lmagna

You must feel as proud as a newly minted momma with all those perfect little weasels Patrick. Quite the accomplishment, at least in my book. Makes me want to go out and track down the old Monogram kit and build it again after something like 55+- years! Just what I need another kit on the list. Thanks for the trip down memory lane........ at 1/72!

It has probably been 55+ years since I read Slocum's account and description of the Spray and I am not going to reread it right now! But I think that much of his description has stuck with me over the years in design, if not actual words.

My take on his method was that he re-rigged the Spray as a Yawl and either used the smaller after sail as a vane, or installed a "feather" or wind vane, and after setting the main sail used this system and rigged it to the helm.

The science and knowledge of vane sailing, while seemingly almost a lost art today, would have been well known to Slocum and the fact that he was mostly traveling along the trade routes with their consistent winds would make this type of hands off sailing very accurate. Simple answer to a simple question. At least to Slocum.

 http://www.grovepondyachts.com/new-page

There are also sheet to tiller and Jib to tiller, self steering methods that he could have also used, but I am not as familiar with these methods and how accurate they may be over long stretches of sea.

Just my take on the matter YMMV.

Nice progress. That would be a nice looking engine at any scale.

Very nicely done Dan, I enjoyed following all of the way. Not too many model aircraft stables even have this plane in them for some reason. 

I was able to watch a real one practicing for an airshow a few years ago. While not nearly as fast as the new stuff it was still pretty impressive. This was enhanced by the apparent need to kick in the afterburner for each evolution performed.

Very nicely done Chris. I agree with the statements above, she is a very graceful ship.

43 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

but it looks okay from a distance, and it will be somewhat hidden by the Malcolm hood when that is eventually added.

I blew it up quite a bit and still can't see the excess glue so it is either on the other side or is completely invisible and only you can see it. Looking great so far.

Great to see the completion of your vision Greg. You now probably have one of the most unique dioramas created by anyone. Congratulations 

On 12/23/2021 at 4:14 PM, king derelict said:

not a desert one this time

Does that mean that it is of the dessert kind?

Patrick

Your work mon these little guys becomes ever more fantastic.

It is good that you don't line them up for display, then they would be ducks! And we all know that they are weasels.

On 12/20/2021 at 11:27 AM, nikosdll said:

HI. The link above go to many pdf files that are from year 2017 and are anuvailiable.

All you need to do is go to the 1901-present list and scroll down until you get to the "S" and there are three Smit Rotterdam builds that open fine and view just as they would if you were reading them in original forum content

37 minutes ago, RGL said:

My limited reading and the photos in b&w really do show very far panels on top, so a black overspray seems to work OK 

I think your interpretation is right on. The other aspect of painting an airship is that they are HUGE and even a thin coating of paint amounts to quite a lot of weight by the time you cover it all. Thousands of pounds in fact. VERY important in a vessel that is intended to fly and just like the water in normal ships the medium of support (Hydrogen instead of water) has a pretty fixed weight it can sustain. 

20 hours ago, RGL said:

So this is the look I’m going for, apparently the tops of them were not painted (or less paint) to allow Leaked helium to escape 

I had forgotten about the rudder rigging on the older Zeppelins.

In the case of painting, I think there was also an early attempt at camouflaging these giant targets. Dark when viewed from above and light from below. Another reason for being dark on top was to get as much heat absorption as possible from the sun to cause the gas to expand and gain more lift. Especially useful at the beginning of a mission with a heavy load.

I find your first picture of the earlier hull shading quite interesting. 

Almost  any automotive spray paint should adhere to epoxy, and are tough as well. I have some 25 year old RC boats and all of them still have their original paint, even though I will admit to some wear and tear on some of the more abused areas of the ships. Years of storage on a cold basement caused MUCH more wear than years of running two or even three times a week sometimes.

Krylon Fusion like you find at hardware stores also does well especially if applied over a good primer.

Did you also apply cloth to the epoxy you used? If not then I would strongly recommend doing so, even if it is a very thin cloth. You will be amazed on just how much wear and tear a model ship endures in being transported and run.

Have any pictures of your build to date?

I run out of the box windows player  for stuff like this and the second link works fine.

Nice looking pair Greg. Interesting on how two ships can be the same, yet look entirely different. 

On 12/18/2021 at 5:00 PM, king derelict said:

I can't make up my mind whether I like the tarped load in the load bed.

I have no real idea on tarp or not to tarp, but my thinking goes along the lines the the "truck bed" of these vehicles was more for personal gear of the crew and the afore mentioned gas, (Petrol?) cans that were left scattered all over. Maybe an ammo box or two lashed in place. No real room for much in the way of cargo.

I agree with the no rust policy. It takes years for stuff to rust up in the desert. 

Merry Christmas to you and the Admiral as well Denis.

Are you going to keep Frosty in detention for the rest of the year or give him clemency? Or at least let him out on his own recognisance!

Just being "Buggie" Greg.

Kind of like "Ship" and "Boat" are not always interchangeable, "Blimp," Zeppelin, and "Airship" do not mean the same thing. If you let the lighter than air out of a blimp you have a puddle of fabric with a gondola and engines sitting there. Not so with a Zeppelin or rigid airship. They pretty much hold their shape even when empty, (Mostly) Now if you want to use the word "Dirigible" then you can swing any way you want. A dirigible is anything not a balloon. Rigid, semi rigid, or non rigid. Only needs power and steering. 

Just feel lucky you are not having to run the internal rigging between all of those frames you are marking out. It makes any square rigger look simple. They look like a spider went crazy making Dream catchers inside.

Nice little build Greg.

I'm amazed at how few depth charges they carried compared to many American DDs, DEs and even slower Corvettes. Brought a special bag of popcorn for your end-of-build video but it says that It can't be found.   Looks like your digital graveyard it getting a little crowded as well. Time to go furniture shopping? 

I marked it sad for the truck not the sideboard or the modeling content. The first dings are always the worst no matter how small they are.

Very nice work on getting the hull shape RN

I think that if it was me, (After getting the hole in the hull fixed) I would be tempted to use some VERY thin fiberglass cloth and cover the entire hull. That would restore some of the thickness you feel you have sanded away while restoring some strength. At the same time it would create a surface that when sanded down would create the smooth surface you want.

Either way good luck and hope your Christmas is all you hope for.

I find my vocabulary strained beyond it's limits in trying to describe my reaction to your masterpiece. I can only say that it truly is a masterpiece by any measure.

Thanks as always for sharing your fantastic art. I always look forward to seeing it.

Hope Christmas is pleasant for you and finds you and yours in good health.

Getting hard to believe that these were ever made by RR. But somehow even with all the armor and boxes, along with the truck bed morphed to the back it still somehow still has some RR grace. Maybe this IS really where Miss Agnes came from!

7 hours ago, king derelict said:

Thank you also for introducing me to Travis McGee

My hero as a teen. I wanted to be just like him. I was also a big fan of Mike Hammer by Mickey Spillane and of course Philip Marlowe by Raymond Chandler, but I always came back to Travis McGee when the new books came out.

Miss Agnes aside, I really like how this one is bending to your will. I think it will be a winner.

All of that hand sanding and filling is paying off Per, she is looking very nice. Do I detect a launching in the near future? 

When I started back up in RC a few months ago I found that I need to upgrade my radio as well. (I still had a couple of my old radios, but it seemed to be the thing to do. I chose the FlySky system. https://www.amazon.com/Flysky-FS-i6X-Transmitter-FS-iA6B-Receiver/dp/B0744DPPL8/ref=sr_1_3?crid=K1ZO4QQQN0PO&keywords=flysky+transmitter+and+receiver&qid=1639544789&sprefix=flysky%2Caps%2C245&sr=8-3 

Like everything else, it has gone up in price a little but I think $60 is still a pretty good buy for a six channel radio and receiver that can be expanded to 10. I sent away to China to get the parts to convert the throttle stick to self centering  and more recently bought a second receiver for a second boat, and use the same transmitter. I have so far only used up two of the dedicated model slots in the software and it is easy to switch back and forth. The radio has plenty of range and has given me zero problems.