Just a quick update on my proposed model of airship R34.
I collected dozens of photos, some drawings, and three books. The books were Transatlantic Airships by John Christopher, Airship by Patrick Abbott (kindly recommended by Genghis the Engineer) and Slide Rule by Nevil Shute for background. I followed up the Kew connection but alas their quote for photocopying was "in excess of five hundred pounds". This might have been reduced by going there in person, but it's a long journey and when there one has a long wait for each item requested, so possibly several days work.
The size of the model was driven by the hoop spacing. I needed to keep the hoops spaced by about an inch so that I could handle them with my clumsy fingers. Any smaller and gluing them individually would have become very difficult. This set the overall hull size to 1m long and 12cm diameter (actually a polygon).
Handling a model of this size would be difficult, so I split it into three sections. The centre section was just over a foot long and based, like the original, on a triangular keel. It started to taper at both ends and was just long enough to support the gondolas. The nose section was fairly short but the tail section was long, had to taper, and needed a cruciform structure to support tail surfaces. The problem was how to attach nose and tail to centre section, each time supporting the weight and distributing the stresses into the respective structures. I wasn't able to come up with a workable solution.
I considered other methods of construction and different sizes, but all met with structural problems.
Finally I made scaled-up photocopies of a side view drawing and all became clear. This monster, at 3ft 3in long and less than 5in diameter was more like a baseball bat than a model airplane. Flimsy balsa-and-tissue fabrication just wasn't going to work.
So, reluctantly, I have abandoned it. Many thanks to all you guys who contributed suggestions.
Hopefully the future will suggest further Crun Robotics type models, more my thing really.