"almost Lighter Than Air Craft" Started

[Daryl J.]

Having no way to post pix to the web, I'll just have to use a word picture.

The kit:

Maquette R-100 airship to be rescaled to 1/72, scratchbuilt power plants and personel carriage.

So far:

The hyooge(!) sags between ribs are being filled with Magic Sculpt to give the machine a faceted appearance rather than an emaciated one.   The filling should take somewhere in the vicinity of 1-2 weeks to get it right.

The power plants:  4 Eduard Albatros D.V's cut just aft the engine and arranged into pushme-pullyou pods.  (I'll likely not mess with prop pitch because I'm a lazy sod).

The seating:  Open air wood and tubing frame, leather seats.

Then nose and tail get an armour plate as do other spots.


If anyone has seen Hayao Miyazaki's 'Castle in the Sky', the blimp the old lady drives is the spiritual ancestor to this project.


I'm trying to decide if I should add a corrugated I-1 or ANT-5 sesquiplane parasite.


    ,


Daryl J.

[Joe C-P]

Daryl, please find a friend who has a digital camera and an internet hookup. I'd love to see this!  B)

JoeP

[Andrew Gorman]

It sounds like it looks like the Helistat:
http://www.piasecki.com/images/helstt.gif
It should be a fun project!
Andrew

[Wyrmshadow]

It sounds like it looks like the Helistat:
http://www.piasecki.com/images/helstt.gif
It should be a fun project!
Andrew

Oh THAT thing? I saw a video of it crashing, and killing its pilots.

[Daryl J.]

Another word picture:  More filling of sags with Magic Sculpt.   The twins joined in by getting out their PlayDoh!      

Pictures were taken, but they've not been uploaded yet.



Daryl J.

[Andrew Gorman]

Oh THAT thing? I saw a video of it crashing, and killing its pilots.

It's more complicated than that- it did not crash as in fall from the sky, but it was destroyed in a taxiing accident, and as a VTOL ship it wasn't really intended to taxi under power at all.  Someone decided to do just that.  It had effectively shopping cart casters at each corner to tow it around the airport, and one of them wobbled.   The shimmy set up a bunch of vibrations that cascaded and one of the helicopters fell off.  A very unfortunate end to an interesting and very low-budget project.  The video is gruesome, especially because you can see these problems multiplying towards disaster.
Andrew

[Daryl J.]

The blimp shape itself will be similar to the that thing but much more pointed on the aft.    As far as power plants, they will be mounted on pivoting wings that look ''Old Fashioned" for lack of a better word.

Both the nose and tail get an armour shield as does the undersides.   The machine will be only about a 3-placer.  Rather than a gondola used since the 1930's or so, it will be more open air with some armouring on the undersides and sidewalls of the cockpit, yet rather exposed.

But enough rambling for now.  


Daryl J.

[Daryl J.]

Here's a preliminary sketch of the vehicle with no provision for personnel.  It illustrates the base machine and power only.  Wings are to be altered from this planform.




And here's the filler in from of a product called Magic Sculpt.  One can see why shrinkage was/is a concern.   The sags are about 1/8" deep so there is plenty of filler.




The tearing of Magic Sculpt is pretty easily fixed.  Wait one day, reapply.  The stuff is quite thick.

Small tutorial:  Magic Sculpt is a resin+hardener material that smells like amonia water.  Mine was purchased exactly 6 years ago and still works beautifully.   It was thinned lightly with water prior to application of the A+B ''worms'' which were flattened by hand and then scraped with a out-of-date credit card.   Every other sag was filled to minimise damage to the putty.   Today saw the near-completion of one fuselage half before the kids wanted some more hot tea.

Cheers,
Daryl J.

PS:  They got a Darjeeling with whipping cream and sugar

PPS:  Would it be constructive to occasionally have a 'Small tutorial' included in the format?

PPPS:  Time frame on this project------>  whatever, whenever...a year maybe?        

[Aircav]

Theres a very good series of four novels, Mortal Engines, Predator's Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain, written by Philip Reeve were the only way cities can survive is by moving and airships are used to track and capture them for their materials.
Cracking good read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Engines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator%27s_Gold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infernal_Devi...ces_%28Reeve%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Darkling_Plain

[Burncycle]

Kind of reminds me of a super transport concept I saw once. It looked like a super guppy but much larger overall with a more streamlined bulge -- the bulge itself was a bag of helium. Not enough to lift the transport loaded by itself, but enough to lighten it, the wings did the rest of the work.