Author Topic: DRACHENBALLON  (Read 23051 times)

Offline RAGIII

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #30 on: November 04, 2014, 01:52:33 PM »
In a Word.... Brilliant!
RAGIII
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"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline radio

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #31 on: November 05, 2014, 08:53:38 AM »
Like Rick.
Martin

Offline petrov27

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #32 on: November 05, 2014, 09:13:08 AM »
That is looking very cool - can't wait to see it once complete!
-Patrick

Offline Dirigible-Al

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #33 on: December 29, 2014, 07:17:08 PM »
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.
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 #34 on: December 29, 2014, 07:49:42 PM »
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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Offline RAGIII

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #35 on: December 29, 2014, 11:38:53 PM »
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
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline coyotemagic

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #36 on: December 30, 2014, 02:55:34 AM »
Extraordinary stuff, Al!  I agree with Rick completely.  This is turning out to be your best ever.
Cheers,
Bud
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream in the dark recesses of the night awake in the day to find all was vanity. But the dreamers of day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, and make it possible." -T. E. Lawrence

Offline Des

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #37 on: December 30, 2014, 06:54:14 AM »
Extremely well done Al, you are creating a very unique and superb model of an unusual subject.

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

Offline radio

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #38 on: December 30, 2014, 07:09:32 AM »
Exellent work Alan.
Martin

Offline lone modeller

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #39 on: January 03, 2015, 05:59:33 AM »
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.

Offline Royston

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #40 on: January 03, 2015, 03:40:34 PM »
great christmas tree decoration, don't think my wife would go for it though.
 ;D

 seriously though your sculpting is superb

Roy

Offline Dirigible-Al

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #41 on: February 27, 2015, 05:30:00 PM »
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.
I heard that it all started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry!

Offline Royston

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #42 on: February 27, 2015, 06:34:14 PM »
coming on nicely, the colours are really making the shape come alive.

Roy

Offline malaula

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #43 on: February 27, 2015, 06:56:03 PM »
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?

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...


Offline lone modeller

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Re: DRACHENBALLON
« Reply #44 on: February 28, 2015, 03:34:13 AM »
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.