100th Anniversary Build - 1/72 Zeppelin Staaken R.VI

This is becoming a genuine museum piece. Thanx for buying and building one very special WWI machine. Holy heckelmacher!

Noticeable to you because your eye goes straight to it, without the zoom in image anyone who dint know wouldn't be likely to see it at all. Keep up the great work.

I tried to find the deviation and could not, seriously. Even with a zoomed image I cannot see it. I guess that's my way of saying its a great repair/recovery. Either that or my eyesight is worse than I think, lol.

After breaking one of the supports for the engine pod, I was able to modify one of the 'unnecessary' pieces for this version.  Replaced the cooling lines for the engines with copper wire.  The kit pipes had large attachment points to the sprue and got distorted or broken when clipped with the sprue cutters or nail clippers.






Working with this lozenge installed was making my eyes cross when looking for the small holes for the struts, so I dabbed some white paint on the attachment points.




This model is becoming very delicate.  The weight of it is increasing and makes the large wings flex a lot, making me very unsure of it. Now I have to gently invert the whole thing over the upper wing and begin inserting the struts. It helps to have a supply of Lego blocks handy to support things.

Thanks for looking.
Mike

I see a lot of Roden kits here in Japan. I've always been curious about their quality. This looks to be a very cool, though challenging, kit. Really like seeing all the details of the interior and engines. Will enjoy following this to completion.

A little problem encountered in attaching the upper wing.  Most of the struts went in with little or no muscle or trimming needed.  However all 4 struts in the position next to the outer set were about a mm short.  Trying to force the wings closer together to close the gap only resulted in bowing the adjacent struts.  So small shims were added to make the connection.  I placed them against the top wing where they would be least noticeable.









This model is getting very heavy. I'm afraid the landing gear will collapse if I install it now and then do the rigging, so it, and the wing supports will be the final items attached. Flipping it over and over during rigging will be a very precarious task.

Wish me luck,
Mike

Imagine what it must've been to see one back then. Good work, the decals alone would've given me fits! Congrats.

Simply incredible work! The size of the kit combined with the scale gives me the shivers, some finicky assembly going on. Best of luck with the issue of the weight and landing gear - I am sure you'll figure something out.

This is the grueling part of the build - the rigging.  I'm just hoping it doesn't fall apart or bump into something as I flip it over and move it around to set to EZLine.

Starting from the outer ends and working inward.

If I would have given this more forethought, I would have drilled fine holes in the struts to pass the EZLine through, as the struts are much larger than those of smaller 1/72nd planes.  



But it's too late now and I have to put up with the line sticking wherever it lands. And it lands very suddenly - as if there's a static charge sucking it down.

Thanks for looking,
Mike

Wow, that is some thin line. At this scale it is very difficult to see the 'errors' - I had to look really hard to notice any discrepancies. It looks just fine, in all senses of the word.

Thanx for sticking with this project! I think I'd would quit before, big congrats to you!