TinPaper Moon Tank Model

Alberto Santos -Dumont's Airship #6

MODEL PHOTO/BUILD REVIEW

Publisher: Fiddler's Green (http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/)
Model Designer: Chip Fyn and the Fiddlers Green staff
Model URL:http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Dumont-Airship/airship.php
Additional Information URL: http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Dumont-Airship/info/info.htm
Cost: $4.95 (US) for 2 sizes

QuickTime Movie (sorry, WMF way too large for efficiency)

Alberto Santos-Dumont

Alberto Santos-Dumont (July 20, 1873 – July 23, 1932) was an important early pioneer of aviation. Although he was born, grew up, and died in Brazil, his contributions to aviation were made while he was living in France.
Santos-Dumont designed, built, and flew the first practical dirigible balloons (i.e. airships). In doing so he became the first person to demonstrate that routine, controlled flight was possible. This "conquest of the air", in particular winning the Deutsche de la Meurthe prize on October 19, 1901 on a flight that rounded the Eiffel Tower, made him one of the most famous persons in the world during the early 1900s.
In addition to his pioneering work in airships, Santos-Dumont made the first public flight of an airplane in Europe, in Paris in October of 1906. That aircraft, designated 14 Bis or Oiseau de proie (French for "bird of prey"), is considered to be the first to take off, fly, and land without the use of catapults, high winds, launch rails, or other external assistance. Thus, some consider him to be the "Father of Aviation" as well as the inventor of the airplane.

ABOVE INFORMATION FROM: Alberto Santos-Dumont. (2006, October 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:16, October 19, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alberto_Santos-Dumont&oldid=81498319

During the 2005 year, Fiddlers Green released a number of balloon and airship models. Out of that collection, the Alberto Santos-Dumont Airship #6 caught my attention. Despite its appearance, it isn't quite a dirigible, but it also isn't quite a balloon The open-framework keel slung beneath the long, speedy looking bag gives it a "mechanical" look that is completely unlike the common "balloon with a basket" seen so frequently, even today.

The model comes in two sizes (regular and large) that are full color. The keel of the model may be built a few ways depending on how much time, detail or skill you want to put into it. The first option is to simply trim out and build the keel as printed on the parts sheet. The second option is to expose the framework of the keel, add the engine, drive shaft, and cross-bracing detail using the supplied keel part. The third option is to build the keel from scratch with the instructions provided.

The parts are nicely drawn. The balloon itself has been textured to give it a "cloth" look. Along with the coloring and shading it is very attractive and gives depth to what otherwise would look simple panels.

There is a figure of Santos-Dumont to stand with the model or place in the flight basket.

The instructions sheet is relatively clear on construction details and as standard with Fiddlers Green, also supplies information on Santos-Dumont and his airship #6. There are plenty of photos and drawings on the additional web pages for the model (http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Dumont-Airship/info/info.htm). Refer to these pages for additional build help and detailing reference.

PRINTING / BUILDING

I built the LARGE version of Airship #6. I printed the 4 sheets at 100% size on Hammermill CopyPlus Card, 8.5" x 11", 110 Lb. Index (199 g/m2) using an Epson Stylus C88 inkjet printer.

I looked at this model as 4 distinct steps - 1) balloon, 2) keel, 3) rigging, and 4) details such as rudder, flags, weight, etc.

BALLOON

I started with the balloon since it looked straightforward. The balloon pieces are drawn using lap joints which is fine and simplify construction. I wanted to butt the pieces together for a smoother transition and to try something I had limited experience with.

The balloon itself is made up of 11 pieces - 5 for each end and 1 for the middle.

I trimmed out one end of the balloon pieces, leaving extra room on the side with the tabs. I then carefully trimmed away the tab strips. Next, I glued the tab strip sunder the edge of the piece they originally were attached to. I repeated this for the other end of the balloon.

I built the individual end pieces in the order 2, 3, 4, 5, 1. EACH PIECE WAS BUILT INDIVIDUALLY as shown in the photo above. Sizing each to match the next part is very important here. I built one piece, let it dry, then added an inner structural and shape support. I then carefully sized the next matching piece before gluing it and adding the next support piece. The last piece to shape, size and glue was the reddish colored nose.

After the five pieces were built, number 2, 3, 4 and 5 were glued together to make a sub-assembly. The red nose was not attached at this time. After the two cone sub-assemblies were completed, the middle section of the balloon was trimmed out and sized to fit each end and glued. Next the two subassembly. and the center piece were glued together. Next, the two small, red ends were attached.

Lastly I attached the rigging supports. They will fit more cleanly if they are separated into three pieces, one piece for each plane they attach to. Overall, I did this differently than the directions, well, direct to do! I did not pierce small holes where indicated or attach the lengths of thread. I had a plan!

Because the pieces were carefully sized to each other there were some mismatched seams on the bottom. This may be because I butted the joints instead of overlapping as the balloon was drawn and meant to be built. To achieve better fits in other areas I sometimes had to force the pieces which created small crinks. These I slice out or sliced through. A very easy fix for these was to print out another sheet with the balloon end parts, trim a section out and cover over the mismatched area. These fixes were done after the entire balloon bag was constructed.

Overall the pieces fit together well and the balloon forms nicely.

KEEL (cutting and bracing)

For the keel, I mounted the print to a piece of poster board to give it body and strength. The keel was then trimmed out. Next I flopped and printed another copy of the keel, cut it into 3 separate sections and glued them to the back. Note in the photo that I cut the edges back where the inner folds would be to help ease the folding later on. After the glue had set, the edges were trimmed to clean them up (in the first photo above the white misalignment can be seen).

As drawn on the model page the keel is very attractive and would make a pleasing model if used as is. However, I wanted to open up the framework on the keel so the inside pieces were cut out. This was slow, tedious work. It required a sharp pointed blade - I went through 12 doing just this part because the points would wear or break easily. I saved the blades though as they were still sharp and I used them in another handle for rough cutting. Finally a light coat of a brownish, hand mixed craft paint was brushed on to help hide the cut white edges.

To simulate the bracing between the keel spars, I used a heavy cotton-polyester thread that was coated with white glue to make it stiff. After the glue coating dried, short pieces were cut from it, glued to the framework, then trimmed after the glue dried.
This was not as tedious as I thought it would be. It was rewarding to see the detail starting to appear and was much less of a work-out of the hands and fingers than the cutting out of the keel pieces.

KEEL (forming and details)

After all the cross-bracing was added to the keel I put together the details of it - engine, gas tank, radiator, hose and propeller assembly.
The gas tank went together easily but seems a slight bit large to actually fit inside the tight space of the keel. Possibly the extra layers I used to form the keel stole the little clearance there was-not a big problem though.
I made the gas tank by rolling and gluing a solid paper tube from spare stock, then covered it with some copper colored foil from a candy bar wrapper (delicious!).
Thee radiator was cut into 2 pieces (front and back) and glued to a thicker piece of cardboard to give it some depth.
The air hose from the engine/compressor to the balloon was made using a heavy piece of cord painted with craft paint.

The keel can be tricky to complete. To form it, I carefully scored the inside of the folds and worked the piece into shape, going back over the scores as needed and even stripping out a little of the material to ease the folding. I used small, strong spring clamps and started gluing from the top of the rear and worked my way to the front installing the engine, then the gas tank, as I went along. I did not glue the curved ends together at this time. After this glue had dried the front curved parts were glued together. Next the bracing was cut out where the basket would be placed. It's hard to tell from the directions if this should be done or if the basket should fit with the brace running across the top. After studying the drawings and photos I'm pretty sure it should be cut out. I left the rear open until I was ready to install the drive shaft and rudder support.

Next I installed the radiator. Since it only sits atop the single keel spar. I inserted and glued a short length of common pin into the bottom of it, then pushed this through the top of the keel where it should attach using a small drop of glue to secure it. It is very strong and will not be easily knocked off.

Lastly I build the propeller assembly. To give it strength and dimension I glued 3 layers of the 'X' shaped braces on top of each other. For the little nubbin' where the propeller shaft would attach I used a total of 5 layers of the little center piece. This was drilled out with the pin vice to allow the shaft to pass through when that as added.

PROTECTIVE COATING

Before proceeding to the next step of rigging the keel to the balloon I decided to seal the model to help protect it and add to the longevity of it.
I used a matte finish clear acrylic craft coating I had a bottle of. It went on beautifully, dried quick and has a nice feel. This is the first time I've sealed a model using anything other than Krylon spray coating. I will use this method again as I love the finish.

RIGGING (or 'Is that an iceberg ahead, mate?')

As I said earlier 'I hade a plan". The rigging is the most difficult aspect of this model. You need to tie 24 'ropes' while keeping the keel level and all the previously tied ropes tight. The manner described in the directions seemed much too difficult (at least for me). The part I didn't like was the 'ropes' were tied off to the INSIDE of the rigging supports BEFORE you glued them to the side of the balloon. If you mess it up, you'd have a problem trying to replace that piece of 'rope". However, please note there is a picture on the model information page submitted by a builder that look beautiful and he was able to tie the rigging correctly.
My method was to push common pins into the indicated spots on the rigging support. 'Ropes" were tied to the keel, then each rope was adjusted, tied to a pin, and the pin pushed in and glued. Sounded good . . .

. . . looked great, looked promising. The rigging was taught, the keel appeared level . . .

. . . until it was completed. UGH! The rigging is too long, it's no longer tight and the keel is very crooked.

The method is very sound and would work great for 4 or 5 'ropes' but more than that is just too much to coordinate neatly. The difficulty lies in the ratio of the weight of the keel to the strength of the numerous ropes holding it up. I weighted the keel by gluing some small screws to the floor of the basket, inside the engine block and using metal for the drive shaft but it was not enough to overcome the strength of the thread 'ropes'.

RIGGING (take 2)

I let the model hang from the wall clock for a few days while I gathered my resolve to tackle the rigging again. I had considered another approach before starting this model but thought I could succeed with the thread rigging.
After purchasing the new 'rope', I cut the keel away from the balloon and removed the thread and common pins. Even though the pins were firmly attached, they cam out cleanly because of the brushed on matte acrylic coating I had applied to the balloon and keel.

I purchased some lengths of .022" wire from my local hobby store (Modeler's Junction, Methuen, MA USA). Using a tiny drill bit in a pin vise, I drilled holes through the upper strut of the keel where I would be attaching the new 'rigging.
Next I formed "V" shaped wire supports, enough to complete the mode, cut longer than needed so there would be length to work with. these were passed through the drilled holes forming the 'porcupine' look.

Starting with the most rearward set of wire 'rope' I measure the length to accommodate the rudder and ladder and marked it off with a Sharpie permanent marker. Using the pliers to hold the wire, I then bent it using my fingers to a right angle, trimmed off until there was about .35" and glued that end into the hole that was already there from the previous rigging attempt.

This method worked very well, went fast and alleviates some of the fragility of the model it would have with the thread 'ropes'.

FINAL BITS

After the rigging was completed there was just a couple of details left to add along with the drive shaft, propeller and rudder.

The drive shaft/rudder support was made from heavier gauge wire than the rigging (0.035" I believe). Studying the drawings and photos I determined the angle and placement and mad the bend in the wire. Then, holding it next to the model I determined a length and height for it, leaving enough at the top to pass through a small hole I made in the bottom of the balloon, and a little extra on the length to push into the engine block. The propeller was placed on the shaft/support and installed in place. Now I finally glued the rear curved section of the keel together and let it set completely.

Next the rudder itself was pre=folded then attached around the support at the rear. I did not glue directly to the shaft so it can be turned.

The little figu re of Santos-Dumont was added into the basket and the two flags attached - one front-one rear. I used rounded toothpicks for the cross spars on the keel. For the scale of this model printed at 100% they seemed just the right size.

The 'hose' was attached with glue to the compressor then fed into a small hole made in the bottom of the balloon center. Absolute lastly, the tiny weight bag was made by creating a small spit-ball using a piece of paper towel , then wrapping in another small piece of PT and tying off the top. IT was then brushed with white glue to harden it. Attached to keel with colored thread.

CONCLUSIONS

Another fine and unusual model from Fiddlers Green. Great art that can give any level of modeler a satisfying result.

This is a really good-looking model when completed. It begs to be hung for full appreciation. My plan is to custom build a shadow box with silhouetted buildings (including the French landmarks) and non descript buildings in the bottom to display it. Maybe with glass on both sides.

Of all the balloons FG has published this is my favorite. It has a Jules Verne/Edgar Rice Burroughs look to it yet it actually existed.

Good build, nice pieces and gave me the opportunity (again) to try some techniques I had never used before.

Can't go wrong for the price.

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