Zeppelin Staaken R.IV - a conversion from the Contrail kit

[CarLos]

I acquired the Contrail kit of the Staaken more than 12 years ago, soon after my returning to scale modelling. I had memories about Ray Rimell's build article in Scale Models and how it fascinated me. However, the kit remained in the lowest part of the stash and the release of the Roden kits only made thing worse.

Meanwhile I made myself a proud owner of both "The German Giants" and "The First Battle of Britain 1917/18" and these readings increased my fascination with these magnificent flying machines. The pretext to build one came up recently, when me and a few friends agreed with a "Staaken Group Build" in time to commemorate the centenary of the great war. They all will use the Roden kit of the R.VI, so to make something different I thought about converting the Contrail kit into another model.

The fact that almost all the variants used the same wings made things easier, only preventing R.XIV, R.XV, R.VI and the Staaken "L", all with swept-back in the trailing edge of the wings. At first I though the VGO.III, but I stayed with the Staaken R.IV (R.10/15), the Giant with the longest operational life. I haven't decided yet if I will depict it with the early colours - clear doped linen with Patée crosses - or in a later livery with painted lozenge all over.

So I'll use the wings from the Contrail kit (they are already cut and sanded) but I had to scratch built new fuselage and engine nacelles. The fact that the fuselage is a box makes things easier as it’s mainly a matter of transferring side and plan views from the drawings to plastic card. I had already scanned the 1/144 plans in “The German Giants” so I used them, but I could use the same drawings by George Haddow published in the Windsock Datafile #123 (“Staaken at War”). Some pics of the very beginning:

I had to print side and plan views in several sheets and join them.

Then I cut the vertical part of the side view and glued it to 0.9mm plastic card from an old movie ad. I gave some tolerance at the front that will taper to the nose. After that I duplicated the side view by tracing around the completed part with a pin.

I made the same for the lower part of the plan view. I marked the width of the plastic and I scrapped until I had a 45º angle for joining the parts. That ensures a bigger surface for gluing (1.41 more…) and also a clean joint, without seams to hide. Reinforcing strips helps the task, and it would be more difficult without the help of my faithful mitre box (much more used for this sort of things than to make angle cuts):

Here is the back part almost finished. I later inserted a bulkhead and it makes a rather sturdy construction.

I only can cover the back of the fuselage after making the tail, as the longerons of the lower plan passes through the fuselage. It makes much easier the alignment and more secure too. So, to the tail! The Contrail parts have grooves in the place of the ribs and I began gluing stretched sprue in them and thinking about lots of puttying and sanding. As I think that less work is better, I took a shortcut and made myself new parts. The photos should be self explicative. I used 0.25 mm thick plastic card by mistake (I wanted to use 0.12) but at the end it was better (and I think I’ll be able to make H.P. V1500 wings this way, in a long future). A public thank you to Dave Hooper for making me avoid the same error again and again. The ribs must be marked one by one as the plastic stretches as you score and you will end up with a larger dimension if you mark them all before. (See Dave’s article on scratchbuilding the Cody airplane, in an old SAMI.)

Using kit part as template:

File, file, file…

Scrap, scrap, scrap…

The upper part has no camber, it’s the piece with the spars. Camber only in the lower part.

At the end it’s not so thin as the Roden part, but hey! It’s self made and I’m proud of it ;-)

The elevators were made the same way; Fins and rudders are not finished yet.

The nacelles of the R.IV are very different from the ones in the kit, so I made moulds from plastic card and balsa based on the plans:

I also made moulds for the upper front decking and for the nose piece:

I used a piece of balsa to glue both masters at the correct angle. The nose part was carved in PVC, just to try the material.

With the parts glued it’s easier to finish them.

I think it looks the part! May be a little more rounded at the top. It's still time to better it.

With the moulds for the front made, I added some bulkheads in order to make a floor to the front fuselage:

And I’m glad that everything fits well. Here is a family photo of the parts made so far. I still must put some wood filler in the balsa molds, sand them, and make negatives from plaster to vacuform the final parts. Don’t expect updates next week, as I’m also busy with a Dornier 26, a few Tiger Moths, some Airfix Widgeons, a Polikarpov I-17, the Roden He.111C, the Airmodel Junkers Ju 90 and a few others. And I may start a V.1500, after all.

Thanks for looking!

Carlos

[stevehed]

Excellent work, Carlos. Definitely got my attention. Like you I've had one in the stash for many years, got to be close to 25, and have acquired a Roden too which put it right to the back of the to do list. Have wondered if it could be used to make the the Rs111 floatplane. Good luck with the build.

Regards, Steve

[CarLos]

Excellent work, Carlos. Definitely got my attention. Like you I've had one in the stash for many years, got to be close to 25, and have acquired a Roden too which put it right to the back of the to do list. Have wondered if it could be used to make the the Rs111 floatplane. Good luck with the build.

Regards, Steve

Thank you for your kind words, Steve. I don't think you can use any part from the Roden kit in a Dornier RS.III, as they had straight wings. It would be much easier to scratchbuild new ones that try to modify Contrail parts.

From the work done until now, dealing with a big model is easier than, say, a Pup. It's like changing from 1/72 to 1/32. I am at the moment wondering how to deal with the wings and I won't go Ray Rimell's path (he used only the upper surfaces, made balsa cores and covered them in the under surfaces with thin plastic sheet). I will use both parts with a metal spar, and I'll place plastic blocks in between the surfaces to allow drilling across the wing. In this case rigging must be functional, not only decorative.

[p-26luvr]

A fascinating build. I will keep watching for further posts. Carl T

[billb]

Fantastic work!

[Tentacles]

Now, this is modelling! Great stuff, enjoying watching this.

[CliffB]

This is excellent CarLos - great to watch.

Do you think you really will end up using any parts from the Contrail kit?

Cliff

[Quentin]

Wow, that's rather an ambitious project. I've always thought the Staaken would be an interesting subject, but I know I'll never get round to it, so glad to see someone else taking up the challenge.

Looks brilliant so far!

[GrzeM]

Awesome build!

BTW, have you tried CA glue as a putty for balsa? If you soak balsa with CA it behaves like very hard polystyrene. But for the first time check this method on some spare part to find out if you like it.

[Killingholme]

You've broken out the balsa- this is proper aircraft modelling!

Will

[CarLos]

Thank you, guys. I hope you won't be disappointed with the final work.

Cliff, I will use the wings for sure. They must be modified as they have a rather incorrect profile at the front but otherwise they are a good basis. And I am almost sure that they will not have the weight problems of the Roden ones - I don't think they'll need to be supported at the tips. I will probably use the wheels also, but I didn't compare them with the plans yet.

G, sometimes I use CA for the task but I acquired this model filler and I want to try it. If I can avoid CA because of the fumes I'll do it. I've got an odorless CA but is expensive and dries like all the others, so I tend to buy the cheap bottles at a chinese shop (and yes, I have a good mask, but sometimes it's not practical to use them in many short moments in a long modelling session).

May be tomorrow I have something more to show. Thanks for looking!

Carlos

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Carlos

 

Did you ever finish this one, I would love to see an update.

 

 Cheers Pat

 

 

[CarLos]

On 12/31/2018 at 1:51 AM, JOCKNEY said:

Hi Carlos

 

Did you ever finish this one, I would love to see an update.

 

 Cheers Pat

 

 

Hi Pat,

 

Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately it is in the same condition... or worst, as it is still packed due to a recent move.

 

I am still to make a proper vacuformer, as I have lots of parts to reproduce that would go better in female molds. Before that I am dealing with a pair of Vega Gulls, a civilian B-24, A Junkers 90, a Short Solent conversion from a Sunderland and a lot more... Solent wip to follow soon.

 

Carlos

[Jonners]

Looking really good, Carlos. This will look amazing when it is finished - it will be worth all the effort. It's great to see 'multi-media' scratchbuilding, and even better to see that your plastic card is recycled from something else!  

Jon