Zeppelin LZ.77 in 1/700

[Dirigible-Al]

With only 3 weeks to finish this I will give it my best shot to do another one for Dave. I picked this one because it has very few parts and about a third of them are for different versions. This will be all about the paint job rather than the building of it, one of my weak points but this is a good opportunity to improve it.



The bits appear to fit well and are pretty crisp. I put together the two envelope halves and it needed a little filler right at the very front and the very back. There were four sink holes in the mold on one side which I filled as well as two small gaps at the top where the location points were. Gun position went in OK with a little gap on the sides. The instructions tell you to attach the gondolas to the keel before fitting it. I decided to just fit the keel first as I have visions of those gondolas getting eaten by the carpet monster if I continue to build this with them on. The keel was the only bit that needed any real amount of sanding, it was just a little too wide. Before fitting it I enlarged the attachment holes for the gondolas.









That's it for this morning, waiting for the glue to set before continuing. Thanks for looking in.
Alan.

[PrzemoL]

Fingers crossed for seeing it complete before the deadline ;-) But it does look like a good candidate for a quick project.

[malaula]

This manufacturer is new to me ...I had a start on a zeppelin in 1:720 scale some time ago.What put me off then were the envelope seams-should they be scribed or not in that scale?Would they even  be visible at all?Plus,how to render the clear parts of the gondolas,let alone the props...
I'm looking forward how you will tackle this
cheers
Matz

[NigelR]

A nice choice Alan. I'm looking forward to seeing this progress.

[Dirigible-Al]

I have momentarily stalled on this one because I was supposed to get scale pictures of the Q Class so I can mark where all the vertical structural lines are on the envelope but unfortunately wasn't able to do them yesterday. In the meantime I put together most of the gondolas leaving out the fragile PE for fear of loosing them, they will go on later. I brush painted the envelope and it now looks mor like a Zeppelin.

[NigelR]

Nice progress Alan, it is starting to look more like a Zepp.....

If you need any info, lmk as I have quite a lot of Zeppelin references and might be able to help.

[Vickers]

Really cool choice, Dirigible-Al. I always thought that the Zeppelins were a very interesting exploit in aviation, sort of like the Titanic- impressive and yet doomed. I think you've made the right choices in deviating from the order of assembly outined in the instructions and that you'll make the deadline.

[Dirigible-Al]

Thanks Vickers, I should make the deadline providing I hit no curve balls. Thanks for the offer Nigel but I do have enough stuff on Zeppelins. It would have speeded up things if I had the 1/700 scale plans especially in drawing in the ribs. I managed to do this using a bit of Mathematics, Tech drawing and masking tape. From an out of scale drawing I worked out the ratio between the ribs of the drawing and the ribs on the kit. There are two points on the envelope where I know what where the rib is, one behind the gun emplacement and the other touching the forward most points on the horizontal rear stabilisers. To avoid making them wonky I used a thin strip of masking tape that had marked on it the point where the tip of the nose is and the distance to where the rib is. Going round the envelope like the hand on a clock I got my first rib. I divided the distance between this rib and the other where the stabilisers are by the numbers of ribs between them. Next I cut a strip of masking tape to that exact width and used it to mark all the ribs between those points. The very front and rear were hand drawn by marking with spacers made from paper.





My eyes are now shot after looking at all those parallel lines.
Alan.

[NigelR]

Nice work Alan, those ribs look good.

[KiwiZac]

Nice work Alan - one of those areas of modelling that?s never grabbed me personally but I enjoy seeing others tackle!

[Dirigible-Al]

Cheers Nigel and KiwiZac
Unexpectedly I have to work a PM shift this final week of the build and that kills my bench time, I was counting on that lost time to complete this. I will however still push on with this until it is finished even though it will now fail the deadline.
I managed to do something today, the stripes that run down parts of the envelope were put on with watercolour pencils using masking tape as a straight guide then rubbed to blur them a bit. I sprayed Matt varnish over then so they wouldn't dissolve in paint later. Finally I brush painted a few coats of watered down Yellow Ochre acrylic paint in the direction of the stripes.
Thanks for looking in. Alan.

[NigelR]

That looks very convincing Alan, clever use of coloured pencils to get a nice subtle effect. Looking forward to seeing this one done, even if it does just miss the deadline.

[PrzemoL]

It does indeed look very convincing with the delicate shadows.

[macsporran]

Cool model, whenever it is finished - the intention was sincere.
So difficult to get straight lines around a complex 3D structure: these look perfect.
I'll enjoy next update, whenever it is.
Sandy

[Dirigible-Al]

Thanks for your support Sandy, Przemol and Nigel. I have seen quite a few renditions of the spotted cow camo and many of them show the darker parts as various combinations of green, brown and/or black. I personally think it was all just black over the biege and ocre yellow stripped envelope. The black was not put on uniformly and appears mottled slightly as seen in archive photos. I really screwed up a build a while ago when I drew the camo on with felt tip pens, then coated it with future to seal it only to see the felt tip ink dissolve and merge into everything else on the model. I tried this again with the hope the same thing will happen but to my advantage AND IT DID! I of course practiced first on a scrap bit of plastic. The ink from the black felt tip pen did it's own merry dance under the future but ended up uneven and looking mottled with blurred furry edges you only normally get thru airbrushing. I still need to do some tweets like putting back on some details lost that were the duralumin structure seen underneath the envelope and other parts marred by handling but now at least the envelope looks close to how I want it.









To help I downloaded the instructions from another kit and blew them up on a photocopier to the same size as the model.
Thanks for looking in, Alan