Author Topic: DRACHENBALLON  (Read 23058 times)

Offline Dirigible-Al

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #60 on: January 20, 2017, 04:30:07 AM »
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.
I heard that it all started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry!

Offline lone modeller

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #61 on: January 21, 2017, 03:45:07 AM »
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.

Offline lcarroll

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #62 on: January 21, 2017, 07:49:00 AM »
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

Offline Des

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #63 on: January 21, 2017, 08:36:41 AM »
You are doing an excellent job with the figures, they will certainly bring the model to life.

Des.
Late Founder of ww1aircraftmodels.com and forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com

Online Juan

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #64 on: January 21, 2017, 09:11:28 AM »
Awesome detail in this scale.

Offline Dirigible-Al

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #65 on: January 24, 2017, 04:23:21 AM »
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.
I heard that it all started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry!

Offline RAGIII

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #66 on: January 25, 2017, 12:44:53 AM »
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
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline Dirigible-Al

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #67 on: November 04, 2021, 01:26:53 AM »
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

I heard that it all started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry!

Offline bobs_buckles

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #68 on: November 04, 2021, 01:51:35 AM »
Superb work, Alan  :o
Well done!

Bob



https://www.bobsbuckles.co.uk/

Last Minute Man Of Faith

Offline Dirigible-Al

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #69 on: November 04, 2021, 01:51:47 AM »
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.
I heard that it all started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry!

Offline lone modeller

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #70 on: November 04, 2021, 05:56:15 AM »
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.

Offline Dirigible-Al

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #71 on: November 04, 2021, 08:29:09 AM »
Cheers Bob and Stephen for your comments. This should be downhill from now.
Alsn
I heard that it all started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry!

Offline gbrivio

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #72 on: November 04, 2021, 06:26:52 PM »
Nice to see you coming back to this project, it's a terrific model. Looking forward to final steps.
Ciao
Giuseppe

Offline Alexis

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #73 on: November 07, 2021, 08:44:28 AM »
Wow Alan , this is coming along spectacular !


Alexis
Hurra ! , Ich Leben Noch
Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .

Offline RAGIII

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #74 on: November 08, 2021, 11:40:33 PM »
Your hard work is paying off. Gorgeous Balloon!
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler