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Author Topic: How to make an airship?  (Read 2603 times)

Offline Coronasan

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 314
How to make an airship?
« on: February 25, 2014, 06:34:04 PM »
I want to make a steampunk airship with a suspended crew cabin sort of thing.

Although I am quite happy to make the suspended cabin out of foamcard and plasticard, I am not sure about the best way to go about the airship.

There are fine examples of work on these pages, a couple of which are below.

I think this was made by Admiral Benbow, what is the airship made of?


This was made by Bullshott, looks like a rugby ball to me...


This is by Thorwin, a classic shape


Is it work starting with a plastic 2 litre bottle? If so, what is the best way to cover it? One idea I have is to glue wire in lines down the length of a 2 litre bottle, then cover it with fabric. Painting it with thinned down PVA should then give it some strength and pick out the wire to look like ridges. I can make cones for either end to make it look less like a drinks bottle!

What do you think, picking the brains of you lot may inspire me even more.

« Last Edit: February 25, 2014, 09:55:45 PM by Coronasan »
So much to do, so little time...

Offline Connectamabob

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1028
Re: How to make an airship?
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2014, 12:41:12 PM »
I'd do it the old-school way: draw a silhouette outline of the shape I want, then use that to cut a bunch of half-profiles out of card that I can glue radially around a dowel or tube, then skin with paper mache or PVA cloth. Gets you the ribbed look, and you can do any shape you want.

That, or buy a big floral foam egg, and sand/carve it down using a negative profile cut from heavy card as a guide. Actually, that's probably better than the method above: less fuss/work overall, and probably more durable in the end.

I wouldn't use a plastic bottle myself as they have a distinctive shape of their own that's hard to disguise. The above methods would let me dictate the design as freely as I wished instead, and wouldn't be hard to execute.
History viewed from the inside is always a dark, digestive mess, far different from the easily recognizable cow viewed from afar by historians.

Offline uti long smile

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4357
Re: How to make an airship?
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2014, 01:31:16 PM »
Something Crooked this way comes...
http://www.crooked-dice.co.uk/
Wargaming in the world of Cult TV

Offline Finn

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 27
Re: How to make an airship?
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2014, 09:27:46 PM »
I will be following this with interest as i am thinking of of doing the same sort of steampunk/pulp airship sort of thing. My usual approach to model projects is to bash two toys together really hard and see what turns out, so i have just purchased a star wars rebel transporter to use for the balloon part. I don,t have the picture to hand, but i am sure you know which toy i mean.

 

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