Greetings Fellow Dawi,

I am writing to beseech the advice of the many fine engineers and artisans that I have seen post within these forums over the last couple of years. I haven't played more than a dozen games of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but I have spent a good part of the past 3 years dabbling with the hobby and painting my Dwarf throng. One day soon I hope to upload pictures of my entire army (about 2500 points worth) to share with the rest of the Brewery. However, I am still learning the intricacies of my camera and have found doing extreme close ups to be ...challenging (note the pictures at the very bottom). Once I get a better handle on how to operate my camera and some time, I'll upload the rest of my army.

So about 6 months ago I finally decided to take on my first BIG conversion, a Dwarf Gryocopter. I was inspired by many of the ideas and photos I have seen among these forums and thought I would offer mine up for critique. Plus, I have a couple of game-related questions that I wanted to ask as well.

I had never been much of a fan of the latest incarnation of the Dwarf Gryocopter, and wanted something that more closely resembled the Dwarf zepplins I saw posted on this forum. However, I still liked the idea of a fixed rotor aircraft. Below is what I finally arrived at. The underlying foundation for this conversion is a 2 dollar (USD) bath toy that I bought at the local drug store. I then used the miner's cart from the BfSP set as well as some spare cannon bits to create the engine. I was also able to repurpose a motor from a broken remote controlled helicopter to serve as the main rotor. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, it actually works. With a couple of resistors and a soldering gun I was able to reduce the revolutions per minute from about 10,000 down to about 100... slow enough to give the illusion of takeoff, but not so fast as people will be afraid to set their models down next to it. The battery and wiring are in the base, and go up though the tube in the center. I also used several lead fishing weights in the base, making it surprisingly stable. I can tilt it at up to about a 35 degree angle and it will not fall over.

I have plans on eventually doing some sort of green stuff sculpture or relief along the white siding. It will either be Dwarf runes or perhaps a serpent of some kind.

I had originally envisioned this looking much more steampunk-dragon-ish. I had even acquired a set of dragon wings from the High Elf dragon kit, as well as one of the two dragon heads to add to the front. However, I eventually realized that less was more and didn't want to over complicate my first attempt at a big conversion. Not to mention I was also concerned about making it too top heavy. However, I am already envisioning how I may use those items for my second gyrocopter, after I finish this one.

The Captain's wheel is an extra third wheel that somehow was included with an old fashion bolt thrower that I acquired. The visible wood is made from popsicle sticks / tongue depressors and bamboo skewers. The bamboo is remarkably strong and made great supports for the side rotors, also repurposed from the BfSP set. Sadly, the side rotors won't actually be able to rotate.

The pilot is from the Quarrellers/Thunders box, along with a suitable "Jack Black" pirate hat and phoenix, also from the HE dragon kit. My plan is to paint the pilot and and airship separately, and then combine them once the painting is done. As a last little surprise, I painted up a spider from the BfSP set that will eventually be climbing up back of the Dwarf runestone.

Sorry about the fuzzy pictures... I haven't figured out the manual focus on my camera yet, but at least the wine cork came out beautifully sharp 😉

I am unfortunately an exceptionally slow painter, and will probably not have this fellow finished until sometime this summer. But I will try to update this thread as I make progress.

So finally, on to my questions...

Several of you may have noticed the absence of an obvious steamgun anywhere on the ship. I had thought of adding some sort of cannon onto the front, but I am a little concerned about the aesthetics and balance. If I choose to take this gyrocopter to a tournament, will I be unable to use it because of the lack of a steamgun? I assumed that the flame template just needs to touch the base of the model, but I was unsure if I would be dinged because of not being 100% WYSIWYG-compliant.

Along that same theme, I was considering sculpting a ram's head onto the front of the ship, similar to the one shown here: http://www.thelope.com/images/9-13-036ram.jpg. What do you think? Does it would add to the current design, or is it just the other side of "too much"?

Thank you for looking and thank you for taking the time to read my exceptionally long and meandering post (a pint on my tab for each of you that made it all the way to the end!)

Sincerely,

Azric