Steampunk Lego Building Contest

So over on reasonableclever.com they are having a Steampunk in 50 pieces or less contest. I wanted to make something, and came up with this dirigible in 80+ parts.

It's a shame I went over on the parts budget. Also, being so top heavy it was totally unplayable. The balloon also kept pulling loose. Still I have a smaller flyer and a crawler tractor that I could enter.

The balloon/gas chamber was going to be made from our Hogwarts Castle tower pieces, but since they are built into a fairly classy rocket-ship at the moment, I elected to use the tires from the M-Tron recovery vehicle. The gantry to hold it up was again second choice, I was going to make cables from the portcullis from Hogwarts, still the rigid structures from the police station helipad seemed to Victorian.

Before adding the balloon, I was in fear of looking too much like a Wookie flyer, one of the many steam-punk elements in the newer Star Wars movies.

Finally our pilot. I was going to use the leather flying helmet from Anakins star fighter, but elected, after thinking about Jasper Morello's Strange Geographic Expedition, to just use a German troop from a recent Indiana Jones Lego set.

A fun 45 minute build, and a 20 minute photo shoot before tearing down for building instructions.