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By WAAZDAG - Dec. 31, 1969 Background: I spent several weeks casting thousands of bricks with no firm project in mind at the time: only that I would need plenty of bricks. As I sat pondering and drying one of the last sets of castings my “friend” suggested I build a Dwarven Aircraft carrier for use in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles naval battles that came out in one of their books: something to launch gyrocopters from. A Dwarven steam driven paddle wheel aircraft carrier made of stone and kept afloat magically… I shot his idea down and told him how silly it would be: especially since I did not even play dwarves! When I finally began to brainstorm ideas to build with the bricks I could think of nothing else except the Dwarven aircraft carrier that my “friend” suggested. So cursing his name, I started building it… Unfortunately; photos of the construction phase were lost when my last computer melted down. Dimensions: Length: from ram to end of third paddle cover: 36 inches Width: 16 inches Height: 14.25 inches Number of bricks used: unknown… my peons refused to count them after the first 300 on the top part of the Main Castle structure: all they say is it’s a hell of a lot and the damn thing must weigh 50 Pounds. Construction: Molds used: #40 Basic Block #43 Gothic Panel Accessories #44 Gothic Additional Accessories #50 Wizard’s Tower #52 4” circular tower #55 Bell tower #56 Tomb # 60 Prison Tower #61 Turret #63 Octagon Tower #71 Fieldstone Accessories #73 6” round fieldstone #250 Small brick #311 Schematic Pyramid Other materials used: 1/8 inch Medium Density Fiberboard. 3 high density cardboard fax machine paper roller tubes Thin plasticard for main launch bay doors GW Dwarven Doors from arcane architecture line Large thin plaster panels of flagstones from a mold made from a scrap toy in the bitz box Barrels and Boxes from the Bitz Box Plastic tubing, handles, and thin plasticard for main gun. Polyfilla Sandpaper Rotary tool with assorted sanding heads. Ink-refilling syringe I began building by sketching out the basic shape on a large piece of MDF. I then dry fitted the first layer of bricks and then glued them into place. I continued to build the main structure and when I got to the top I decided then to make it hollow to store an army inside instead of doing the detailed interior which my associates tried to convince me to do. I then built the internal supports to hold what would become the main deck from an assortment of miscast and screwed up bricks. I built the main deck based on 1/8” MDF as well for strength and support. As I did not own nor have time to order a flagstone mold I used a self made existing mold to build the flagstone deck. I used ¼” round fieldstone pieces from the large fieldstone tower to outline the main launch hatches for the gyrcopters: conveniently enough these pieces being the correct dimensions for a gyrocopter. I then constructed the main command “castle”: making it a separate unit that could be used on it’s own as terrain should the desire arise. It was built freestyle with only a very vague plan in place prior to starting: all I knew was that I wanted it to have a front door, and a command tower: and several balconies. The end result looks quite good though. I used Schematic Pyramid floor tiles to add some decorative touches to the detail. I built the armored paddle wheel covers from round tower blocks. The concept was a steam driven paddle wheel kept magically afloat by various dwarven runes: and why have a wheel exposed when it could be safely covered by protective layers of rock. Good old Rock, nothing beats Rock. Once the paddle wheel pieces were in place I cut and trimmed the structure from the MDF base so that, unlike terrain pieces, there was no transition from tabletop to model. Throughout construction I had to sand some blocks to make the entire structure fit together snugly. This was due mainly to my miscasting of some blocks: using different mediums: I used some plaster of paris, some Dental plaster, some and some “experimental” plasters: all having slightly different shrinkages which really became pronounced over the length of this model. Once the main structure and castle were complete I began adding details such as the main deck hatches and side embarking hatches: where longboats and submarines would be launched from during a battle. I used Tomb Mold and Round fieldstone mold blocks for the frames of these doors and platicard for the doors themselves. I used various bits and pieces like faces for details throughout construction. I used GW dwarven doors for the doorways and added in some other dwarven accessories to detail it out. I used heavy cardboard tubes from a fax machine to act as the smokestacks for this beast: using a rotary tool to cut through the bricks and setting them firmly in place within the brickwork itself. I decided that the ship needed a main forward gun battery: and added it as an afterthought to the main construction. I decided to scratch build a breech loading cannon and found that the decorative cap pieces from the G.A.A. (#44) mold worked perfectly to be shells for this cannon. The cannon itself was made from plastic tubing and thin plastic sheets. It sits on top of a rest made from small brick mold blocks. I used various barrels and boxes to add extra detail to he forecastle. Once complete I glued a name-plate to the rear of the ship and carved dwarven runes into it using a sharp scraper. The ship’s full name in Dwarven translates to: “The Great Stone Ship Ikarus”. I used a ink refill syringe with a blunt needle to inject pollyfilla into any gaps (especially around the smokestacks and other scratch built pieces) and then carved the filla to match the surrounding brick and stonework Painting was done by an undercoat of flat black, followed by a grey drybrushing, then shots of red/tan and off grey primer to break up the color patterns. It was then drybrushed 2 more times with successively lighter shades of grey. Metal pieces were drybrushed with whatever shade of metal I wanted to try for straight over the black. These being the stacks, domes, and the main hatchways and launch bay doors. The ship is not yet complete though as I intend to have cannons mounted in every round porthole: I just haven’t managed to find enough cannons yet…
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