Steam Restaurant part 5 "1/2 an airship"

Originally the owner wanted a huge airship like I built for Truth to hang in the stairwell.  I thought it would be a problem as people would be able to reach it and try to send it flying after a few drinks...

Which is why I landed up making 3 "mini" airships and this 1/2 one on the wall.

This airship had to have a light inside.  It also had to sit flush on the wall.

I went off to my trusty Mica hardware store where the guys were very knowledgeable and helpful. I bought 2x 3m strips of wood and some right angle iron ends.  The only problem was that I needed the right angle to be a little more acute...

 They suggested I put this  in a vice and squeeze it till I got it to the desired degree I needed to build my airship.  Thankfully it had holes in and I could screw the wood into place.

I then cut some braces for the center of the ship so that she would not sag and to hold the light fitting.

15mm plumbing pipe was what I used for the hoops which were held in place with electrical conduit saddles.

I then had to move everything inside as it started to rain.  (we are in the middle of winter)  So the build continued in my lounge.

I glued a huge piece of fabric over the frame of the airship using gel medium.  I use this to seal the holes in the fabric so that you don't see the shape of the fluorescent light fitting inside and she just glows.

I staple gunned the excess fabric under the frame and cut it off.

Next she got a coat of silver paint.  The sun came out a few days later...

After that I used a piece of craft foam as a template and dry brushed the nose and tail areas with black paint so that she looked like she was made up of little overlapping plates.  Now she is in my dining room...

I added the "port holes" which were really the waterproof hatches from the Rope Store (spray painted of course...) with a 1/2 a Christmas ornament glued on and alcohol inked.  I added some silver fake sticky backed tread plate behind the windows for interest.

I also added some craft foam in "plate" shapes which was embossed with tread plate and painted black and dry brushed with silver to emulate the nose and tail areas but to hide the areas where the fabric had to be overlapped on the frame.

Lastly I added the cut open crayfish net and rope with the TNT barrels I had painted and knotted with string.

I bought these multi coloured barrels as a toy set of "skittles" and used black, burnt umber and indian red oxide acrylic paint on them to make them look like wood and dry brushed the gold onto the raised areas.

I made a stamp to print the TNT onto the barrels by die cutting foam and sticking it onto acetate and then used white paint to print with.  Finally I watched a Youtube video on how to knot the string and covered them all in mini nets.

Once the airship was on the wall I added her nose cone and prop as well as the anchor also purchased at the Rope Store.

Below you can see the 3m trailer we had to hire to get her to the restaurant.