Scratchbuilt 1/144 Q-Class Zeppelin. Plastic, Putty and (3D) Printing.

[Des]

Truely amazing workmanship which is resulting in a spectacular model, well done so far.

Des.

[Pgtaylorart]

This is a most amazing build!! What you've accomplished with styrene, brass, CAD, and 3d printing show that the future of modeling is here. The resolution of the 3d parts far exceeds that of Shapeways from what I can see. I would really like to try this 3d printer to experiment a bit. Could I possibly get more info, web address, etc. on the 3d printing service you used?
.
Thank you so much for sharing your detailed build log. I've learned a lot! 

George

[MoFo]

I would really like to try this 3d printer to experiment a bit. Could I possibly get more info, web address, etc. on the 3d printing service you used?

I'd rather not.  Not because I want to keep it to myself, but because subsequent dealings with them have been absolutely miserable and I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND them.  I'm *still* waiting on an order placed in early January.  They filled part of it, but the print quality on the rest was appalling (allegedly, a malfunctioning print head) and the parts were unusable.  So I'm still waiting on them to re-print those parts and ship them out.  I can't get any response to e-mails, and their voicemail box is full so I can't even leave a message (they don't answer the phone).  But the absolute worst part has been the endless string of broken promises - "they're the very next thing we'll print", day after day; being told stuff 'shipped yesterday', but when pressed for a tracking number, finding out a week later "they'll be shipped tomorrow, I promise".   

But, just so everyone else avoids the same potential misery, the company is http://www.rapid-fab.com/

All that being said, however, there are a couple of good print bureau directories out there.  http://www.makexyz.com/ and https://www.3dhubs.com/  These prints were done on a ProJet 3510, so you should be able to get similar quality by finding someone else running a similar printer through an advanced search.  You may want to double check printer specs from ProJet, as they have a lot of similarly-named printers with widely ranging specs, but the 3510 HD and 3500HDmax go down to 16um.  (you may also want to look up some of the Envisiontec and Viper printers - they have really good quality, though they're SLA printers, not multijets)

[Pgtaylorart]

Thank you very much for all the info on 3d printers. That's too bad about the Rapid-Fab service. I hope they do the right thing and resolve your issues, but I'll avoid them.

George

[MoFo]

You and me both!  (on both counts, actually...)

[MoFo]

This month I have mostly been: sanding!  Like, a sickening amount of sanding.  Think it sucks having to putty, sand and feather in some ill-fitting, 1/2"² Landing gear door?  How 'bout filling and sanding 671 square inches of long, straight, facets. 

I think I'm nearly done smoothing out the balloon.  I actually came *this* close to binning the scratchbuilt part and just printing out the entire envelope, as I wasn't satisfied with the somewhat wavy seam lines.  I wanted something crisp and geometrically perfect, and computers are much better at that than people.  But, after many, many applications of putty and careful sanding to try to straighten the creases as much as possible, I'm finally at a point where I'm pretty much satisfied.  Still not 100%, but it's pretty close.  I'll shoot some pics of the putty-speckled mess ASAP - it's really not pretty at the moment.  Hopefully I can get a coat of primer on this weekend, then it'll be ready to have the rib tapes tediously applied (some .7mm pinstriping tape), another coat of primer and then finally, *finally* ready for paint!  Oh, and plus scribing the surface detail, and adding the tailplanes, and scratching some sort of brass tail tip so the resin part doesn't keep %$#@ing chipping, and, and, and... 

Also: jeebus help me, I've just received a copy of the R-Classe Datafile and I'm already starting to goof around in CAD.  Maybe my project for 2016?  Eep!   

And just so this post isn't *completely* devoid of pics, here's a quick comparison of the various Zeppelin Classes.  Other than the Q Classe (which is the one I'm building), they're just rough sketches, but they're all properly scaled, if the shapes aren't 100%.



From top:
M Classe, the relatively puny early war Zepp, more reconnaissance oriented than a bomber.
Q Classe (subject of this build)
R Classe (the first of the Super Zeppelins; bigger balloon for a higher service ceiling in an attempt to skim over British air defences)
W Classe (the Afrika Shiff, designed to fly from Germany to Tanzania, to resupply troops)
Hindenburg, just to show how truly massive the airships got.  The Q Classe is huge in 1/144.  I can't even imagine a Hindenburg!

[iwik]

Hi!
That's just excellent!
We're all waiting for any updates!
Ciao
Iwik

[zavod44]

I come here everyday looking for an update to this project...please keep on going.  I'm all in...

[MoFo]

Finally had a sunny day (the zepp is a little big to squeeze into a photo booth), so as promised, more pics.  I think I'm just about ready to lay down a final (I hope...) coat of primer, so the next major hurdle will be figuring out how to precisely locate the individual rib stations.  I *had* planned to print out a template which I could simply lay along each skin panel, but after all the filling and sanding, the shape is a tiiiny bit out of whack.  Unfortunately, a degree here and a mm there, over a four foot span, adds up to about a 3mm error overall.    So now I've got to figure out a plan B.

First up, an overall view:


Zooming in, you can do some archaeology sorting out the various layers.  Almost has a psychadelic vibe:


Tailplanes are done, but just test fitted.  It'll take a bit of putty and sanding to blend these in, but hopefully nothing too serious...


Gun platform has been fitted.  It's actually *too* good a fit - it press fits snugly into place, so by the time I add a few layers of filler primer, primer and paint it'll probably be too big for the hole.  Guess I'll need to do some careful filing (and masking)


...and as a teaser, while it's been raining the past few days, I finally caved in to the siren song of the R Classe schematics. 

[pepperman42]

Im not sure why I missed this but holy!!!!!!

Steve

[Des]

This is really taking shape beautifully, the gun platform is excellent, and so small.

Des.

[ondra]

This is insanely brilliant!!!

My hats off to you, sir, and to your scratchbuilding skills.

Cheers

Ondra

[radio]

That will be an fantastic build.
Martin

[vincentm]

Your work is brilliant both in 3D modelling and scratchbuilding. Quite unusual and very interesting project. Some kind of leap in the future of modelling?

[RAGIII]

More impressive and stunning with each update! A spectacular project!!
RAGIII