Since my initial idea of finding a proxy failed, I looked through the board and found a few threads of people that did some minor changes to their ships.

One great example would be this one from Sixwood. He changed the "wings" of his Aggressors to change their apperance a bit.

So concerning to the tournament rules which read:

I understand the ruling for stopping modification of ship models at tournaments. The other player might be a little confused with what ship they are flying against. Especially with some of the YT conversions and if you do anything but paint a TIE fighter you end up with a whole new tie fighter. Sure you could point to the cards and pilot tile to what it represents but some one could easily get confused if that highly modified YT-1600 conversion is supposed to be a YT-1300 or a YT-2400.

The general concensus is, at the store and maybe regional level, provided the ship modification does not adversely affect gameplay and your oppponent doesn't have a problem with it, the TO will likely let it slide. Beyond that, nationals and worlds.. its strictly enforced.

Wasn't there a huge discussion about this issue a while back? Some players were perfectly fine with playing against an X-Wing that had its S-Foils closed, while others felt that it would look too much like a Z-95. This then led to a huge argument on whether or not it was considered a "scummy" thing to do if players tried to get their opponent disqualified if they were using modified ship models.

While I'm sad that ship modifications have been banned from tournament play, I am glad that FFG finally took an official stance on it. Personally I enjoy seeing what talented players are capable of doing and I'm not above asking fifty times during a match "Is that one the YT-1300 or 2400?"

I'm taking a modified e wing and a wing to gencon. I obviously will have a normal ones of my opponent says anything but I don't imagine it being a problem.

I think that it's good pratcice explain my list to my opponent before the game starts, and I also give him a copy of it.

So i guess that with the exception of REALLY EXTREME conversions, there's not problem with them.

I'd be rather pissed off if I get disqualified for this

The general concensus is, at the store and maybe regional level, provided the ship modification does not adversely affect gameplay and your oppponent doesn't have a problem with it, the TO will likely let it slide. Beyond that, nationals and worlds.. its strictly enforced.

wrong? I saw a few conversions last year at nationals.

The basis of this is IP protection, with the vast amount of stores running streams of tourneys, they want the actual product represented.

if you have converted ships, always bring the stock factory ones with you as a back up just in case.

Fun fact: About a year ago there was a converted army on GW's front page that had Privateer Press's models in it.

As a player I have 0 issues with them

As a TO I go by the following:

1.Does the players Opponent Consent to use?

2.Is the conversion respectful and maintain over all shape and ship profile?

If yes, then I allow it.

If either of those aren't met, I do not allow it's use

I think as long as it's not too far out there most people would be ok with it. But as was pointed out some matches gets streamed, and if you're picked for one of those then they won't likely want you to use modified models.

As long as it's obvious what ship it is then I don't have a problem with it. What I hate is when people "make" their own ships and use some random cardboard chit in it that is some completely different ship - I mean you are effectively bringing unmitigated chaos into the game at that point. Dogs and Cats living in harmony. that sort of thing.