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Nah. Build it like real-life Zeppelins are built- thin balsa wood and wire ribs, with a thin cloth and paste envelope covering it.

Vik wants less complicated construction, after all, we do want to him finish this, right?

harharhar shaso

as for the bucket idea... naaawww not really... and beside... these are way heavier than would think... and the shape is not really as cigar shaped as you might think... been there done that

by the way... as we are talking about finishing...sidetracked inside a project...is that possible?

well shaso is the cause for that... his constant referring to the albatross airship made me do this:



what do you think... the build is rather naked for now... will get some more details... in fact it already has more than you can see now... but if it looks good to the eyes of the audience here than i need to build four of these...three more to go so to say...

cheers, vik

oh... and tomorrow my son oskar is celebrating his fifth birthday... (he gets the tie fighter of lego )

Looks good. It's worth a try and see how it looks with a dry-fit.

Happy birthday Oskar.

and just to get this out my system:
ALBATROSS? ALBATROSS?
No I don't have any choc-ices, just the Albatross...

er... i didn´t get it...must be a dense moment with me^^

and thanks... hopefully all will be well and he will have a great time!

i did a dry fit already... but no pic taken... i lack bluetack atm... but i´ll see what i can do about it nevertheless...
plan is to mount the engine to the hull of the blimps skeleton structure...

Sounds good. Maybe make the blimp look reinforced at the point of attachment (if you do go with them).

It's a Monty Python reference. A theatre food seller with a whole albatross laying on the tray about his neck and shouting ALBATROSS.

hmmm... i never would ahve thought there are monty python sketches around that i didn´t knew...tstststs...

yup... reinforcement is planned already... if you remember the talk about the inside out look? it will move in that direction...

It's only a very short sketch. Can't remember which series it was in and I'm not sure if it was in "and now for something completely different". The best version I've seen was in the live Hollywood bowl performance. I'm sure a youtube for Monty Python and albatross would bring it up. Quite strong language (especially in the live one), or I would have put it up here.

Ah, yeah. that would look good. You could cut holes in those strengthening beams for added lightness (as you see on interior shots of airships).

yes... i will certainly use the hole punch for that!

Nice outrider engine for the dirigible there Vik, and I have photographic proof that the Hussars arrived from UK today

yup... just checked it! congratz on that nice suply drop mate!

and thanks for the reasuring words on the engine!

I like the look of it. The only thing I would say is to maybe separate the the 2 sets of blades a bit with a shaft. I love your design, but the props look a bit flower power to me, sorry.

For structure and lightness I would have 2 suggestions.
1) Carve the whole blimp from polystyrene, or expanding foam.
2) The idea of a balsa frame puts me in mind of my dad making his RC Planes and gliders, back in the day, they used paper and dope (not the drug) to form the body and wings. Not a job for indoors mind you. My Dad always amazed me, out in his shed cigarette hanging from his lip, painting tissue paper coated in highly flammable liquid.....

Anyways great work Vik please continue.

Looks great vik!

thanks didde...

and cam... I really appreciate your comment... if fact it moved me so far as to remove the blades... you are totally right.. a flower power vibe it has indeed and this was not the aim and I had a nagging feeling in that direction too...

but what to do now? I will do some research but the way I did the flyers propeller blades will not work for these... I did some mock ups already... so if you have any propeller making tuts of that proportion up your sleeve... share´ em I need your help here...!

Hi Vik,
sorry for my long absence :(

Your blimp is coming along rather nicely - I really like it.
In regards to the propeller, if the blades are a bit slimmer and then maybe twisted, they'd look better, loosing the "flower power" feeling...
a bit like this:

I hope this helps.

hey Klaus... good to see some life signs from you again...

yup... do you know how often your stuff comes up whenever I do a research for my own needs via google? you are a celb and no mistake

yep... I agree I have to do something for the propellers... the old ones had eight blades... that was way too crowded... I am currently thinking about three... much like the gyrocopter propellers... even with the leaf like structure... what are your thoughts about this?

the twisted look is the cause for my continuous failed attempts... I cant make cardboard sturdy and twisted enough atm to make it look right... there needs to be a way around it... or as I said gyrocopter design...

Maybe take ideas from a drill or Davinci?



There's also this.

Could have them twisted in a slightly different way. Rather than horizontal and twisted have them vertical and slightly twisted?

Or since you're steampunk and all that. They could be steam jets propelling it , a few boilers some hoses and a ton of rivets and it should fit in just fine.

Oh and steam jets.

hmmm... good ideas all around not_u...
the da vinci is of course cool by definition... but I won´t be able to get that look right... beside... I think this time the look wouldn´t fit on the overall er...look...

the blades of that engine are for forward propulsion... i´d had to look at vtol stuff for reference...

as for the steam jets... hmm... that is indeed a very useful idea...hmm indeed!

you could also make it like this.



and you could also move the propellers farther away from eachother. like this.



i think it would look really cool and i think it fits in really well when they rotate in different directions. plus it looks really cool having alot of propellers imo

Ah, I see.
But Vik, the blades itself are not twisted, they are cut off the center, and then mounted to the central axle in an angled/twisted way....
Similar to some of the later images with the aircraft propellers.
Cheers
Klaus

the twin bladed prop on the plane or the helicopter was where I was hinting at. I think the blades look ok, they just would look better with four and four separated by a drive shaft.

As to twisting. Have you tried laminating the card and clamping until set.

Yeah, I was about to suggest as reading the thread the idea of using PVA or white glue lamination, then using clamps to add the twist and allowing them to dry as that

yeah... laminating and then bending it till it is set is something i should try... will do some experiments tomorrow then!

at didde... i think the rotors of the heli per se are good looking... i think the ones of the plane i will never befriend with^^ looks too off for me...

on that note...

have done some designs of rotor blade sets made of paper...

tell me what you think about them...

what works, what you would change... or which one you would choose...(mind you my wife and me have a favorite already but we ain´t tellin´)



cheers, vik

I like the design of the bottom left, i think that two of them alternate one over the other would look good, if You can bend them properly even more

yes... i think if i master the bending this might be a good choice! thanks for that quick comment!

just came back from work, I needed to check some cool stuff right away

Now I'm going to get finished the tracks of my Deff

thanks for the compliment... ^^

and i am eager to see what you will do next on your tracked deff dread

I too prefer the bottom left , top left is good, but a little to slicey (looks like swords). The four blades are too reminiscent of a certain device used by the nazi to me, although two and four propellers are more conventional, I think your blimp needs to be more unconventional .

i am fully with you on the iconograhic vibes here... my wife also pointed that out... and everything related to these fethers is always a no go for me...

the bottom left, eh?... hmm... my wifes only criticism was the thinness of it...
to be frank... the bottom right was my favorite...
three blades i think it will be... and maybe i will try a "stacked" up look like the helic rotors as didde and cam suggested...

I think your blimp needs to be more unconventional

i am totally with you on this

by the way... i have had a crazy idea... as we are all lego fanatics as much as we are modelers here on that board... what would you say...:
create a lego steampunkish draft... and then execute it with apropriate modeling materials you deem fit... PC, cardboard or bitz...? the two stage approach is the funny and essential part here...judged would be upon how well the fist sketch by lego will get translated into hobby materials... just bouncing this idea to you... ?

Hmm, contra-rotating bottom left sounds good to me.