D-LZ129 Hindenburg 1:200 scale

[chris190]

I've been following John Gay's thread on the above with some interest as I also went through the scratch build process in about 1980, following on from a successful build of the Schreiber "Graf Zeppelin"; can't recall whether my wife said " we absolutely must have another enormous airship model hanging from the ceiling" but it seems unlikely!

I looked at a number of options for construction and all seemed either too flimsy to support a stretched/shrinkable covering - at one point, making a frame and using nylon stocking material as a covering flitted through my mind but reality set in when the frame bowed and buckled.

For what it's worth then, and to assist other potential builders, here are a couple of shots of the completed ship, still surviving some 40 years later and also after a catastrophic fall to the ground some years ago when the suspensions (thick fuse wire) broke.

1/16th inch balsa sheet is the frame material, cut as a longitudinal profile (I think I removed some of the interior to leave a reasonable outer zone) and in plain discs at the prototype frame positions - I scaled up the drawings in Douglas Robinson's excellent book. Pin profile to board, attach half frames and then 1/16th square stringers set at a diagonal to give a sharp edge - easier said than done when you need a smooth line from front to back; repeat 18 times, remove from board and do the same again for the other side.

Take a long strip of tracing paper, attach to frame with tape over one of the 36 faces of the frame, tightly so it doesn't move; rub pencil over edges of stringers to give a true shape for that face of the hull, remove tracing paper from frame, transfer shape to cartridge paper and cut out. Glue to that face only on the stringer edges, as each one will be different. Eye up resulting edges and trim as necessary and to maintain a good smooth curve. Repeat 36 times.

Fins from thin card, control gondola from plasticard, engine gondolas from jelutong (had grained easily carvable wood), struts from plastic rod, ladders from model railway signal accessories.

It was a long and I recall a tedious process making this ship but I have had great pleasure from looking at it over the years; I'm sure my wife would agree with me if I dared to ask her! Needless to say, I haven't attempted another airship since.

Cheers

Chris

[FRD]

Very well done...

[eatcrow2]

Outstanding!

[JohnGay]

Thanks for sharing your project.
I'm not sure mine will actually work, but I'll keep going now that I've started.
I plan to wrap the tissue around each section rather then run it longitudinally.
And hoping to use card stock to build the passenger decks. But that is quite a ways to go yet.

[Don Boose]

That is one magnificent dirigible model!

I can see why you would take pleasure from looking at it (and contemplating the work that went into building it).

Don

[YankeeBoy]

Superb classic model-building!

[chaparral2d]

A masterpiece!

Dave

[chris190]

Glad you liked the details I posted, Gentlemen, and I will look forward to further posts from you John with great interest - it would be good to see more models of this beautiful ship in circulation.

One thing you will find, though, is that model airships need regular dusting and I'm getting a bit old to keep getting up to ceiling level, lifting the models down and carefully sweeping them off with soft brushes every 6 months or so! Also, reactions to one's efforts in building large model airships are variable - a fellow modelmaker (a professional as it happened) - told me I was a complete loony when he saw the Hindenburg model; he did, however, spray paint it for me so I took it in good part!

Cheers

Chris

[Pepo]

Magnificent!