Shipbucket

My first drawing! Ha. Anyways...

This is the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, or LEMV. It is a hybrid airship being developed by the Army for use as an intelligence observation and sensor platform as well as a communication relay for line of sight comms in rough terrain such as mountains or across bodies of water. Its secondary mission is to provide a heavy lift capability to remote areas without airfields. I guess what I should have said is that it WAS under development. Unfortunately current events out paced my drawing skills and the Army cancelled this project yesterday, 14FEB13 (Happy Valentines Day) so this is going to be a drawing of a one off prototype unfortunetly

Read more about it here:

http://www.army-technology.com/projects ... e-vehicle/

and here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Endur ... ce_Vehicle

So the drawing:



Some things:

- I have not been able to find a good profile shot of this thing. The best I have is below so I have had some trouble scailing some of the components:

http://airpigz.com/blog/2012/8/11/the-l ... not-a.html
http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx? ... 92f2b875a1

- I am looking for advice on shading or otherwise emphasizing the roundness of the gas envelope. There are a few seams on the back of the thing but from most pictures it appears smooth so seam lines might not work. I have no idea how to "shipbucket" shade such a none standard shaped curved object. Suggestions?

- I have not attempted the undercarriage yet, I wanted to get the envelope finished before moving on.

Thanks!

One (three things actually) you've seemed to missed, there are two cables running from the upper rudder to the lower one (also one from the lower one to the envelope but you can't see it from a side on view) and a third running from the back of the rudder to the rear. Great start on a very interesting project though, I do love a good lighter-than-air craft

I'd recommend looking at submarines for shading as a basis, though I'd be concerned if there wasn't airships/blimps already on the bucket

EDIT: Here is some examples I could find

http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... it=airship
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... ship#p5003

Welcome aboard. My one request would be to flip it around so it's pointed in the other direction and have it on the template laid out similarlly to the existing example in the archive

I have always loved airships, though I have to admit: seeing this one from the front, it looks a bit like a flying butt to me.
That said: It's a nice design to look at, just make sure to flip the image around and put it in the right template as Timothy already requested.

Also, I do miss some details on your drawing. Things like navigation lights, army logo('s), or even the lines on the balloon (I know you can barely see them in rl, but you can!) really make a drawing more interesting to look at. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing this one with the undercarriage.

I'll be following this one, great project to start with!
Welcome aboard!