Steampunk Airship- Work in progress

Greetings fellow aviators and members of the (non) paying public,

Since I started getting into steampunk more "seriously", I decided I wanted to build a Zeppelin of some variety, so after a week or so of tinkering (and hard work), i'm currently this far:


Construction is cotton stretched over a balsa wood frame. It looks very loose in the photos, but since then a layer of aircraft "dope" has been applied, which taughtens the skin.
The model is based on this picture, which I drew for the purpose then colourised using photoshop:

Hope you like so far, I will update when I get more stuff done.
-matt

Well done!
Looking forward to seeing the completed piece.

My word, that is astounding!

I've always wanted to try my hand at something similar to this, so let me ask you: Where exactly can you get balsa wood for this type of project? Will hobby shops that carry model planes carry just balsa wood?

Indeed model shops are likely to carry assorted balsa wood.

I seem to recall seeing it in Railway model shops too.

I hope this helps,
Z.

The stuff I used was spare from a ship model i'm making. Look for specialist shops that sell balsa planking, about 1-2mm thick and 5mm wide. You can use any other flexible wood as well.
-matt