USS Shenandoah scale model project completed 5 years ago this year.

This coming March will mark the fifth anniversary of my completion of this scratch built model of the U S Navy's first home built rigid airship Shenandoah which was completed in 1923 but was destroyed in a thunderstorm on September 3, 1925, with the loss of 14 of the 25 lives on board. The  21-1/2 inch long model is 1/388th scale. It is made of balsawood and covered with doped tissue paper. The actual airship was 682 feet long.

The model is aging very well without problems, as this is a new photo that I took of the thing, today.

Jim.

Star Barn 1993 scratch built.

Here is a small model I built out of posterboard and balsa wood in 1993 of this locally well known Harrisburg, PA landmark. Located along Route 283 in Highspire, just outside of Harrisburg, the structure  had been languishing for years. Built around 1872, by a well to do horse breeder and trader John Motter, this barn and its outbuildings were meant to be a showcase farm.

 North side, (View one would see from Route 283).

In the early 1990's the barn had fallen into such disrepair, that people were concerned that it would be demolished for a high density housing project, and a grassroots effort was made to "Save the Star Barn".

 South side, or barnyard side view.

There were numerous articles and fundraisers to stabilize the condition of the barn, and it's outbuildings. The owner put the place up for sale. In the meantime, in 2000, the barn was cosmetically restored by the Millport Conservancy, headed up by Robert Wolhsen, Sr. In the meantime, it was sold for a second time to the Agrarian Country, a non profit organization dedicated to preserving icons of agricultural heritage. including the likes of the Star Barn.

West gable end view.

The plans are to dismantle the barn, and move it to Grantville to be the centerpiece of a big farming museum complex. This is where we are at right now.

East gable end view. 

In 1993, during the middle of what I call the "Star Barn frenzy Years", I decided to build this model.

Northeast 3/4 view.

It is rather small. The foundation footprint of the model is only about 7" by about 4-1/2", not including the barnhill or the barnyard enclosure. I put shingles on the  roof of this model, as opposed to the corrugated metal roof the actual barn has now, as the barn originally had  a cedar shake shingled roof that would have turned quickly gray after being exposed to the weather, so that is why I painted the roof gray, as originally built in 1872.

Southwest 3/4 view.

I used a dried out ballpoint pen to heavily emboss the cardboard with grooves to simulate the siding and louvre textures of the barn's siding and ventilators.  I did the same thing to  simulate the stone foundation, and barnyard fence by embossing wavy lines on it to simulate the mortar lines in between the stones, then I hand painted it gray.

Cupola detail.


Jim.

Airship U.S.S. Shenandoah, (ZR-1): A Brief History and scale model

 One of the more unique hobbies that I am involved in only has maybe on the entire planet around 2000 enthusiats. I build from scratch, scale models of lighter than air ships, more specifically the huge rigid  dirigibles that flew from 1900 to 1938. These huge aircraft were usually at least 420' to over 800' in length. They are not ships from some sc-fi action movies. These ships actually ruled the skies during the earlier parts of the 20th century. These airships had more than their fair shares of accidents due to ignorance, of weather conditions, and just plain stupidity on how these ships work. When most people think of these "zeppelins", they  get images of the "Hindenburg", ship designation LZ-129. Nobody knows what really caused it. But I do know this, if it would had been filled with helium, as Hugo Eckener, successor of inventor and founder, Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Company, had the ship designed, it never would have exploded.

But that is only one chapter (the final one) in the rigid airship story.

 During the 1920's, the US Navy was looking at rigid airships to use as long range recognisance aircraft of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Since airplanes in those days had such short ranges, the thought of using the large rigid airships as recognancance lookouts, and flying aircraft carriers, to be able to launch and retrieve airplanes while in flight, was considered.

In 1924, Germany was ordered to pay war reparations to the allied countries they fought against in WWI. During the war, they perfected and used their rigid airships, built by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company, for long range bombing runs over France, and Britian, as well as some other countries. When the war was over, the remaining ships were divied up amongst  the allied countries. After they were all handed over, they were still one short. So the Zeppelin company was commissioned to build one more ship, the "LZ-126".  Eckener,  himself captained the ship across the Atlantic, and delivered it to the head of the US Navy himself.(Let it be known that later on in the 1930's that Eckener had a DEEP hatred for the Nazi party and everything it stood for, but that is another very complicated story that led up to the ultimate end for these types of aircraft, notably, the destruction of the LZ 129 "Hindenburg" on May 6,1937.)

 Back to the LZ 126. After the Navy took control of this ship, it was drained of it's hydrogen lifting gas, and filled with non explosive helium. It was designated the ZR-3, the USS "Los Angeles". She was about 660' long and 91' in diameter at the widest part of her hull.

the Navy used this ship as an experimental platform to see how practical it would be to launch and retrieve airplanes in flight while on long range  missions. The Navy had this ship they were using at the time, as well as an earlier ship, that they had comissioned and built themselves at Lakehurst Navel Air Station in 1923, the USS "Shenandoah", the ZR-1. This first US made rigid airship pioneered the use of helium in it as opposed of explosive hydrogen for it's lifting gas. This first airship was used more as a publicity  recruiting tool to get young men to enlist in the Navy Air Corps, as I believe it was originally called. The US Air Force was not in existence yet.

 The "Shenandoah" was a graceful, majestic ship, if there ever was one. At 682' long, and 79' in diameter at the widest part of her duralumin framework hull, at the time, she was the largest dirigible in the world. (Ultimately, in 1936, the Hindenburg was and is still the largest aircraft that ever flew, at 804' long, and a max hull diameter of 135'!!. That's almost 3 football fields in length.)

In order to meet a very strenuous publicity schedule in 1925, the "Shenandoah" was taken out in weather it should never had been. With  little weather detection technology, and the ignorance of the higher up Navy brass insisting on pushing the "Shenandoah", against the ship's captain's objections,  on this city to city publicity tour schedule, the ship was ripped apart in a thunderstorm  near Ava, Ohio, in the early morning of September 3, 1925. 14 of the crew were killed. The ship's complement was 40 (officers and men). But the ship proved one thing. If the ship would have been filled with hydrogen,the loss of lives would have been much greater.  The ship was torn into 3 main pieces in a very violent updraft in the center of the storm, and after this happened, the remaining crewmen still on board,"free ballooned" valving helium for a more or less controlled descent,  the different hull sections to the ground. The bow landed 10 miles away from the stern. The control car ripped from the ship and plummeted to the ground, killing everyone that was in it, including the ship's captain, Lieutenant Commander Zachary Lansdowne.

 The stories of these great "ships of the sky" is a very romantic one full of tragedy, and triumphs, and a fascinating part of aviation history. These ships make today's modern 200' long blimps look like toys by comparison. And you can't get inside the envelope of a blimp like you were able to get up inside the framed hulls of these huge ships for in flight maintenance work.

In November of 2008, I decided that I wanted to build a scale model of the ZR-1 "Shenandoah". Since model kits of most of these ships do not exist for most part, I decided to build one from scratch. I bought a one page paper plan from a guy on eBay, "Plans and Things". After extensive internet and book research, I built the thing using the balsa wood bulkhead "ring and keel" method, and 1/16" X  1/16" balsa longitudal stringers to complete the outside shape of the frame. I covered it with tissue paper, then sealed it with flying model aircraft dope, then after I carved and shaped the control,and engine cars, as well as the fins, I spray painted  the whole model silver. I made my own decals for the thing to finish the model off. I kept track of the work time I put in the model. It took a period over 5 months, with 99 hours of actual labor build time to complete in March of 2009. This was the first scratch built model airship I had built since 1973. Yes, they are that complex to build. I have 7  surviving scratch built model airships I did like this. This one came out the best. A LOT of work, though.

Images of my model are interspaced  with photos of the actual dirigible. The top image, image #5, and image #7 are images of my model that I reworked using cut and paste,Windows Paint, and Paint.net.

The model is 1/388 scale,  about 22" long.

Jim.

1969 Buick Electra 225 coupe 1/25 scale model "half & half" scratch build.

Here is a model that I actually built before I built the model of the green Electra coupe on my last post. This is a scratch built model of my 1969 Buick that I got in the spring of 1978 to replace the green '65 that I was driving.

This model entailed the use of an AMT 1969 Buick Wildcat kit that I had to very highly modify to turn it into a 1969 Electra coupe. From the back edges of the doors to the back bumper, inclusive, including the back half of the roof is entirely made out of carved, and sanded to shape balsa wood. This was not an easy job, as the Electra's back end is a completely different shape than the back end of the Wildcat, but the front of the car is basically the same. The front grille had to be cut out of the front bumper frame assembly, as the Electra has an egg crate style grille, whereas the wildcat has a more linear grille. I also had to cut the headlight assemblies from the Wildcat grille, so I could glue them to the Electra grille, which I made from small pieces of aluminum screening, which I then painted silver to try to hide the woven look of the screen mesh, to try to make the squares look more like a flat surface. On the front fenders, behind the wheel openings, I had to file/sand off the Wildcat "louvres" that were there, and replace them with the Electra quad portholes that are above the "sweep spear" moulding line above, and behind the front wheel opening, but in front of the door. The portholes are made out of thick gauge paper, as are the wide rocker and quarter panel mouldings that are on the model. The rear window "glass" is acetate. Before I painted the body, I sealed the balsa surface with balsa sanding sealer, sanded it again after that, and repeated until I got the wood surface as smooth as I felt that I could get it. Then I scribed the lines for the rear fender skirts, and the trunk lid. Then I attached the trim, ready for paint. The body was then detail painted, then, I was able to assemble the model normally using the rest of the parts that the kit came with.

This model is FAR from perfect, but it is a model of one of the cars that I drove in my early years. Why model manufacturers ignore the Electra 225 , I do not understand!! It is one of the most consistently beautiful cars, year after year, that GM ever built. Long live the "Deuce and a Quarter"!!

This model was custom built in 1979, when I was 21 years old.

Jim.

May 24, 2011-- P.S.- I just found the negative to what I thought was a lost picture of me with my 1969 Buick Electra 225 Custom coupe taken in May of 1978. I'm 20 years old here.--- There is also another reprint of an old picture from the same negative strip of the actual car that I had, parked along the street in Lancaster PA, where I grew up. Also, I added three more images of the model that I took at the same time as the other pics of the model, but I never posted them, until now. JRVJR.