by Chad Fopma

This is an idea that I've had kicking around in my head for years, since I first played the original Final Fantasy game way back in 1987. I was facinated with the concept of the airship. Not a hot air baloon type of ship as in latter entries into the series, but a tall sailing ship with the sails replaced with what looked like helicopter rotors. It was a great idea that I just never got around to building...until now. I figured that this contest was just the kick in the rear I needed to finally build the thing.

Starting with a Revell Caribbean Pirate Ship kit, I built it up about half-way before begining the modifications. I started by adding two pair of landing legs onto the bottom of the hull that were scavanged from my 1/72 Viper Mk2 and Mk7 kits. Most of the other add-ons were random bits from the parts bin. Lots of little bits and pieces to add on the rotors and the wings and some more just to give it a bit more of a feel of things going on. Not satisifed with just the ship, I decided to add a crew. I took a Tutonic Knight figure for my warrior, added some red hair to a Princess Leia figure from the Fine Molds Falcon for the White Mage and took some Apoxie Sculpt to craft my Black Mage.

Overall, while she is far from perfect, this little airship fills a gap in my collection. Moreover, the ship feels like it belongs in Final Fantasy, and that was exactly what I was going for.

Image: Knight

Image: Black Mage

Image: White Mage

Image: Landing leg

Image: From above