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Project #1: The Eldar Falcon Grav Tank The Eldar Falcon grav tank has always been one of my favorite models right of the box. Its unique "organic" design sets it apart from all the other models in terms of aesthestics but in my opinion also limits its conversion potential to practically nothing. Granted, the Wave Serpent upgrade sprue features some handy add-ons to the base Falcon model, but nothing radically different conversion-wise can be realized. I have seen lots of jaw-droppingly beautiful paint jobs on eldar grav-tanks but nobody, with one or two vaguely recognized exceptions, it seems has tried to alter the Falcon in any way. I too for the longest time couldn't come up with anything new to do to the model until another Warmonger, Ken Lacy, brought up his 'pterodactyl' idea. The 'pterodactyl' idea simply revolves around the reversing of the forward swept wings on the Falcon. I believe I have seen one other person on the web use this idea on his grav tanks but I wanted to take it one step further: to not only reverse the wings but to also add a neck and head so that the finished piece actually looked like a bird in flight. Sooooo, here's...  At $76 a pop with some major cutting and sculpting involved, you should only try this conversion if you really want that unique look for your grav tanks like I do for mine. To start, I purchased both the Falcon and Vyper box kits and the $6 Wave Serpent upgrade sprue from my local gaming store The Compleat Strategist. Later on at my Mad Mek hobby bench at home, I emptied out the boxes and carefully removed and laid out all of the parts. Using my Noggin drawing above, I began to piece out the conversion. Most parts are obvious but at this stage I primarily focused on the core shape. Once I had these core parts in hand, I then determined where the key cuts would have to be. The 'wings' of course and also the 'neck'.  The wing cuts were pretty easy as I just cut following one of the molded lines between two sections of plating on the top part while making a straight seperation cut on the bottom parts. Fitting the new 'neck' that would connect the Vyper cockpit to the Falcon body was a lot harder. I had to remove the entire left Falcon cockpit and some of the right front area to have a more centered placement. A dry run fitting of the main parts showed me where I needed some more finer cuts to better fit all the main pieces. With the wings now reversed, I am going to reattach them to the body with some cross bars that fit into the hollow areas of the wings and body, and then conceal the joins with some careful greenstuff sculpting. The neck is my main problem right now, as there is no GW bit or other plastic model part that I've searched for that will easily bridge that gap for me, so I will probably have to use some small diameter PVC piping and some more greenstuff sculpting. For now, here's a picture of my first dry run fit.  -da Mad Mek
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