Skyship ERIS - Part 3 (January, 2019)

CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES:  Through the month of January, I worked on the ship, added sheathing to the inside of the framework (I wanted the frame to show), a bottom, and the decks. For all the sheetwork, I used commercial sheet balsa and basswood in various thicknesses. Inside, I hid a big wood block, drilled through to hold the threaded rod, which now ran from below the ship bottom to the top of the balloons. I bent it to disguise it's support function, and would later disguise it further as a big tube supplying gas to the balloons.

The assembled airship on my workbench - Note the wooden support block
and the rod. Dowels were placed through the structure to act as "landing gear".

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Here, the ship has planking and decks added, along with rails and the beginnings of the engine (in primer), the gas production barrel, a deck hatch, and an earlier version of Il Capitano.

A little later, there's been a second version of the deck arrangement. The control console is in progress, and a corrugated tube (from my CPAP Machine) covers the support rod. I'm hoping that, when finished, the curved tube will hide the fact that a threaded 1/4" rod (not the ropes to be added) is actually holding up the balloons. At the bottom, you can see the open cargo hatch beginning to take shape in the side of the hull.