I'm back at my modeling desk after a long hiatus and anxious to tackle one of my more ambitious projects: the USS Los Angeles dirigible (ZR-3) during an infamous accident which saw it stand nearly upright on its mooring mast.

I have Hawk's injection-molded 1/245th Graf Zeppelin (GF and LA were variants on the same basic plan), which comes out to a bit over 3 feet long. A while ago, I managed to get most of the gondola complete, but haven't done anything with the body until I had a real plan for the dio.

The best plan I have so far is to use two telescoping lengths of pipe/rod. One larger hollow pipe situated inside the LA and exiting at the nose, one smaller solid rod protruding up and through the mast, then slide the LA onto the mast's rod. This would enable me to take the model off of the base for ease of transport or to display on its own.
(Picture is just for visualization...the actual angle wouldn't be that large.)


Assuming this would work at all, I'm planning on a rather wide and heavy base for stability, and some way to "thicken" the hollow inside of the model to anchor the metal rod without adding significant weight. To those with a better understanding of physics, how big of a base and rod might I need to keep the model upright And how thick should the rods be in order to stabilize while blending into the setting? If the dio has to be purely upright for ease, I'm totally okay with that. Anyone else have any ideas to stabilize the Zeppelin besides two rods on a sturdy base? I'm really hoping for some good input here...surely some members are engineers!

WOW!3 feet long ,that's long.
I'm thinking a wood base for weight,has to be long enough take the angle of the dirigible.For 3 feet the wire has to be pretty thick,but if your doing the tower it should fit with it down the center.This will be very interesting.
Best of luck.

Tom

I'm not an engineer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. For enough base weight, you might consider a larger block of wood(like a small version of a railroad tie). Then you could use one side for a short historical description w/photo like the ones you've shown here. This could be epic and I also wish you good luck!!

I think you are on the right track . Tube in the airship - rod in tower / base .
The less weight in the tail the better therefore I would not run the tube all the way nose to tail . Half way or even less may do it. Make a bulkhead to accept the inboard end of the tube . I would experiment with different sizes of rod / base till you find what works . Tape the airship hull together so it can be opened up to make any adjustments . Also keep in mind that the more vertical the airship is the less moment it has - ( force acting to bend the rod ) . The wider the base or the more mass it has the more stable it will become. Experiment with mock ups before committing to finished work - you may want to post on Aeroscale as well as this seems to be more Aviation related - I'll be watching with great interest. Go for it !
Cheers - Richard

Cool idea Robby. I love airships so I will be following your build with great interest.

Thanks,
Randy

I agree with Richard's assessment of the weight and torque on the rod-- but having built the 1/245 Hawk kit of the Graf Zeppelin, I think you may find it too heavy for anything except a steel rod-- and you may not be able to get it at a scale thickness enough to support the model. The completed model is fairly heavy. It was originally designed in Vacform thin plastic, which would be better for your project for sure. The later re-release by Hawk is done in a much thicker and heavier plastic. Given the newer kit's center of balance and weight, I'd make sure you have the strongest steel rod you can get going through the tether point. It may also be necessary to weight the nose to keep the Zeppelins center of gravity as low as possible. All this will strain the tether mast to some degree. You might have more success with a smaller kit, and I think there are a couple of kits near 1/700 scale out there available. Good luck-- it will be interesting to watch this project.
VR, Russ

Ambitious project i like it

I have seen a model of the British R100 dirigible tethered to a mast. It had mooring cables trailing to the ground which may have been stiff wire for support.
It was at http://www.shuttleworth.org

Have been to a model show where one of our club members flew a radio control blimp. It's payload was a SINGLE sheet of paper

Consider paper models, these could be a lot lighter, available in several scales for several types
Mind you a 1/48th ww1 Zepellin is 17foot long
Good luck

Maybe you could add a few helium-filled scale gas bags inside the airship to lighten it... Just kidding

Good luck with your project !

H.P.

Thanks for the support, all!

Jack: believe it or not, I've even been considering skipping over large wood bases and making a cement base. Overkill perhaps, but the last thing I want is to make a base that won't stand up to the task...well the last thing I want is to do the necessary math to determine the minimum requirements

Richard and Russ: good tips that I would not have considered! I'll have some considerable modifications to do on the interior. I was worried also about the kit's weight. I figured I'd sand down the entire body internally, hopefully cut the weight in half. If it ends up not being possible, at least the two-part rod mounting will allow me to keep the model on display without the mooring mast. Then I'll be on the lookout for the smaller kits. Or like Jon suggested, paper models. My original plan for this dio was to scratch-build the dirigible out of sections of foam board. I got pretty far in my drawings, then I found the kit and abandoned that plan.

Let me make another suggestion regarding scale-- Revell makes an inexpensive 1/720 Hindenburg, you might get two of those kits and combine them for the length and scale of the Graf Zeppelin. Megatech made a balsa model of the Graf Zeppelin which was about two feet long if you could find that kit. The old vacformed 1/245 Hawk kit was re-Released by Testors in thier Historymaker line several years ago, you might try going to a site like "oldmodelkits.com" or eBay to check on the availability of that kit-- but I think it might be a little pricey, and Vac plastic has a tendency to develop cracks over time. A few months ago over on Aeroscale there was an announcement for a Graf Zeppelin kit I believe in a smaller scale. There are other kits, as you mentioned, in paper and at least one smaller scale kit in photo etch brass of the internal structure only (this could be covered in tissue paper I suppose). The 1/720 Revell kits could be Vacformed though, which would make the weight a non-issue. I suggest going over to Aeroscale as Richard has mentioned, as there are some folks there that may be able to assist. There have been several models of tethered airships released over the years-- and there have been several modelers who have built them as tethered to support ships or ground tethers-- you might search the web for these articles for hints.
Along the lines of your idea, here's a link to the USS Patoka and USS Los Angeles model at the San Diego Maritime museum over at the Steel Navy website. There's another larger scale model form a Florida modeling club website too, although they both use supporting rods:

http://www.steelnavy.com/PatokaAO9bc.htm

http://www.pelikanclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/P1030588.jpg

VR, Russ

This is gonna be great, I'll be following as well!
Best of luck Rob

Dave

A concrete base is really unnecessary unless the model is especially heavy, and in that instance you would need to reinforce the concrete unless you make it absurdly thick(for a diorama base). Concrete is quite brittle in thin section. You really only need a decent thickness of good plywood or engineered lumber(hell probably even mdf).

The primary concern would be to ensure that the base is wide enough to be stable, which would mostly depend on the location of the centre of gravity of the whole thing. Assuming CoG is in the middle you can mount the lighting post towards one edge and you really only need to make the base extend to the tail of the airship, and maybe even use a square piece for sideways stability as well.

If you can use an I-beam rather than rod in the airship you might get less flex for the size you can use.

Super-cool idea - I can't wait to see the results!

As for architecture, I'd find a steel rod (threaded rods are sold in DIY stores over here) and fit it into a hole drilled diagonally into the top of the tower, then fit a metal tube that slips over the rod into the centreline of the airship so it can be slipped onto the steel rod. There is a lot of bending force involved, all concentrated at the point where the diagonal rod is attached to the tower, so plan to do that as robustly as possible. The tower itself needs to be strong enough not to deform, as the weight will all compress one side, so again I'd go with a metal construction here. Inside the airship, fit several bulkheads with a hole in the middle for the tube to slide into. I'd do the base as a sort of wedge shape (like a pizza slice) for visual interest - just make sure it extends beyond the airship in all directions by a couple inches.