Zeppelin LZ47/77 colour scheme

[Graham Boak]

I'm working on a Xmas present, the Mach 2 Zeppelin in its "spotted cow" boxing.  Well out of my comfort zone chronologically.  I can make do with the camouflage, but am a bit taken aback by the uncamouflaged part.  I had assumed an overall unbleached linen, for which I was intending to use Colourcoats Elfenbein, a pale cream normally used for German WW2 AFV interiors.  The Teak colour is a close but slightly richer equivalent.  However, moving to the rear of the box and the instructions inside, this is only true for the lower half and the fins, with a few areas on the top.  The top appears to be a paler variant for the nose and tail (perhaps just mix a bit of white?)  but the whole centre section of the airship is painted a brownish grey colour.

 

Has anyone any information about this, or indeed comment on my choice of colours so far?  Just what do other Zeppelin modellers use?

[europapete]

Hi Graham, I am no Zep expert, but Ray Rimmel is. Drop him a line, I am sure he can help. Regards, Pete in RI

[ICMF]

If you're looking for a specific colour match, the short answer is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Nobody really knows.

 

That said, there are a few general guidelines.  Zeppelins were covered overall in clear doped linen.  This faded rapidly in the sun, and regularly had sections repaired/replaced over time (airships required an immense amount of service and were regularly stripped down for inspection and repairs).  Additionally, the upper, centre section (the dark bit on the box art between the front gondola and tail) was undoped and made from a looser weave fabric to help vent excess gasses from the individual cells.  (these sections also had a 'striped' appearance, but that's way more trouble than it's worth at this scale)  Also, the vertical strips between cell sections also appeared slightly darker than the base linen.

 

The box art seems to be kind of depicting this - doped linen for most of the airship; darker section for the open weave - but has lightened the upper surfaces to make it more '3d' (top is in the sun, so lighter, underside is in shadow, so darker).

 

So theoretically, it would start out a more or less solid natural linen colour over most of the airship, with a darker, more translucent patch on top, in the middle.  Over time, this would deteriorate to a more patchwork appearance as panels and sections of linen were replaced, leading to a rather blocky look over time.  And FWIW, having build a large Q-classe Zeppelin, it really needs that subtle patchwork effect to break up the surface, as it just looks flat and lifeless as a solid colour.

 

Your Zeppelin would then have had the camouflage colours added over top of this base.