Zipp's ship

[cfrag]

So, I've been trying to know more about Zipp's airship.

All the information I could find about it is that it was an experimental airship stolen by Zipp, that he named it Infamy, and that Earl Burns was the lead engineer of it before he got kidnapped.

This leaves sooo many questions! 

Who was it stolen from?

What is the size of it? What size is zipp's regular crew? How many pianos can you fit in it? Etc.

 

Can you guys help me find more sources of information about it? Like malifaux books, through the breach books or official podcasts.

Thanks!

[codingCaptor]

I remember reading that it was made by Abyssinia for the Guild, in an effort to show to the people that even after the death of the governor general, the Guild was still strong.    Revolutionary new peacekeeping measure.   A show of solidarity.

Then some dumb gremlin stole it, gave it a dumb gremlin name, and started flying around on a jetpack screaming about how he was a pirate to everyone who would listen.

Couldn't tell you where I read any of that from though.

[cfrag]

That is amazing!! Thank you for sharing that. I am toying with the idea of making an airship as a terrain piece, but then I realized i know so little of it. With that bit of info I can picture an airship with an Abyssinia-like look that is quite different from what I had in mind, but actually pleases me a lot.

[Chris P Bacon]

I'm tempted to make one using the new gw dwarfy stuff and use it as the gremlin emissary. Don't think I'd fit it on a 50mm base though ?

[the tick]

2 hours ago, victorybod said:

I'm tempted to make one using the new gw dwarfy stuff and use it as the gremlin emissary. Don't think I'd fit it on a 50mm base though ?

I thought the exact same thing when I saw their new airships! http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2017/03/aos-new-gw-kharadron-overlord-mini-pics.html

But at the prices they are likely to sell for......NOPE!

Ibet it would be a fun project to kit-bash a scale model of a sail boat and a WWII era battle ship; steam punk it a little and have a super cool terrain piece or display board.

[Omenbringer]

This topic was discussed earlier in another thread and it contained some great ideas. Here is the Questions about the Infamy: Ship of Zipp the Sky Pirate link.

[cfrag]

I'm not gonna lie. I got the idea after seeing those GW ships, but at the same time I thought they didn't look malifaux-y enough. Which made me realize how little I knew about the ship, which then got me to this thread's original question.

 

That said, what I have in mind would be a bit larger than those ships, to the point of it being almost enough terrain for a whole table

[Joel]

I do have a display board airship for my Zipp crew, in fact, I wouldn't have done the crew without one!  I decided to go with a mix of sails (furled) and rotor blades rather than a zeppilin approach however.  It is based off a boat kit from darkops, then modified with stuff from my bits box.  

[cfrag]

2 minutes ago, Joel said:

I do have a display board airship for my Zipp crew, in fact, I wouldn't have done the crew without one!  I decided to go with a mix of sails (furled) and rotor blades rather than a zeppilin approach however.  It is based off a boat kit from darkops, then modified with stuff from my bits box.  

That's what I was thinking about also. Considering it comes from Abyssinia, I am even more okay with that idea. They would have the tech to make a floating ship without the need for balloons. Also, soulstone power as fuel could also work as an explanation 

 

edit: would you be so kind as to show us some pics of your display?

[Joel]

I've found getting pics onto these forums to be a pain, but I will try.

[Omenbringer]

Host your pictures on one of the other "free" photo sharing sites like Photo Bucket and then just copy the link here.

[EnternalVoid]

Perhaps to help answer some of the questions.  All of this is taken from the story in Ripple of Fate, "Led Zipp'lin"

The Airship was built under the coin of the Guild's Science Division, the workers were brought into the project by the Guild, but the head scientist involved was an Abyssinian working for the Guild on the project.  Also the project has been going on for 3 years, meaning it was started well before the previous governors death but the story comments that it has doubled in importance since then as it would be a sign of strength for the Guild.  Size wise, Earl states in the story it is a hundred and fifty six feet in length or 52 yards.  So just a little longer than half the play field in football.  That makes it pretty long but obviously not some sort of monstrous size.  Appearance it sounds similar to a Zeppelin as you have the covered frame with the gas bags inside and three gondolas on the underbelly.  In the description two are smaller and responsible for the engine and drive propellers but the third one is described as long and central.

The main Gondola has to be fairly big as the description of the gremlins moving about in it said it had places for food stores, supplies, the cockpit, several rooms like cells full of files, clipboards, schematics, and the experimental equipment that was being worked on along with the Bloody Sky project.  That is where Zipp gets his lightning pistol, rocket pack, and the iron skeeters get their rides *well they have the Earl work on them*.  Also from an earlier part of the story it suggests there are crew quarters.  So that is likely the extent of the inside of the gondola.

There is also something known as the "Mechanism" mentioned in the story housed in the nose of the airship.  Some sort of grand project that the Abyssinian head scientist was behind.  Apparently it was going to be a 'game changer' and was apparently perhaps more important than the airship itself.  It was so secret that only the Professor and Earl had actually witnessed the assembling.  Some part of it is the brass nose piece of the airship.  Earl keeps it a secret from the gremlins, as they are more interested in the insides of the gondola then the balloon section which you would have to travel through to get to the nose.

From the story I suspect his crew was only around 8 to 10 gremlins at the time of the theft.  Since then he could likely have expanded his operations as I imagine a decent number have died to altitude related accidents.  You do not get an exact count of how many but the first scene of them attacking a wagon you got them coming in waves at the wagon's occupants rather than a large mass.  Same when they swoop down on the airship in the story, it does not give the impression that there is a lot of them as all of them fit in the cockpit of the airship with enough room for the Silurid to enter and move towards Earl.  I suspect Zipp finds no problem recruiting given any gremlin who wants to fly either has to make their own rocket pack or join him.  Of the two joining him is likely the easier of the tasks.

[cfrag]

Thank you so much for all that info. The ship is not quite how I had in mind, but that description sure is detailed enough for one to go on building a scale model of it. I find it so gremlin-like, the whole idea of having a potential weapon of mass destruction on the ship and not giving a damn about it. And I really like it how Earl is such an important part of it all.