In 1993 my career as a model builder started with a contract to build four models for the new Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen which was supposed to open in 1998.
The first two models were the LZ 8 "Deutschland" (replacement for the crahed LZ 7 "Deutschland"), which was the second airship for the new DELAG. As a passenger carrying airship it got a large "Coupé" which had an interior which resembled the interior of a luxury train - only with a much better and a more exciting view. The airship ended after a rather short career on the wind break in front of the shed at Düsseldorf.
The model was built in the same manner as the LZ 4. Unfortunately, all the pictures of the building process of my first four models got lost, when I had some new paper copies made in 1999. Therefore the following pictures, which are scans from paper copies, only show the finished model.
The LZ 10 "Schwaben." (written with a dot after the name) was the first successful DELAG airship until it burned because of static electricity which had built up on the rubberized gasbags. Note that on the picture below, showing the LZ 10 dropping a parachute with mail, the outer most rudder planes on the top had been removed. The model had to be built with this rather unusual feature because the former director of the museum wanted it this way...
The second pair of models were the navy airships LZ 62 "L 30", the prototype of the Zeppelin r-type, and LZ 114 "L 72", also in the scale 1/66.6667.
The LZ 62 "L 30" survived the war, was dismanteled at Seddin in 1918 and delivered in pieces to Belgium where some parts, like a wing engine car and the radio station, are on display in a museum.
A rare view of LZ 62 from above, showing the pattern on the back as well as the gun paltform and the rear gun post behind the upper fin.
The LZ 114 was the last Zeppelin airship built during the war, but it never entered service. After the war the LZ 114 had to be delivered to France for war reparations where it was named "Dixmude" and made many sucessful flights under the command of the young captain du Plessis until it disappeared of the Mediterranean in a thunderstorm.
