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First up and for the benefit of those who have not read the Zeppelin thread on the WW1 part of the forums: My greatly loved Granny Brockhouse was a children's governess, working for a wealthy family in London during the First World War and used to tell me stories of the first Zeppelin raids. One story in particular stands out. She was on a night out in London's West End with her elder sister Hilda when a raid began. She spotted a zeppelin, most probably caught in searchlights and pointed it out to her sister who steadfastly refused to believe that what they could see was a zeppelin! Quite what my Aunt Hilda thought what else this massive cigar shaped object in the sky, accompanied by the sound of explosions could have been is beyond me. Equally beyond me is why they stood in the street arguing about whether it was a zeppelin or not, rather than taking cover and carrying on their conversation somewhere safer. I have managed to identify the zeppelin as the L.15 and the raid as being on 13th/14 October 1915. This was the only raid on the West End and the only other zeppelin over London that night was the L.13. The L.13 however was dropping bombs over Woolwich. Shortly after this raid, My Grandmother's employer moved her and his children to Folkestone to be safe from the raids, where they were in May 1917 when the first Gotha raid took place. Granny Brockhouse and her charges were then moved to Bournemouth for the rest of the war. As a result of my Grandmother's stories, I have always had a great interest in zeppelins. I built one of the Mark 1 1/720 kits a few years back which I greatly enjoyed. And might have left things at that. Then, back in September of this year something happened. I had taken Mrs Martian for a short break in Suffolk and when we had done most of the things she wanted to do, she asked me if there was anything I wanted to do. I knew there was a large chunk from the zeppelin L48 in the porch of the church at a village called Theberton, only a few miles from where we were staying so I said I would like to get a picture or two. Sadly, when we went to the church we found it was locked up, despite a notice saying it was meant to be open. No matter, I knew there was another part of the zeppelin in a museum in the town of Leiston where we were staying. When I went to the museum, I asked the two ladies at the ticket office if they still had their zeppelin display. They replied that they had but, on seeing my crutches, expressed doubts as to my ability to access the display as it was up two flights of vey steep and narrow stairs. Red rag to a bull time! I told them why I was so interested in their display and explained that I was going to give it a try anyway. When they realised just how interested I was, they asked my to wait a minute and showed a souvenir booklet that was produced at the time of the L.48's shooting down. This had a lot of the information I had been seeking but sadly, had been out of print for over a hundred years. Anyway, I did get to the display and took some photographs and then dragged myself back down the stairs to the ticket office where I was going to purchase a small book on Leiston and the Great War. I was a very hot day and I was drenched in sweat and breathless by the time I got back to the ticket office, The two ladies made me sit down and get my breath back and produced a cold drink for me and gave me something to wipe the worst of the sweat off my brow. Then they produced a scan of the book they had showed me, that they had run off for me when I was looking at the zeppelin display. Upon my remarking as to how extremely kind of then it was, they replied that they could see just how much it meant to me to get to see the zeppelin parts. Naturally, I left a hefty donation to the museum. I was pretty much blown away by their kindness and still am. But there was more! Whilst I had been in the museum, Mrs Martian had found the number of the church warden of the church at Theberton and had established that the church was open. We drove the few miles to Theberton where I was able to take the pictures I wanted in the first place. Whist there, I got talking to the vicar and in the course of our conversation the story of the events at the museum came up. I was surprised when, instead of just a polite reply, the vicar said that it was so nice to hear some good news for a change and that it had cheered his day up. He had just come from officiating at a memorial service for someone who had died during lockdown and said it was just one of many he had had and still had to perform. Upon our return to our hotel an advance order for two of Takom's zeppelin kits was duly placed. I don't think I will ever forget that day and the kindness shown to me on that day. So you see, this project is so much more than the usual build for me, it's very personal and that is why it has gone straight to the top of my post Telford "To build" pile. I shall be starting with the P Class kit as the L.15 was an unmodified P Class ship. Depending on how things develop, I may go straight into the Q Class build. Anyway, lets start with some sprue shots of the P Class kit. The only difference between the two kits is the added section to lengthen the hull of the Q Class. First impressions are that the kit is well moulded and accurate. Areas that will require extra work are the missing vertical lines that should be there to represent where the panels of the hull's outer covering met on the frames pf the ship's structure. Some careful re-scribing there the etch methinks and seeing if I can create a more realistic rendering of the support structures for the outrigger propellers. I have a plan for this using Albion Alloys' rod but we shall have to see if my soldering skills are up to this yet. I shall also be trying to refine the supports for the gondolas with Albion Alloys' tubing. Hydrogen vents need adding to the upper hull as will assorted panels and drain holes to the lower hull. I am sure the need for more modifications will become apparent as we progress with the build. I shall be starting work in the morning, so let the mayhem begin! Martian 👽