Ares Games

Dirigibles of Doom

A haunting I've had for too many years, now almost exercised.
  1. The R-23 drifts overhead in my dining room
  2. R-23 nose, top gun position
  3. Tail gunner of the R-23
  4. Telescoping stands make altitude adjustments easy, found them on sale at a local auto parts store
  5. The L-11 lurks at altitude looking for a target to bomb
  6. The L-11 is a type P Zeppelin, here with a DR-1 escort
  7. The R-23 in all her glory, did not see much action, the British kept the huge beasties close to home and out of gun range
  8. R-23 was equipped with a Sopwith Camel escort for testing.
  9. The first two, side by side, build time around 10 hours each, ~29 1/2" long, cost in materials $30 each, cost of lost sanity-priceless
  10. Tissue covered, doped, primed and finish painted, the L-11 is done
  11. Cones glued to body, long stringers were added to the tubes and faired into cone formers, bringing the outside diameter to 3 1/4"
  12. Cones slipped onto body tubes which have an internal keel to accept the telescoping stands
  13. Final of 16 formers added and sanded to shape on a belt sander
  14. Nose and tail cone forms glued to the end caps of a 3" mailing tube
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