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Modern (1975-today)
Discuss the modern aircraft age from 1975 thru today.
Zeppelin NT
CMOT70
_VISITCOMMUNITY
Victoria, Australia
Joined: August 23, 2007
KitMaker: 629 posts
AeroScale: 539 posts
Posted: Monday, April 20, 2009 - 09:26 PM UTC


Ever had one of those models that you start with the idea that it will be a simple build to fill in a bit of time whilst waiting for the paint to dry on your main subject? That was the idea behind this one, but it wasn't to be! This was more trouble than building the Roden Heinkel 111B.

I wanted to do it because i flew in one of these last year when i visited Friedrichshafen (home of Zeppelin, as well as Dornier and ZF as well). I got to fly around Lake Bodensee to Austria and Switzerland as well as Germany.

Nothing fit very well. And the 3 parts that made the envelope were not really round. This is after the first round of filler and primer. From memory there were 4 rounds and i never did truly get it perfect...



Somehow Revell managed to combine the best and worst part of the kit all into the one component. The decals. Their quality and printing was great and they were durable enough to work around without tearing. And they settled perfectly without bubbles or silvering. Unfortunately they also didn't fit! They were too big- a similar problem that some of Revells F1 cars also share when it comes to decals. So they had to be trimmed, adjusted and touched up.
The gondola was done poorly as well. Moulded clear which sounds good. Except they put join lines running right up the middle of windows! So i painted it all over and then attempted to hand paint windows- it's only 1/200 scale after all, smaller than most airline models. Too bad my hand painting skils were not up to the challenge.
The propellers were impossible to remove and clean up from the sprues in this small scale. So i decided to just cut the blades off...it will be displayed as in flight anyway, so stationary blades would look a bit silly.

If you're thinking of doing one of these and want my advice...just don't do it! Not the best Revell kit i've come across.

But i got it finished. Don't worry, i'm not planning to display it permanently on top of a Tamiya can of primer. When i get some small eyelets i will hang it from the top of one of my display cabinets with invisible thread.




The real one that i flew on below. Flown on this occasion by the first female Zeppelin pilot...she even did a good job of parking it at the end.




And if you're ever in the area, take a visit to the Zeppelin museum. Worth a visit for sure. And if you've seen any modern movies set upon a Zeppelin (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for example) be prepared for a sense of Deja Vu.

Andrew
philo426
_VISITCOMMUNITY
United States
Joined: April 18, 2009
KitMaker: 88 posts
AeroScale: 82 posts
Posted: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 01:01 AM UTC
Nice Job on the airship!Here is my scratch-bult airship"In flight"
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