Shipyard - Zeppelin LZ43

This particular model is about 150mm long and the main envelope is made from card. If you can imagine the envelope being constructed in five sections; the nose, forward section, the main body, rear section and tail;

The nose is a block of balsa, the three central sections, forward section, main body and rear section are folded up from card (slightly thinner than cereal box card) and the tail is balsa.

The whole envelope was then covered with sections of plastic card glued on with super glue and then lightly sanded. The gondola is thick plastic sheeting (the plastic that is used by builders for window sills or cladding, which I picked up from my mother-in-laws when she had work done on the house).

The model was painted with acrylics and I have tried to show the variaion in material used in Zeppelins, where lighter material was used in the top of the envelope to allow the gas to escape. The LZ43 was hand painted.

Tony