I really can't find any build reviews on this big old bird, but when I saw it for sale on ebay for $40 shipped to me I just had to grab one.
There seem to be very few parts to this blimp{can I call it that?} but what I question is the engines paintablility{nylon?} and what to use for off shades of silver..."lots" of different shades of silver....I'm thinking about 6!
Any help or input would be appreciated...far too late for a smack upside my head for buying it-

Acrylic should stick to the nylon well enough. If you use an acrylic grey primer you should be able to paint regular enamels overtop. The many shades of silver can be mixed up by adding drops of black, white or dark blue to your silver base colour.

Happy building

Here's a suggestion for you...ship it to me instead! I've been looking for a good (ie, cheap) Zeppelin kit for over a year now! (And to answer your first question, "blimps" don't have an internal skeleton, unlike "rigid airships," but people can correctly use the term "Zeppelin" for any rigid airship, regardless of whether or not it was built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.) Sounds like you got a good deal to get the Hawk Zeppelin for just $40...how's the fit on the few parts it has?

I'm not positive if this would work, but if the paint is having trouble sticking to the pieces, perhaps you could use a heavy-duty primer coat from Lowes/Home Depot...maybe that would be too thick though...maybe just a spray of Future would work. Assuming that Future will adhere to the pieces (and I haven't found a surface it won't stick to yet...), you can easily paint over it. Next issue!

Yeah, it will take a LOT of silver to cover that hunk. I use mainly enamels with a few acrylics because it's all I can get easily, but if you use Alclad, maybe that would work out for you? Although I always thought that Zeppelin doping was more of a metallic grey instead of a pure silver/aluminum/iron/whatever metallic shade you have in stock. Experiment around to get a base color (some kind of grey + metal mixture), then add varying ratios of white, light grey, more grey, dark grey, maybe even a tad of black, who knows? Again, I don't know your painting habits, so I can't exactly guarantee you'll like these suggestions, but you're free to take this intellectual property if you'd like it. I told you, I've been planning my Zeppelin for a long time! Finally, let me leave you with this link from IPMS Stockholm about "NMF For the Masses." Pretty good strategy...I've used it meself once. Yes, it will take a while to mask out each color though. But time spent preparing is time saved cleaning up screw-ups, no?

I'm sorry to be so giddy here, but you don't know how excited I am that someone on this forum will be building a Zeppelin! If you have a build log in place, please post a link for me to follow you. If not, at least tell me when you're all done!

thanks for the link to the IPMS Stockholm robby,very handy.
and bob i would snap one of those up if i could, but the postage is too much,enjoy!

paul

Thanks for the input...I never thought about the "drops of white or black" to make different shades...excellent idea- Thank you!

-Lol...stiffel it edith!...I've been waiting for an excuse to get one and that $40 was it finally! I'll build her and set it next to my amt hindenburg...when I ever build that one too.


- I'll let you know when it gets here but I've heard/read that the injection modled kit is much better than the old vac form version. I still expect alot of clamping and glueing to be done on the main portion itself!

-I use a wide variety of paints ranging the usual spectrum- enamels/lacquers/acrylics....I build alot of shiney vehicles.{cars/trucks/semis/cycles/space ships....}



-cool link...sweet Ki-61....I'll have to try that.



- No need to apologize...I was giddy too - I stared at the auction for at least 10min saying "is this real or what? - they've NEVER been this cheap...ever" before I snapped out of it and hit the "buy it now" button...and literally punched it too!{poor mouse}
When it arrives I'll start the gathering process{paints} and start a build thread either here or on modelgeek...this is really more of an aircraft site...maybe I'm wrong.......I heard somewhere there's a version that wore swastikas..might have to research that further for a more WWII feel.
Oh, the ebay seller was "Mardenssurplus" and I believe they had 1-2 more at the time{then}...happy hunting!

The Graf wore swastikas on the port side and German red/white/black tricolour on the starboard after 1933. Look at the 9:00 mark of this video.

The Hawk kit's gondola is not 100% accurate being a trifle short, and too thick at the rear. It would be a real job to make it correct.

Glad I could give you some suggestions Bob! Yeah, the GZ did fly with swastikas for a while. It was dismantled a few years before WWII broke out though, so you can build it showing some antewar tension, but no wartime flights. I've heard that the kit was doable, but I guess we'll find out soon enough. I hope it's good though...I'm planning on building the USS Los Angeles when it stood straight up on its mooring. (Check out this picture!) Scratchbuild the tower, stick a wire rod through the USSLA and down through the tower then into the (VERY sturdy) base. Hope it works!

Oh, and the second I read this sentence,


I went onto eBay, found Mardenssurplus, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I bought his last kit Couldn't help myself. I hope your build goes well...I won't be able to build mine for a while...stoopid school... Well wherever you decide to post your build log, just put up a link over here and I'll start watching you go! Best of luck, and thanks for the lead!

The beast should arrive early next week! I was going through my plans and notes, and I just realized how freaking big this kit will be. I don't think that a bit of wire will be enough to keep her in the air...I'm going to need some rebar! Since I don't have a place of my own to crap up with leviathan models, I might end up holding off building this one. I drew up plans last year for a scratchbuilt Zepp out of foam and sheet styrene...should be lighter, smaller, and easier to manage than a plastic kit. Who know, maybe this thing will turn out fantastic. Just gotta wait and see, I guess.

I know how that goes!!! Thqat's why I posted the place just in case....glad you got one too. Mine came last night -very fast shipping.
The kit gives you some line to string her up with, but my thoughts were about a 12" long piece of wooden base with 4 clear rods sticking up and slightly outward to support the bottom of the zeppelin.
I found the shots of the rudder double paint scheme...if I made my base I'll have the option of showing either side.

I spent an hour last night watching different vids of what was usually the graf zeppelin, but one has to watch very carefully to make sure it's not some other airship being spliced in, I've spied the hindenburg mixed in with the graf and then there's the graf II ships as well which I guess wore a different scheme...the site here shows alot of different airships including the tail scheme I'm interested in-
airships.net
For anyone intersted, there's different airships on this site.

Also join the AirshipModeler forum (not a KitMaker site). Unfortunately it's scarcely populated and any questions you have will be answered very slowly, but they have a lot of pictures, technical data, etc. if you need to do some research.

My kit arrived today...I think I'm going to bail on the vertical USS Los Angeles idea and hang it instead. It's just such a majestic subject, and in a model this size, I don't want to undermine its splendor I will still have it in the LA's livery though. (I read somewhere that its design was a slightly modified Graf Zeppelin and I'm not a mega-stickler for accuracy, so as long as it has 5 engines and is freaking enormous, it'll do.) Probably won't be able to build it for about a year though due to school and other kits that made it to my workbench first. Looking forward to yours in the mean time, Bob!