Airship part 1

So in the interest of this blog being a complete record of my model building exploits, I thought I'd also include my first ever model. I started this in the spring of 2017 and finished up sometime around December 2018. The model was based on a drawing by artist Rob Turpin.

I like the design and think it has a very Heavy Metal Magazine / 70's sci-fi paperback vibe.

I knew that the bubble shaped canopy would probably be limited to a found object, rather than something I could make, and because of this would drive the size of the entire model. I found a 40mm acrylic test tube, and the whole model was scaled to this part making the model a total 12" long (300mm). This worked out to be about 1:87 or HO scale.

I imported a jpeg of the sketch into a 2D cad program and scaled it until the canopy was the size of my plastic tube. This gave me a reference that I draw on top of, design parts and take dimensions from. 

The ribbed section that surround the bubble was turned on a lathe from a 2" piece of solid styrene rod.I also made a fluted styrene ring that was glued to the bottom to add more detail. I cut a section out and fitted in a part from an airplane kit. the inside was sanded to match the contour of the test tube and the gap was sculpted in with epoxy putty. 

I decided to use vacuum forming for the front hull. I fashioned the positive form out of a high density foam using a band saw and belt sander. The foam was sprayed with primer and wet sanded to get a nice smooth finish. I formed the part from .060" styrene sheet. The part was trimmed to match the contour in the drawing.

I built a box out of styrene to fill the rear of the hull. I also made the convoluted middle section on the lathe from more of the 2" rod.

To be continued...