Zeppelins and Blimps and airplanes, Oh My!

Well the British Blimp/Zeppelin collection is done.  So it is time to look at what they will be bringing to the party. 

This painting of a "Sea Scout Zero" Blimp machine gunning a submarine has long been the root of this game idea.  The insanity of working over the deck of a submarine with a Lewis Gun as an attack strategy, all the while flying around at 40 miles an hour in a hydrogen filled balloon.  Is just so intimately British to me.  That combined with a former professor who once told me that the British were so out of their minds worried about Zeppelins that they actually put a 2 pounder canon on a blimp to try and shoot down zeppelins. This needs to be a game, heck this needs to be a genre of games! 

 So, here is the collection.  Everything is from Shapeways and all in 1/1250 scale.  I have given everything a coat of Nail polish as a base coat.  On the left are: Two German "P Class" Zeppelins doubling for British r23 Zeppelins, one oddball blimp called a ZMC doubling for a Coastal "Pusher class" blimp, and four SS zero class blimps (they come two for one price). 

Here I have started painting the British Blimps and Zeppelins a light gray.  All British Lighter than air craft were painted the same light gray color, so they look pretty mundane.  Some German Zeppelins are lurking in the upper right corner, but they will be a later post. 

Here is an actual picture of a "Sea Scout Class" Blimp, The British cranked out about 60 of these during WWI.  Usually they were armed with a machine gun or two and anything up to a half a dozen bombs.  The "gondola" is literally an airplane fuselage suspended from the gas bag.   They were designed to range out over the sea looking for submarines and warning the navy and coastal command, however they had a 'habit' of losing their minds and attacking the subs which did not always have good results for the blimps.  There was a very similar blimp called a "Coastal Sea Scout Class" blimp that had a heavier armament but sacrificed range.  The British made about 30 of these.  Finally there was a third class called the "Sea Scout Zero Class" Blimp,  It generally had only one machine gun and generally four bombs.  It was designed to go faster so that it could hunt down submarines better.  The British made about 77 of these during the war. 

Here we have all seven airships painted their appropriate gray and the rondels added.  I was disappointed with these decals as they look like the center is white on the sheet, but when you try and put them on the white turns out to be only the backing paper.  The small ones on the tails of the r23's, and on the small blimps all look fine as they are, but the ones of the r23's would require some work. 

Here is the British R33 class Zeppelin, which is a scaled up version of the r23 class that preceded them.  There were four r23's (r23, r24, r25, and r26).  The first and last were built by one company, the other two were built by two separate companies to try and increase getting them in action.  Numbers 23 and 26 were given a significant rebuild after construction as the designers (working off a shot down German "P Class") had originally made the walkway between gondolas outside the gas bag which gave the airships a "keeled" sort of appearance, and made them to  heavy.  Eventually the Brits figured out that the walkway belongs in the bag (and thus out of sight and airstream) so this class was rebuilt to clear up that issue. 

On a complete side note, it is amazing how easily their airships were rebuilt, usually a rebuild worked alright, but often weakened the design.  In this case it strengthened the design so all was well. 

Meanwhile the other two airships had VERY bad existences.  Number 24 was made with the wrong kind of fasteners (steel instead of stainless steel) causing a significant weight increase.  Apparently 3.5  million rivets add up to a significant weight, who knew?  When the British loaded the 2 pounder canon on this model it could only lift  about 20 feet off the ground.  And when they tried firing the canon instead of "harmlessly detonating, the shells tended to skip along the ground kicking up debris which damaged the forward hydrogen cells and created the danger of a catastrophic "Hindenburg moment", but the Captain recognized the danger and ceased fire.  Even when they got the rivets replaced (another year added to construction time) she still would not fly properly and to reduce weight further the decision was made to remove the back engine.  However, this drastically reduced her speed and made service over open water basically impossible.  

Number 25 suffered the ignominious fate of while testing an open air landing system getting caught in a heavy down pour which soaked the skin of the airship and caused it to ground.  That night a sudden snow storm arose which so severely damaged the air frame that she was written off entirely. 

Here we have r23 flying over the S.M.S. Seydelitz as the ship and German fleet surrendered to the British at the end of WWI. Number 26 was also present for this event.  The r23's were Britain's largest airship of the war (R 33 came out immediately afterward) and was armed with the aforementioned 2 pounder and 8 lewis guns, as well as just over 2,000 pounds of bombs. 

I used German "P Class" zeppelins because no one makes the r23 in any scale, the "P Class" were available and the British needed something larger for game balance purposes. 

Here I have hand painted in the missing white on the larger rondels on the Airships and hand painted a rondel on the nose of the airship.  The numbering decals have been added and the airships are ready for heir wash and matte finish. 

Here is the "air fleet" drying after the magic wash and matte finish.  Here a better view of the attempted nose rondel can be seen. 

The Shapeways models are well proportioned across the range.  In this scale they are small enough to paint up easily, but still large enough to seen on a table.  The smaller airships are made of what Shapeways calls "Fine Detail Plastic" instead of their standard material.  It gives a much more solid feel to the models, more like a rubber ball.  I am confident they will stand up to use, the zeppelins are another matter. 

Next up will be the Germans, then the surface targets.