Hello all! :smiling: I've been taking inspiration from the many gyrocopter conversions on the forum. Having ordered a box of my own, I'm going to strip it down for parts and actually make 4 or 5 gyrocopters out of it- using bits and extras that I've bought of course.

A BIG THANK YOU to Veles sharing his conversion which can be found here: http://www.bugmansbrewery.com/topic/43095-project-egg-or-how-i-learned-to-love-the-bomb/page-2?hl=viking Using his and others ideas I'm attempting my own conversions.

I procured some variations of the Lego ship used by Veles, opting for some smaller sizes. Using styrofoam and copper wire, the plan is to get the balloons to be self supported. This is tricky and I'm going to need some advice on descisions. I have enough materials before I use the GW parts to make two of each.

The first challenge was destroying a Lego model... it was hard but I got some holes drilled and wires in. Then I had to relearn my geometry as I carved grooves into the ball for the small balloon.

It worked out rather well and I had to do some adjusting. O.K. a lot! of adjusting. I made one groove deep and the other average so as to be able to overlap the wire. The scond picture shows what happens when you try to adjust the four wires after they've already been crimped and cut. Things became uneven, especially after the gluing. My OCD at seeing the picture made me grab the model and fix it up a bit. Hopefully it will look better as things go.

So there's the little one's prototype. I don't think I will have to try it again with the second batch of materials, unless someone throws some good ideas out there. :detective: The wires have been straightened to give it a hanging appearance. I feel like I should put something around the middle; something more than the line that was a natural part of the styrofoam. I need to devise some sort of propulsion and something neat for the front. ( I have a telescope from the Empire mansion laying around somewhere.) The barrel rider is going to be an old model whose staff will be removed and replaced with a grenade launching blunderbuss from my Empire bits. I'm thinking that's about the best thing I have for depicting how it does a flame template of damage. Any flame gun ideas or better solutions?

I learned my lesson with the first balloon and measured much better for what will be my gryobomber.

Orientation detail is important too.

I left things loose and gave myself plenty of slack this time. I don't want to drek it up. The copper wire support system is working perfectly.

This one will be a little bit easier to manage as the copper ends will be hidden under the boat and out of sight.

I'm a little worried about keeping things even and making the physics of the suspended balloon looks real. I have an idea to drill into the styrofoam toward the bottom of the balloon and feed the copper wires into it. Then the wires would come out of the bottom at the exact width of the holes in the boat. After that I could pull the wires tight and glue them, then measure each line to make sure they are exact and straight (presuambly from the tension of the boat). What do ya'll think if the wires dissapear towards the bottom of the styrofoam? Perhaps I could cut patch wire to make it look like it still went around, or just braid things through? :detective:

There's a bunch more to do of course. The W.I.P. will be waiting on me sanding the mould lines off of the plastic gyrocopter parts, then filling some of their areas with green stuff when I glue the peices together. That's to make them solid inside so I can drill, pin, and glue the tail to the boat. I'll probably be trying my hand at green stuff in the bottom of each ship to cover the holes and Lego tabs. This will also help with the height of the model riding inside them. The ballist balloons with the bombs from the gyrocopter kit will mount on the sides of the boat, set a little to the for'ard to as to maintain balance. There's an anchor to weigh, and a steering wheel to mount with the crew. Then there's all the little plates and decorative bits. The part I'm most excited for is putting Shields on the side to give it that Viking Longship look.

Hope you've enjoyed the trip to the forge! Hava gooday all. :yes