everything that is practice in a 1/72 scale model. On the same subject of the rigging I wanted all the load bearing ropes to be straight, on others I have seen built they are not. The glue soaked thread made this possible. The last thing is what most people on this site try to achieve and that is accuracy. I struggled with this early on but realised during the build that there is a fair difference in many things from balloon to balloon, basket to basket and rigging to rigging. This is a generic version rather than an exact copy of one I know which does cover my ars to some degree. I will list the mistakes I know of below.
1. There is a long tail of parachutes or small spherical balloons trailing behind to help it face the wind. These are omitted because it is impracricle to have a meter of thread trailing behind with these attached. The rigging leading to this is there and I have cut it short where the windsack ends.
2. The rigging suspending the basket is darker that the rigging attached to the winch cable on the real thing. I will spare you the long story of my search for the right thread but when I finally got a reel I was happy with I used it as it came for the main rigging and for the thinner rigging that supports the basket I found a way of splitting the thread to give the half width I needed. Being afraid I would loose the effect super glue has on the half width thread if painted I decided to paint it after it is on the balloon. This was a mistake because when I tried to paint it the effect the paint made was to make it look double the thickness. Being at the point I did not want to strip the rigging off again I left it as it was rather than the right colour and the wrong thickness. If I had known this would happen I would have just bought a different colour of the same thread.
3. Directly above the basket and in front of the windsack there is a line going width wise across. I originally thought this existed, it appeared to be part of the same line that joins the parachutes mentioned in #1 on a photo but I later realised this was a red herring. When doing the main rigging the rear half that leads to the cable was weighted heavily (so it hung vertically) and I soaked it in super glue as per the rest. I spared the very top of the rigging from the glue so it would still be flexible but the capillary action of the glue carried it right up to the buckles and it ended up being permanently stuck in that verticals position. I tried a few things to fix this but none worked so in the end I cheated and added the afore mentioned red herring line which pulled the port and starboard sides perfectly in the right place.
4. There is a rip panel somewhere on the envelope but I am dammed if I could reliably see where it is on any of the archive pictures so i left it off. Because the panel was left off the rip cord was also omitted.
5. There are four lines that run from the basket to the front and back ends of the envelope. I used for this cotton thread which does simulate brilliantly rope in 1/72 but in fact I believe this to be some kind of canvas or linen chord. Eazy Line replicates this perfectly but only when it is taught. Unfortunately it is not taught on the real thing. I suspect these four chords are safety back ups rather than actual supports for the basket.
6. At the top of the four ground crew ropes mentioned earlier are pulleys which house a few lines. Hanging from these is some kind of apparatus I just simply cannot make out so it was omitted.
If there is anything else you see then it is something I have missed. Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of meeting August Von Parseval and had I probably would have asked him stuff about his airships rather than his balloons. One thing some may pick me up on and this is a Biggie. Of the few models I have seen of Drachenballons they have all had arched backs. This is correct, they do have arched backs when the are on the ground and not subjected to the pull of the cable and full weight of the basket and rigging. My one is straight. When it is fully airborne (there are very few pictures of these at high altitude) they are in fact very nearly straight. I mentioned in a previous post I got the number of buckles wrong around the envelope. I now think I put the correct number on. The mistake I made was thinking all Drachenballons were rigged the same, not all the same ropes go to the same buckles from Drachen to Drachen.
These are the things I learned from this build. This has been something at a voyage of discovery.
1. Soaking cotton thread in Superglue, it's a WINNER! Like a lot of things it is not as simple as it may seem but it is a good skill to learn.
2. Dense Foam or insulating foam was a godsend in this. So easy to work with and very forgiving. The best quality is its near weightlessness. It's only
Achilles heel is once it has been sealed with cellulite or glue THAT IS IT! You will not be changing it.
3.Regarding whicker seats I have cheated in the past and avoided by some means or another putting in the cockpit a realistic whicker seat but this is one
thing I cannot do on a balloon basket, unlike an aircraft this is on the outside. Another winner is the use of Nylon weave on certain outdoor wear. I experimented on several types of cloth and even bought a load of remnants from a habidashsry store but nothing worked as well as a Nylon waterproof work jacket that was coincidentally almost the right colour. Subsequent aircraft builds will have seats made from the same Nylon jacket which now has a few holes in the hood.
Once again thank you for all your support, Alan.
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More.
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Just staggering work, Al.
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Just staggering work, Al.
I agree and will add: I thought the DH2 had a maze of wires...this is mind blowing rigging 8)
RAGIII
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Absolutely superb.
Stephen.
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What Lone Modeller said.
WD
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Thank you WD, Stephen, RAGIII and KiwiZac for your kind words.
Alan
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Quite amazing and stunning work, Alan! An enjoyable thread to peruse... Regards, Marc.
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Quite an incredible model, Al. It looks very realistic.
Just an idea about the posts with the lines attached - can you put four figures in place of the posts holding the lines? Even if you don't detail the base any more than that.
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Cheers Marc.
Hello Kensar, I could not have four guys holding the lines because it would imply it was on or near the ground and the shape of the balloon would be different, the lines would also have to be vertical rather than swept back (which they would be without the posts). They are only there to give the effect of it being at altitude. I would however recommend anyone doing this to build it off a diorama as this would be easier.
Alan
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I'm glad to see you were able to finish this model Alan.
I think it's incredible and I agree with Bob: this belongs in a museum.
Willem
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Thanks Willem
This has now been posted on the completed model section.
Alan.
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WOW , very impressive Alan !
Alexis