Blimpwerks: Scratchbuilt 1/144 Zeppelin Q Class

[MoFo]

Tailplanes test fitted. Need to tweak the fit to blend them in, but it's a start. It's *finally* starting to look like an airship, rather than a big cigar.

Note the see-through effect on the tailplanes. Hopefully I can maintain this through paint. Hopefully...

[MoFo]

Still progressing. Just about ready for the printer:

A string of Maybachs:

Front gondola:

...minus the roof:

Rear gondola:

...missing it's roof:

Transmission and gear drives are integral with the gondola drawings - I figure they'll probably be painted a fairly simple overall colour; Maybach's were split out because they'll need more detail painting (plus, they're a lot more detailed than the transmissions, so it was easier to build them separately) Also visible in the overall pic are the rudders (top, far left), Spandaus, radiators (right above the engines), nose and tail caps, and some doors. Just need to add steering wheels, engine pods and props and it'll be good to go. Wheeeee!

[karl h]

its been said before, but.....WOW

[Ruud]

Sweet work MoFo!

[MoFo]

I's dotted. T's crossed. Couple of fiddly bits taken care of:

Decided to print the gun platform as well. Saves a bit of fiddly work (hopefully), and it lets me do the scaffolding structure far more easily. Some simple sketchwork vs fiddly, tedious trimming and soldering. Of course, cleanup will be tedious and annoying, so it's a little bit of swings and roundabouts.

Outrigger gear pods. These mount outside, on the balloon's surface, and actually drive the props. The engines themselves go inside the gondolas (they'll mount on the rectangular platforms you can see on the gondola floors), but two engines in the rear gondola connect to gearboxes which power driveshafts that hook up to these outrigger gear pods to power the props. Nice thing about CAD/3D printing is that it's much easier to get incredibly precise angles. In this case, I've "drilled" the mounting holes for the outrigger pods, which should make assembly much easier. Had I turned them on a lathe in a more traditional manner, it would mean a bunch of tricky measuring and drilling (and repairs when I inevitably got it wrong).

Illustrating the 'ship' part of airship, here are the Zepp's wheels. Multiplied by a few, just in case I damage some in clean-up. :)

...and finally, the props. I'll only need four, but again, just in case of breakage it's better to have too many than too few.

[RotorheadTX]

Four feet long at 1/144th.........staggering. My mind simply cannot conjure up an image of something 35,800 cubic metres in volume floating through the air.

As much as I love all of our modern conveniences, I wish I'd been alive in the 20's and 30's to see such things in person.

[MoFo]

Woo hoo, I was finally able to make some progress again.

Still waiting on the printer for my parts (hopefully they'll ship Friday), which had me at pretty much at a standstill. Luckily, I got a delivery from HLJ today with some brass rod I needed for various supports - .2mm, .4mm and .5mm diameter. This gave me the chance to give my new Hakko 888D soldering station a good workout, and I have to say, I'm *really* pleased with the results.

I had already drafted out bending soldering templates in CAD. I printed out the templates and used them both to cut the various pieces to fit and for assembly - a sliver of masking tape to hold the pre-cut brass rods in place over the template, a dab of flux, a tiny sliver of solder and then touch it with the iron. Simple masking tape works well enough to hold things in place, as long as you don't take too long with the iron. Ditto the paper templates; if you really try, you can scorch things a bit, but unless you're actively trying to start a fire, it'll be fine.* It all went surprisingly well, though it felt like I was spending ten minutes trimming and taping two pieces, in order to solder them in a second.

Since I always seem to start with the least sensible assemblies, I began with the hand-holds, which will be located on the lower portion of the gondolas. These were used by the ground crew to man-handle the Zeppelins, tie off ropes, etc. I wanted them to be fairly delicate, so I used .2mm rod (.008"). Delicate work, which required just the tiniest amount of solder, but fairly simple construction.

Next up, the engine pod support trusses. These were more complicated, having a triangle-inside-a-triangle shape... which gets connected via braces to another copy of same. Similar construction process, though: tape brass rod over the pattern, trim to size, add flux and solder. I made 4x 'triangle' bits, then taped two completed assemblies on their sides, fitted the cross bracing and soldered the units together.

One of the cool things about soldering is that by staggering your temperatures, you can safely build on previously built assemblies without fear of melting the join. Just start with a high-temperature solder and work your way down through lower-temperature solders. In this case, I started out with regular 60/40 solder with the iron at about 250`C to build various subassemblies, then switched to Tix solder (melts around 145`C) and turned the iron down to 180`C - just below the melting point of the lead solder.

Same process for the engine pod's front brace. I soldered the "vertical" bars with 60/40 along the length first, then rotated this assembly 90', using a set square, then used Tix to solder on the V-shaped bit. They do need a bit of clean up, but I'm pleased with the way they look.

And just to give a sense of what exactly these bits are, here's a view of the paper model I'm basing all this on. You can see the hand-holds along the bottom of the gondola, and the two engine pod support structures attached to the balloon. I still need to build the transmission shaft and its support braces, but I may wait until I'm attaching the gondolas to do that, since I'll probably need a bit of wiggle room in their location.

*I take no legal responsibility for any fires anyone may start.

[dnl42]

That's some fine work, MoFo!

I'm glad you showed this, as I've got a similar type of task for a 1:350 YMS that I've got started. The flying bridge had a pipework structure to hold canvas awnings. Tried to do it with plastic rod and glue, but it was too fragile. I'll have to try this out.

[Spectre711]

Just when I didn't think you can top what you've done you impress us even more. Exceptional work!

[MoFo]

3D printed parts arrived yesterday(!). Really happy with the way they're looking. Will post pics soon - after I've finished oogling the bits and hauled out my photo booth.

[MoFo]

I believe the phrase is "photodump". :)/>/>

Got my prints back from RapidFab. They use the same kind of printers as Shapeways' Frosted Ultra Detail, but it's a much smaller operation, running higher resolution, and it's cheaper to boot. I think the prints look MUCH better. Full gallery is here, for anyone who is interested. http://s21.photobucket.com/user/IronChefMoFo/library/parts/3d/prints2 I'll try to pick out a few highlights.

A couple of notes up front. You *CAN* see visible print layering, and striations from the print head. It's not the worst I've ever seen, but it will need cleanup (filler primer + sanding). Also, because the acrylic resin is translucent, it's a pain to photograph. It also means you're seeing surface issues on BOTH sides of the part. Remember that when you're looking at the surfaces. It's also interesting to note, that because of the rough surface finish, the parts stick to a microfiber cloth like velcro. Again, nothing that a light sanding won't improve, but they're *not* ready to go straight from the box.

Engines. Not much to say. They seem to be mercifully smooth, requiring little clean-up, but it's a little tough to say for certain until they're primed. You'll notice that they have a slight discolouration at their cores; that's from the support wax (more later).

Ships wheels. Again, they seem pretty clean, which is lucky since they'll be almost impossible to clean. If I recall correctly, the connecting points on the spokes are around .3mm. Also, it's a good illustration of one thing 3D printing could be really, really good at: replacing PE. Instead of having flat, two-dimensional brass parts, print 3D shapes. They don't use much material, they're thin, so they'd have fast print times, and they're more realistic. Interesting thought for the future.

Gun platform. There's pretty much zero chance I could have scratchbuilt this without resorting to PE. Now I just need to inset it into the fuselage top. It almost feels like cheating. :)/>/>

...and the guns. I'll need to primer these before I can tell how they turned out. I *can* make out the gas vents, but anything other than that is just too small. I mean, they're certainly good enough, I'm just not sure how good at the moment. (this is one of the downsides to the translucency)

Front gondola pieces. The front control gondola was actually split in half, with the command section separated from the engine section, apparently to avoid the vibrations transferring through. I decided to mimic this, and split the engine bay off.

Interior details. Note the square stools - I think they're about 1mm square. The framing will all have to get glazed over... somehow. I could make up a vacform master, or just cut panels from acetate. Leaning towards the latter.

Command section roof, showing the knife edge to the fairing, and some of the print lines, basically just to get a feel for the print texture.

And the engine section's roof, again to show the texture of the print. You can see print layering on the left side, and a slightly rough surface on top. The raised lines along the side are meant to be there. Oh, and note the scoop towards the bottom/front; it's been printed open. :)/>/>

The various parts all just press-fit together. A couple of dots of CA are all that will be needed.

Edited December 10, 2014 by MoFo

[MoFo]

Rear gondola and roof. This one had three engines, so would have been loud! Again, notice the yellowish tint at the nose...

I forgot to include an escape hole in the model, so the yellow substance is the support wax. The 3D print head prints out the resin, but it also prints wax to support the model. That's why you can print layers that would otherwise be floating free in space; in the physical print, they're not, they're printed on top of wax, which gets melted away in post processing leaving your free-floating part. At least, it does as long as there's a way for the wax to flow out. I'll probably drill a few small holes and heat the model up to empty the wax out, just in case it causes problems in the future.

Speaking of free-floating, notice the door. I gave it a .1mm gap around the edges, leaving small tabs attaching it at the top and bottom. A couple of quick swipes of a pico saw and it's free.

Rudders. These warped slightly, but they're *very* thin at the edges. I used a few blocks and spacers to hold the parts together through shipping. Also, note the faint line through the fins, running roughly across their middles...

Those are printed-in holes for the rudder hinge rods. They just needed to be lightly reamed out with a .5mm drill bit, then slid onto some brass rod. That should add some strength to a relatively delicate structure. The rudder cores themselves will get skinned in thin sheet styrene, then the brass rod fill slot into holes in the body and tailplanes; I opted to print them largely because it was easier to obtain the proper airfoil cross section that way, rather than through careful, tedious sanding.

And finally, the nose and tail caps. These are way more precise than I could have managed, carefully filing and sanding styrene sheet. And they're sized to simply slide over my acrylic rod spine. It's the first time I've had a fully, complete envelope. I'll be using putty to fair them in and refine my facets. The down side is, I won't be able to 'rotisserie' my balloon for painting any more. Unless I make them removable...

Finally, another shot showing texture on the nose cap. You can clearly see the (nice, crisp) facets running sort of like longitude around the dome. If you look closely along the 'latitude', you can also see facets introduced when the model was converted from CAD to a 3D printable file format. This converts shapes into polygons (triangles), so, for instance, a nice, smooth sphere becomes a lumpy geodesic dome. In this case, the smooth arc of the dome became a just-barely visible series of flat facets. Kinda neat.

Now I just need to give everything a thorough cleaning to remove all traces of wax and mineral oil, then shoot a coat of primer to see what I've *really* got.

[nickdanger]

Wow! That is way cool. Are there any painting do's and don't for 3D printed material?

[MoFo]

It depends on the technology used. Sintered nylon will be different from extruded ABS will be different from SLA, etc.

With *this* stuff...

DO clean it thoroughly in warm, soapy water. Preferably a few times. The support material is wax and it gets cleaned and processed in mineral oil, so paint adhesion can be a problem if it's not cleaned. You can see a few dots of oil on the surface in the rear gondola interior pic.

DO use an ultrasonic cleaner for this process, if you have one. It'll help loosen the oils out of microscopic pores.

DO use a lacquer based primer. You want a solid base coat to build on, and acrylics risk adhesion problems.

DON'T flood the bare surface with thinners. Just in case, you don't want to damage the resin. Build up your primer with light coats. Once you've got coverage, you can go a little heavier.

DO use a levelling thinner to help let the primer settle in crevices to smooth out the surface.

Most importantly, DON'T expect to have perfect, ready to use parts straight out of the box. You'll have to clean, sand, prime, re-sand, re-prime... It's a lot easier than scratchbuilding, but it's not like using a drop-fit resin part; you'll still have to use some elbow grease.

Other than that, it's quite similar to regular polyurethane resin, so similar techniques apply. It IS quite delicate, and while there is a little flex to the material, it's fairly brittle so the bigger issue is careful handling. I like to use an ultra-fine PE saw to make any cuts or do any scribing. Surface smoothing can be done through wet sanding or with a fibreglass scratch pen.

[WymanV]

This is some pretty incredible stuff. And I really like the idea of 3D photo etch.

Ken

[mingwin]

wow! now that's bringing the modeling hobby to another level! incredible job, BTW, MoFo!

[MoFo]

Bump.

Since the Great War GB is over, but my build isn't, I asked Steve to move this to the regular In-Progress section.

No major updates since the last post. I've cleaned most of the prints, but still need to shoot some primer. The holidays, and a raging cold, have put a bit of a damper on my building. :(

[jfmajor60]

will the Sopwith that come along will also be in 1/144?(that would be damn pretty small!)

i'll follow with great interest how you'll do with that pretty hard challenge! ...that will be for sure, some of the most impressive built of this GB!

I actually have a 1/144 Sopwith in my stash its really not that small just over 4.5 inch wing span.

[MoFo]

I actually have a 1/144 Sopwith in my stash its really not that small just over 4.5 inch wing span.

Erm, if it's 4.5", it'd be 1/72, not 1/144.

[chukw]

What delightful madness- cheers, MoFo!

[Joel_W]

Steve,

An amazing build of a most unusual build. Been in the hobby since the 70s and I don't think I've ever seen a Zeppelin built before. The level of detail with the 3D parts pushes your build to the very forefront of modeling.

Just as an after thought, have you given any thought to how or where you can display such a large model? At least it doesn't have wings.

Joel

[jfmajor60]

Erm, if it's 4.5", it'd be 1/72, not 1/144.

DUH!! ha ha your right, not sure why I thought it was 144 maybe because the box is so small

[nimrod77]

Your doing an amazing job and the insight into 3D printing is very interesting.

Looking forward to more 👍

[Major Walt]

I am completely blown away! This is awesome beyond words!

[Spectre711]

Any more progress on this one? You have been doing a magnificent job so far!