UPDATE! Recon Balloon for CSS Teaser

[Rusty White]

Mike West and I have been working (mostly Mike) on a civil war recon balloon kit. The purpose of the kit is to market it separately as a stand alone kit and together with the Flagship Models CSS Teaser kit. The CSS Teaser started life as a tug and was purchased by the Confederacy and converted to a gun boat. While serving in this capacity, she was chosen to double as a recon balloon transport. For those who do not know, this small contribution gave the little ship the honor of possibly being the first US A/C carrier. I realize the Custis was the first purpose built A/C carrier, but the Teaser was probably the first US ship to carry an A/C as far as my research can verify. If someone can provide proof otherwise, please let me know. The Teaser was also the first purpose built mine (torpedo) layer/sweeper.

Anyway, I have been asked to post the progress on the little balloon kit. This may be a small kit, (each square you see is one inch) but it is fraught with design challenges. How does one make a balloon kit that looks real with such fragile support lines attaching the basket to the envelope? How would one show the delicate netting keeping the envelope from shooting into the air? I have posted those questions here and on other sites seeking advice and opinions. Mike West of Lone Star Models replied and we have been working together on the project since.

For weight savings I decided to go with a vac form design since the plan is to have the balloon supported by a series of thin brass wires attached to the basket. I was able to cobble together some CAD drawings of a typical civil war era recon balloon. Lacking any actual plans, I relied on the photographs and lithographs of recon balloons that are available. My balloon is of the "round" variety as opposed to the "teardrop" design of the likes of the Intrepid. No real reason why I went with the round design. I just liked it better.

Below are the master pattern and basket, a resin half mold for the vac form process, and a assembled prototype of the vac formed halves. Above that you will see the netting I have chosen for the balloon. This is where some experimenting is still needed. I want to add the netting to the resin half male, then create a "female" mold and see just how well the netting detail come out. If it looks good, I'll proceed with production. If not, then I'll design photo etch netting for the balloon.

Below that is the pattern for the Teaser to give you an idea of scale. Together this should be a really cool kit. More to come.

[Rusty White]

I was going to wait until I had the Teaser model completed so I could display the balloon on deck, but here's a photo of just the balloon. I'm sure someone could build it better than me.

The model will come with everything you need to build it as seen. I had to build a prototype so I could draw up the instructions sheets. There was more to it than just gluing and cutting brass rod. To make the finished model sturdy, the rod had to be bent and inserted into holes drilled in the envelope. The basket was secured firmly using "L" bent rod to give them more surface contact.

What color was this thing? Since everything concerning ballooning was experimental at the time, I could only assume they used whatever color of silk they could find in large quantities. Since purple was fashionable at the time, why not?

The netting was drawn on using a colored pencil and tape for a straight edge.

I am quite pleased with the finished product. This ought to look uber cool on the bow of my Teaser model depicting the US's first aircraft carrier circa 1862!

[callen]

Rusty That balloon is gorgeous! Wow! I can't wait to get a hold of one of these kits!

[Rusty White]

Check it out. I finished the test shot. It should be shipping very soon.

[James Hood]

Truly a fine piece depicting a "rather early" form of aircraft carrier!

Best of fortune in marketing this one.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Rusty!

I seem to be behind in congratulating you on a fine piece of innovative model making!!

I seem to have missed the wood for the trees.. or am wordblind! .--what scale is the model...?


Vacform is a good idea--when I built my 700 scale 1918 Furious I placed a 'scout' airship on her;
made of hollowed out balsa supported on copper wire and sprue...

(old grainy 3.1 mp photo....!! )



Much kudos for your kit!!

JIM B

[Rusty White]

Thank you for the kind words Jim. It was quite a challenge to develop a way to mass produce the model. The resin parts were easy to do do, but as you may have guessed, the real work was developing the balloon envelope. I considered Balsa, but how to produce it in numbers at an affordable price? Styrofoam was out because of the rough texture. Injected foam was too expensive (tooling costs), so vacuum forming was the logical answer. My good friend Mike West at Lone Star Models offered to do the vac forming for the kit, so we went into production.

The model is 1/192 scale which makes it about 6" long. Since building my kit, a client sent me a photo of the actual fabric from the Teaser's balloon when she was captured (see below). It literally looks like a patchwork quilt and is made from 3' x 3' square patches. I'll be building another soon and put a more realistic looking envelope net on after recreating the patchwork look of the fabric. It has sold very well since it was released with more than forty sold to date. It's the sort of model you don't see every day on the table.

[btbrush]

Hey Rusty,
How'd ya git that thar little balloon to hold enuf hot air ta support itself? Amazing work!
Bruce

[Rusty White]

Hey Rusty,
How'd ya git that thar little balloon to hold enuf hot air ta support itself? Amazing work!
Bruce

If you have been listening to the weather channel you will know that we in Okla. have have had a record heat wave (111 on Tues), so there's no shortage of hot air around here.