I was convinced by a fellow Dakka member to start this thread. For a couple of months now I have been working on a Fellblade super heavy tank for my Iron Hands because I'm really into old school rogue trader fluff. I've only dabbled in conversion work, and have a done a little scratch building, nothing impressive, it's all fun for me. I was sitting on my cot in India one night thinking over the things I would do when I got back home. That's when I decided I would try my hand at a scratch built Fellblade. Having made it home I got to work getting it together and setting up a plan of attack. First off, I didn't want to just buy a Baneblade kit and paint it up to be Iron Hands. I wanted it to look unique while maintaining a Space Marine rogue trader era feel, a la the Fellblade card from the old Horus Heresy card game:



(I'll erase the above link if I'm not allowed to post it)

At first I wanted it to be completely scratch built, but I got a $20 Baneblade from my local gaming store (it was a missing a vital sprue, but not vital for my needs), so why not go with the flow and just do a semi-scratch build or conversion. I'm a pretty lazy person after all. Before this I played around with a turret from a 1/35 scale Russian T-62 tank and added SM hatches, radar, storm bolter, Kronus etc. The barrel is plasticard tubing with a muffler off a lemun russ. The front hull was part Shadowsword and plasticard, with the baneblade demolisher cannon, and the view port from a rhino. The wheels and the inner track assembly are from the baneblade kit, while the outer track assembly is plasticard and rhino doors. Rivets are carpentry nails. A bit rough, but I like it that way. The engine exhaust ports (no pic yet) were made by my brother, they looked cool so I added them on. The side sponsons are made from a plastic tube used to fix sinks and other plumbing things. The lascannons are from the SM landraider, and the mini turrets are all from the baneblade. As in the Fellblade HH ccg card, the lascannons are sponsoned and the twin linked heavy bolters are turreted, like the one on the front hull. Now the treads. I made the with plasticard and tubing and then a friend of mine (Stormrider at Bartertown) made a mold and casted them up for me. I made them to resemble the treads from the old Mk I landraider of yesteryear. It is still a WIP as I have not yet glued everything together and/or painted it.
My goal is to have something that doesn't just look like I bought a Baneblade and painted it to be Space Marine-ish. Comments are appreciated, be gentle.












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The spherical thing in the first of my pics is a drop pod built by my brother. At the time of the pic it was still a WIP. My brother is way better at this stuff than myself. I believe it is inspired by an old White Dwarf article.


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Also, I originally used the muzzle off a Shadowsword (I think), but switched it out with the lemun russ muffler after awhile.

Done!


My other WIP for new readers:

For someone who's "only dabbled in conversion work, and have a done a little scratch building" this is looking prety damn good. The tracks look almost spot on like the old landraider tracks. The t-26 turret matches the picture from the card, but looks a little goofy to me. I think I'm crazy for having that thought since the rest of the tank looks freakin awsome. Great work!

Thanks! I know what you mean about the turret, but it has grown on me. The only shame is that the barrel is static because the barrel that came with the T-26 (now the auto cannon) was way to small, and I didn't have the baneblade kit when I originally did this. Regardless, it was a small price to pay in order to keep the look from the ccg card.

Very nice work, and spot on with the CCG artwork.

Inspirational stuff, mate. Very impressive - especially the tracks.

Lovin it. Its great to see an original build.

Thanks guys. I'll have it put together and completely primed once I green stuff certain cracks and segments between the tread pieces.

Yeah, that is pretty damn awesome.

Very nice

Can I suggest using grey stuff rather than green? Takes hard edges much better than green; green's ace for clothing, flesh etc., but grey comes up really crisp for angles. On curves (thinking about your turret) a 50/50 mix is a good alternative (popular with mini sculptors for that reason).

I really like keeping a lot of old RT stuff in the mix, and this model just makes me happy!
Could we see some more of those side sponsons?

Thanks everyone!

@Inmygravenimage
Grey stuff eh, I'll look into that, I'm actually out of green stuff and epoxy so I'm up for giving it a try, thanks for the suggestion.

@JonnyDelta
Sure, I'm going to do a little more work on them to smooth out certain imperfections. My inexperience at this sort of thing really comes through in my lack of finesse when it comes to getting pieces together and cutting things straight. It was quite difficult gluing pasticard onto a curved surface, and the tubing I used was hard to cut, sand, and pin vice. Hopefully the painting it up will hide my hiccups a bit. Also, in regards to getting everything right and what not, I only have a small and limited amount of plasticard, so I have been overlooking little things here and there that a more experienced modeler would correct. Also, to be honest with everyone, the pics are actually being very kind to my Fellblade. If you saw it in real life you'd really see how rough it looks.
Thanks again.

Great work all around I exceptionally love the man made tracks you did.

i think if i were sitting on a cot in India, my thought would be more like get me the hell home! but hey, that's me.

seriously though, i don't think you can say "I've only dabbled in conversion work, and have a done a little scratch building, nothing impressive," anymore! holy smoke that's an awesome project. and so original! can't wait to see how this turns out! keep up the great work.

@Empchild
Thanks, I knew from the start that the treads would make or break my project. In a way it was the last thing I got to in my project. Plan A was to out source them to a third party, which fell through. Plan B was making a 3 piece and a 1 piece (see pic) from scratch, and hope my caster friend would help me out. Luckily, plan B worked and I didn't have to use Plan C, which would have been scratch building every tread piece by scratch, this would have tested my patience and may have resulted in me chucking the model at my wall. I'm glad you like them. I have one more that you can see in the background of some of my pics that will also use those treads.

@Alarmingrick
Lol, I was thinking that as well, but my start and finish time in India was determined by the plane tickets I had already bought, so I had about 6 months to mull things over. You're probably right, after this project(which is not my first, but my second real project) I have gained a lot of good experience. Keeping with my rogue trader theme I've always wanted to make a Mk I thunder-hawk, the aptly named flying brick from Epic into 40k scale, that should be a hoot.

This project oozes awesomeness.
I love the tracks, and if you have any of the RT Land Raiders it would be cool to see them and the Fellblade side by side!

@Vladsimpaler
I do, but it is hundreds of miles away from me right now. My guess is that the Mk I Landraider tracks are spaced closer to each other than the ones I made, which have a more angular component in the treads, and thus creates more space between links. My hope is to one day make a website showing my collection side by side, since I have many items form various 40k eras. Thanks for your support!

I bow before your might! I shall erect a statue in your honour and go on a crusade in your name!!!! Awesome work bud!!!!

Don't let him fool you, this thing looks awesome up close too!

Looks great.

To give some advice. Try using card board (the kind from the GW boxes) for the curved surfaces. It also works good smaller add on plates. I've used it and once it gets painted you really can't tell its card board.

Keep up the great work and post your other projects once you start those.

Awesome work. I can't wait to see it painted!

Care to elaborate on the uber vindicator or that other big tank?

Also, dino riding space marines are cool. GW should have never done away with those.

Thanks again everyone! I may use cardboard for bigger projects down the road Werewolfhunter, knowing that GW boxes are good to use is good advice. Hmmm, Aramus, I only know of one person who has seen my fellblade up close
The big Vindicator thing in Pic 4 from the top was my first scratchbuild attempt. I was basing it off of the old Epic Mk II Vindicator. But as you can all see I made it too big. Not until I got the old Rhino with the Armorcast Vind upgrade did I get a good size base. I plan on redoing it in a smaller size. The big guy I did made will probably be played as a Space Marine Bombard. I've always thought SMs lacked good siege weaponry. If people want I can post WIP pics of it. I'm thinking I'll just turn this thread into a continuing project blog.


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About the SM riding a lizard. It's the only one I ever plan on owning, don't worry. It's not very Iron Hands

The lizard would need bionics for that

It's no weirder then riding a wolf with bionics

Well, I finally put it together, primed and base coated it. I don't know when I'll get to painting it seeing as I have another super heavy tank in the works that I really want to do more with while I'm in this scratch building customizing mood. The pics show the Fellblade from every side, it is missing the Kronus/ tank commander, seeing as I will paint that separately before gluing him on. It's not perfectly aligned in places, so I wouldn't say it very perpendicular, but for my second attempt at a real project I am very happy with.

My friend, it is a thing of beauty. Evil, evil beauty... You've prodded me into trying to get my Baneblade primed tonight! Nice one, mate.

@Inmygravenimage, that means a lot coming from you, I really admire your scratch building skills, thank you.

I only see one thing that I think is offish. I look at the turret and I look at the hull and I see a contrast where they should tie together better. I don't know if its too late but it strikes me that the broad curves of the front of the turret need some sort of additional detail to tie it together. You don't need to do it like this but look at the MK2 predator from 2nd ed. how it had similar curves but they added rivets and what not. You just need some 40k-esque detail.

I think the simpliest way would be to simply add a machicolated patter "held on" with rivets along the lowest edge of the turret.

This looks amazing, really good work. I like the slightly more rough-n-ready look than GW goes for, looks like it's been earning it's keep!

Impressive stuff. Especially appreciate the RT style tracks. Makes me wish for my old LR I left in storage back in Blighty.

Hope you can find time to start on the paint job soon.

I agree with aka_mythos. I think it's what seemed off about it the first time I posted. The turret just seems like it doesn't belong. You could scrape in some plate seams and add some rivets without too much trouble. Just paint some black primer over them. On the other hand, way to go on using what you had to get what you wanted, because it still looks damn good for a scratch build. In the words of Sgt Thomas Highway, 'Improvise...adapt and overcome.'

@akamythos
It's not too late at all, the turret is not glued down or anything. Your suggestion makes a lot of sense, I was contemplating how I could detail the turret more. It was, after all, the first part of this project I started work on. I decided to move onto the more time consuming parts, and now I'm back to finishing the final touches. More detail on the turret is no trouble for me at all. Just have to think about it a bit. If anything, I was thinking about how the smooth turret was similar to the Mk I predator tank of long ago, and with that in mind it didn't bug me too much to leave it as it is. But, if I can find a good solution I totally do it!
Thanks again to everyone else.

Do something like this:

That should 40k up the turret enough and help blend together the contrasting details.

Sweet...

Can do aka_mythos, don't know when. Thanks for the quick mock up like I asked, I have a better idea of what you meant now. The Iron Hands symbol will most likely be a decal, since even a thin piece of plasticard may not conform to the turrets curvature very well, the cog-mentation is easy enough since they will be small and thin pieces that can be attached piece by piece, as opposed to something with the surface area of the Iron Hand icon and a full cog.

Well, I decided to add the cog pattern to my turret as aka_mythos suggested. For Iron Hands, when in doubt, add a cog or two, hehe. It came out better than I hoped. I was actually scared to do this, but I think it worked out well, doing a reasonable job of tying the turret to the rest of the Fellblade. @krillduken: I'm not sure my hand is steady enough to cut seams, so for now I'll see how this holds up, thanks for the suggestion.
I used dress pins to rivet the cog pattern and placed larger sized nail heads in strategic places to add more uniformity. Man, I hate lopping off nail heads. I also managed to cut my self with a pin vice, lol. Enjoy.








So, all in all, there is only one little thing left to do other then painting it and that is a FW Iron Hands icon for the front hull. You can easily see a blank spot for it under the demolisher cannon. Oh FW, even the littlest orders feel like a big chore. Anyway, I can say that this project did not end in fail. For my next project, I'm using this old pic from an ancient issue of White Dwarf (issue 120, pp12-13, according to Wiki):



I think it was called a Hercules Tank. I particularly like the one with the 5 lascannons. Seeing as nothing like this really exists today in the game, I'm going for something I can play as a LR Terminus Ultra, but can actually aim all 5 guns on the same target. I was going to try for a complete scratch build but came across this cool cheap toy at my local HEB. It has the right build and size for the body of the one pictured. It comes out to being the same width and height as a LR, but a bit longer. As you can see in the pic, I have a pile of my treads ready to go and the 2 lacannons and 3 twin linked lascannons taken from the BB kit (yay for bitz stores), now I just need to build up the armor and details with plasticard. The engine is from a LR and the turret and mount are from a 1/35th (?) Stalin Tank kit, with a SM hatch, SM hunter killer missile, and the search light from the BB kit. Hopefully this will go as well as the Fellblade.




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Size comparison:



One more for the road!

The turret looks much improved - nice job. I look forward to reading about the next project

Good job heliodore. Thats deffinitely better.

Yeah, nice job mate. And now we're both primed, on with the painting! I'm impressed with the rivets, they've come out really well. Chunky and old school. Interesting idea about the Herc; keep us posted (as it were).

Totally diggin' it now. Awsome job. Again, great work on cobling random parts and pieces of plastic into a beautiful looking tank!

Thanks guys!

Very, very nice work and fits the PH imagery wonderfully. Edited my post to reflect the detail added to the turret, very nice!

Wow, that is really impressive, if I need help making tanks I know who to turn to!!

the herculees will look great, i like this rouge trader era theme youre going for, it should look impressive

Brilliant work, especially on integrating very diffferently-shaped pieces via small details. 9/10!

Thanks again, I love the Rogue Trader era, even though I got into 40k in the waning days of 2nd edition. I've got other Rogue trader projects going on, but my time is shrinking what with work and the holiday season. Good thing I'm allowed to necromance my own thread! So, what does a guy have to do to get a 10/10 lol!

In the P&M blog you're suppose to just update when ever you feel like it. Make any progress on the Hercules?

I am a HUGE iron hands fan, so I wish you the best of luck with this project. Good work so far.

Yup, Iron Hands are great. They were my army choice even before the bionics fluff took off via the Index Astarte White Dwarf article. For the Hercules I did manage to get all the treads on. No pics for now, I want to do some more work on it before I add pics. Thanks!

Little update. Did a bit more work on my supposed Hercules Super Heavy Tank (Terminus Ultra). Pretty much added bitz and the same cog patter to the main turret, added the treads, plasticarded the front and back giving it headlights and mounting 3 of its 5 lascannon turrets. Just need to add the side armor and doors, its last two turrets and their mounts, and rivet the crap out of it.









Yes, it is a bit rough, I'll putty in the cracks at the end. I may redo the vents, but I'm hoping they will look better with a coat of primer. If you notice the insulation foam template the tank is sitting on, that will be the track assembly for my Leviathan inspired tank. Using my personal scale, this fellow should be in size somewhere between the standard Leviathan and a Capitol Imperialis. I guess I'll dub it the Kraken. I'll get to it once the Herc is done.
One last pic for scale, next to a Rhino fitted out with Chapter House Studios' armor upgrade kit.

Have you considered using Victrix or FoW bases for added armour plating? They're nice and bulky, slightly rounded so feel aesthetic-appropriate, and add some depth. Oh, and saves an awful lot of cutting and measuring! I mounted my side sponsons and doors on them, as well as a section under the rear hull. Just a thought.


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(wretched button)

Overall, though, loving the big Herc. What's the exhaust assembly off?

I sort of enjoy the measuring and cutting. I looked at those bases and they certainly look useful. I'd have to mail order them though, I may find a use for them in a project down the line. For now I want to see what I can do with plasticard. Thanks for the suggestion Inmygravenimage!
The exhaust assembly is off the current 40k Land Raider kit, it was the perfect size.

Brilliant idea these are really well executed and are going to make me go to some more effort to find RT era illustrations thanks a lot.

Cool! Though the part you cut off of the baneblade looks a little fidgety and sloped when they should be more level.

Its really impressive, I may eventually have to try out doing one of these. Maybe that big Inferno Cannon one in the back.

Sweet stuff. That's some serious iron pig.

aka_mythos, the pics are giving everything an odd curve. The BB parts are a bit slanted, but even, it was hard to get it lined up due to the curvature of the toy tank's side. Once the side armor is put on it should unify the whole thing better. Thanks again everyone!

Ok, another update. Pretty much it is done, just need to milliput here and there, and give it a base coat. I'm pretty happy with it, it certainly looks formidable. As I said before, in a strict game of Apocalypse it is a Terminus Ultra Landraider, but in any game where VDR vehicles are allowed, it would be better than a LR TU. Armor and weapons would stay the same, but no exploding rule and 3 structure points for a higher point cost. I can't really show it here, but the toy that provides the frame came with sound effects, it retains one of those sound effects that I can activate by pressing down on one of the rivets. Also in the pics, for scale, is the BR captain converted to a MotF with a Conversion Beamer (RT era). Thanks for looking!

I am loving this stuff.

I really like the hand made tracks. Great stuff!

5 las cannons and a hk

approved.

It must be what the Landraider Terminus replaced.

@aka_mythos
Perhaps, since such little fluff exists about this tank one can make reasonable deductions as to what ever happened to it. Much like the Fellblade, due to its rarity and the costly toll taken by the SM Legions (Loyalist and Traitor) during and after the HH, it is probably one of those vehicles that couldn't be massed produced like the Rhino and Landraider for second and onward founding chapters to use. As such, even for a chapter like the Ultramarines that seemed to be in possession of such tanks at one time (As the above pic shows), after their surplus was destroyed or worn down there was no way to replace them, thus a quick and easy solution was concocted that would allow the hole left by such a tank to be filled: and we get the Landraider Terminus Ultra. As for the other variants shown in the old art work, who knows. The typical battle tank variant seems to be fairly replaced by Preds, and the one with the giant Inferno Gun or whatever, may be the Redeemer. As I said before, with such little fluff to work with, your guess is as good as mine.

Sounds perfectly plausible to me.

Looks good to me!

Quick update. The Hercules Super Heavy Tank is done, in that it is built and primed. One day it and my Fellblade will be painted...one day...



Next to my Fellblade:



My next project, from pg. 130 of the 5th edition 40k rule book...

Ooh, rivetty. That thing (I assume the big 'un is the one you're aiming for) in the picture's got some height on it. You thinking plasticard/foamcore or using another model as the hull?

Yup, the big one. In some of my Hercules wip pics you can see the start of its track assemblies. With my projects I am slowly building up the scratch-build ratio. This monster will be entirely scratch built. The track assembly will be cut out from insulation foam and then layered with plasticard, the hull will be made from foamcore, and layered with plasticard as well. This thing will have a lot of rivets, but it should be fun. Other than the above picture I don't know of any other fluff. I'm assuming since the pic is of Black Templars that it is a Space Marine vehicle, perhaps a SM Leviathan. I plan to arm it with a Doomsday Cannon, 4 twin linked Lascannons, and 2 twin linked heavy bolters. Maybe throw in a hunter killer missile or two on the top. The little fellow in the pic next to the big guy is clearly a Land raider mkII and a half (?), I have the FW kit (Christmas present to myself), I'll probably put up pics of that kit's progress as well. I want something bigger, but I really don't want to build a Leviathan a la the epic standard template that looks like a bastion sitting on a baneblade, so when I saw this pic I knew I had to try. Hopefully I can get it done before I return to my schooling overseas. I am also considering using balsa wood, we'll see...


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Here we go...

Thats gonna be alota tank.

Mmm, chunky. It looks more proto-Malcador-ish to me than Leviathan, though. That's got the height without (as you say) the towering insanity.

Looks great, all of your projects. Can't wait to see 'em painted, but absolute fantastic building.

Done a little work on the track assemblies, and have begun construction on the hull. There is still much to do and I have run out of plasticard, just waiting for it to get here so I can finish up the track assemblies and strengthen the hull. Since this tank has no real fluff behind it I've decided to call it a Medusa Pattern Lindworm Mega Heavy Death Tank. Iam dreading the riveting process, the Hercules required about 400 pins, what will this monster need?

Thats so cool...

@ Heliodore
I've just been through the whole thread and how you've brought some of the most obscure PH vehicles to life in 40k is a real acheivement.My hat is off to you sir

Its so many times more original than the people who do 40k scale models of levithans and other biggies that already exist as a model.

Just make sure the cannon isn't unbelievably big.

If you look at the picture the cannon is pretty big. Heliodore definitely has the scale of it right. You can see his cannon parts off to the side of the one picture.

Thanks guys, I like to think that original and obscure are two words that best describe my fascination with the 40k world.
@Qualude: I've attempted to keep the cannon's proportions equivalent to how it is depicted in the painting. The tubes I plan to use have a 2" diameter, although I am still figuring how to go about it. In order to keep the hull from cracking under the weight of the cannon I'm probably going to have to completely stuff the hull with foam-core. It should be fun.

Good news, got my plasticard today, I can see this guy done and primed within 2 weeks.



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Oh, I'm also in the middle of another, smaller, project. Anyone recall those epic scale Vindicators that looked like a brick with a clown cannon in front, I believe they are referred to as a Vindicator mk II. I'm making one in 40k scale. My first attempt at a scratch build was to make one of these, but I made it way too big. With a lot of my left overs I've scraped together a much smaller version, in that it is a size between a mk I Rhino and a mk II Rhino. I'll get pics of that once my camera recharges.

Just a basic idea of where this is going. Added extra layers to make the hull wider and sturdier. Much left to do...

Nice one matey. How're you going to do the cannon on this one?

Part plumber pipes and part metal parts, it's hard to describe seeing as I don't know the actual names of the stuff I'm using. 2 inch diameter for the tube, taking up about 1/3 of the hull space you see in the above pic. I'll take a new pic of it soon. In actuality, my cannon will end up being smaller than the one in the painting. The cannon on the front is most likely the same weapon on a leviathan, no point in making this look like a clown cannon.

(snip)

no point in making this look like a clown cannon.

Pie cannon!

Pie?

When I play that's my pie plate.

While I don't have any pie to share with everyone, I have a quick pic to show off the Doomsday Cannon and some more work I've done on the sides. Once I have the exhaust ports and my trademark cog pattern here and there I'll have a real update.

That's a big freakin' pie cannon... Loving the piston/nut detailing, too.

I think you need to make it so the cannon look like it can traverse up. Otherwise it looks like it can only shoot horizontally, which would be a big waste for such a large piece of ordnance. I think if you look at the Shadowsword and variants, you can see how you need to go about it. Build a rectangular framed section around the sides of the cannon and up onto the top about an inch. Then make the portion the cannons mounted to rounded along the top edge, between the framing.

Hmmm, I have an idea for giving the Doomsday Cannon the look of being able to pivot, I'll see if I can get the pieces together.

Ok, I did some more work on the body, added the cog pattern here and there, Iron Hand symbols on the side and front, the aquila, added parts to the cannon to give the perception that it can pivot, added the top and some hatches, headlights, made the exhaust. It goes on the back, but it is not completed, still need to add stacks. What I also have left to do: extend the top track assembly cover, 2 inches or so forward and back, add secondary headlights, add view ports, add 5 top hatches (1 w/ stormbolter, 1/ with havoc launcher counts as 6 hunter killer missiles, 1 with dish, and 2 closed), other odds and ins, a thousand or so rivets, and the side sponsons with guns.

I think, sir, this had the potential to be your best work to date. Now excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor...

Dn't forget to add lots of details. Problem with many large scratchbuilt projects is that they lack the details, which means they dont look as huge and impressive as they truly are!

Thanks!
@malika2, I agree about how the lack of detail on big models can create a problem. This guy will have a lot of rivets, every panel practically, as well large armor bolts, hopefully that will be enough.

Thats looking really cool. Have fun with the riveting.

Oh I will, I estimate 4 nights of work.

The hatches are not glued on, but the exhaust and vents on the rear are done, almost done with a side sponson (no pic), riveted a bit, nothing big. As you can see this fellow will use baneblade tracks (I've got a pile lying around, will need more) since this doesn't seem to be a pre-heresy vehicle.

Looking good, can't wait to see it rivited.

That looks amazing. Now paint like you've never painted before! But to a high standard...


PAINT!

Man, I don't have the time to paint anything right now, I wish I did, and I wish I had the ability to paint at a high standard as well. I want to finish my build projects in the time I have left before I go back to school to finish my thesis. One day, hopefully...

I love your work. I see that massive cannon and the only thing I can say is: KA-BOOM!

Thanks to all my readers so far! Well, by now everyone must have the inkling that I enjoy the more obscure aspects of Space Marine history, pre-heresy, rogue trader, and what not. So for today's little update we'll talk about the Vindicator and its fun little history as a 40k scale model. I don't know to much about the history of Epic, so that aside, I'm going off what I know off the top of my head. Initially, the first Vindicator in 40k was a scratch build tutorial presented in an old issue of White Dwarf (118), later Armorcast released a resin add on piece that was basically made from the White Dwarf tutorial, both used the Rhino mk I chassis. I snagged a modified re-cast of one of these kits off the Electronic Bay. There was another add on kit made around this time, but it seemed to be a more independent venture. Eventually, GW released an actual Vindicator kit also based on the mk I Rhino chassis, which included pewter parts for the cannon, top armor, and side armor. With the release of the mk II Rhino a new Vindicator was on its way. Forge World did it first, and then GW with a plastic kit practically identical to the FW one. The only real differences seemed to be that the FW kit did not include side armor (although they do sell it) and the top vents were exposed. The GW plastic kit has a top piece that can cover the vents, so one could easily build the GW kit to resemble the FW one, but why would anyone do that? Ok, fine, I'm sure this is all common knowledge, so after perusing some web sites associated with Epic, I saw the funniest looking model, the brick looking Vindicator Mk II:



So, my first scratch build attempt was to build one of these, but I made it too big. Now, with all the other projects I've done I found myself with a lot of scraps. Thus, I built a new one in a more appropriate size:



Here it is next to a Mk I Vind and a Mk IV Vind (I have the metal kit, it's overseas right now). I know there is no real consensus as to the mks, but this is how I see it, correct if I'm wrong, there may easily be a lot of 40k history I'm unaware of. Enjoy!

First, I have to say I think you did a great job with that scratch Vindi. Pretty close to the Epic version. I do however think older Epic minis were made with oversized and exagerated guns/accutaments, so the small minis could be easaly distiguished on the table because if the gun is that big the shell for it must be massive and at best there would be a single reload inside the rhino for it(but I dont think so). Anyway keep plugging along I think you are making some neat minitures.

I've given up on figuring out the logic behind certain vehicles, I agree that this particular design is a real clown cannon brick, but that's why I like it. I've been trying to figure out the particular history behind this fellow, I know that the Vindicator mk I existed in Epic scale, and it seems to be older than the mk II I made:

http://www.galactic-intrigue.com/epicollector/Pages/2-Catalog/Catalog-Overview-Frames.html

Epicollector is a great resource site! As you can see the other Vinds made sport a more decent sized cannon, so why was the mk II given a clown cannon? Beats me.


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I've never found any verification that the mk II Vind is older than the mk I Vind in Epic, that's what I initially thought, but the sources I've found seemed to say otherwise.

some seriously epic tread work here

I wants one!!!


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As for the big tank-
"Dis 'ere be Warboss 'Eadbreaka, and I ofishuly give dat tank of yours 'Da kompletely unnesasary Dakka award', meanin dat it haz so much Dakka and guns and shooty bitz on it dat it can match me pride an' joy, da Gargant Shooty McStomp fer firepowa!"

Ok! Riveting has taken longer than expected, or I've just been preoccupied with other side projects. First off, most of the riveting is done, just need to make more armored view ports for the side of my tank and I'll be practically finished. Then all I'll need to do is glue down the antennas, putty up the cracks, sand down some imperfections, glue on the side sponsons, and give it a primer coat. All relatively easy stuff! I will be done by next week! Here are some pics of the riveting I've done:







As I said before I've been tooling with some side projects. As a Christmas present to myself I got the Mk II Landraider from FW. I painted the interior before assembling it, only to accidentally break the bottom ramp, so the sucker doesn't completely open up. I may fix it one day if I get an extra bottom ramp piece, oh well...



I also got one of Chapter House Studios' Mk I Rhino conversion kits to use for my Razorback. I've also been modifying bitz in order to have all the weapon options. Here's the Lascannon and twin linked plasma guns:



Twin Linked heavy flamers:



And as an added throwback, twin linked heavy bolters with a gunner a la the Mk I Razorback of old:



During all this I snagged a $20 Land Raider Crusader. One friend sold me the Crusader upgrade pewter bitz for $10, and another friend sold me a poorly painted LR missing its side sponsons for just $10. Lucky for me the FW Mk II LR doesn't need its plastic side sponson parts, so there you go! group shot:

An awwsome! pre-heresy arsenal your building up there!

Thanks Oreren! I try!

Got the Twin Linked Auto-cannons finished for my Razorback.



The Mega Death tank is almost done, Tuesday with luck!

Old school... awesome job!

My Mega Heavy Death Tank is finished. I can only prime it now, but hopefully one day I'll get it painted. It has been 6 months now since I started scratch building, my projects have gotten bigger and better, I think. Well, I'm happy with what I've accomplished. Sadly I must leave my country in order to go abroad and finish my schooling, perhaps I'll find time to do other projects while I'm over there in the trenches of academia. Thanks to everyone who has followed my progress thus far. The below pics show the monster from various angles and with my other projects for size comparison.













And finally a dreadnought missile launcher based off the old epic dreadnought missile launcher (had nothing better to do).

Inspiring stuff as always mate. Bon Voyage!

Now thats a super heavy! Really nails the detail level perfectly. Often I see big scratchbuilds and the scale of the detail is all over the place. This is perfect. You just have to paint it now.

ahhh pre-heresy how I love thee

Alright, I wasn't sure that huge tank was going to work, but it did. And now I want one. That montage of all the rare tanks together is stunning. Now they just need the most badass paint job on the planet. But you know, no pressure.

That big, mega, killy, kill machine is awesome (the baneblade).

Yea, it's a pretty decent tank. Too bad he made it stupidly overpowered with the addition of TWO storm bolters. Putting two most broken weapons in the game on something like this....*sigh*

Seriously... sometime people need to realize you shouldn't take these things too far. I mean who's ever going to let him use it. He might be best off counting them a single twin-linked stormbolter. Whats next? Maybe he'll show us a second lasgun on the back of that fellblade turret. Its just too crazy.

No Comment...

That tank should make a pyu-pyuu noise when it shoots.

The first thing that came to mind was "monolithic". Talk about intimidating! Love your work on the Razorback, too.

Nightwatch wrote:That tank should make a pyu-pyuu noise when it shoots.

His hercules does.

nice

wow!

Just wanted to post in this thread so I can come back to it if I ever get off my lazy @$$ and try to emulate your excellent work.

How awesome is this blog! Great work in the most fittingly warhammer 40000 way. The Hercules tank is my fave. A lot of inspiration and ideas that I hope to somehow in spirit translate to my Legion project. I always intended to do a mk 1 rhino, but why not more ambitious and bizarre, RT era marine kit.

How come nothing is finished though?? Paint, paint, paint!!

He won't be able to paint for a while. He's gone back to school and its sitting at home.

The Hercules, as a tank is mentioned by name in fluff. He and I discussed this thoroughly as he worked on it, just to develop more background as far our own fluffish concept. The notion we kinda came up with was that it was a Pre-heresy design. That its size and dimensions was a compromise in design, that as marines moved more to rapid strike force and could no longer deploy Fellblade/Baneblade class super heavies the Hercules was the heaviest possible vehicle that could be carried on the readily available Thunderhawk transport (but not easily). That the Hercules with its lascannons is what the Land Raider Terminus Ultra attempts to mimic in a smaller package. That as fewer Hercules tanks were available and the STC template lost to most Forge Worlds, the terminus was more widly built ad-hoc to fill the Hercules' role.

I'm planning on eventually doing the big Inferno cannon variant, the one in the far background of the GW image of that battlescape.
He got me the toy he used as a basis for his. Its going to have a large inferno cannon in the turret and two redeemer cannons for the sponsons, with a twinlinked heavy bolter in front. The rear I'm going to gut out and mount the fuel tank section of the new Hellhound (it actually fits perfectly in the space available.)

Wow, there's been quite a lot of traffic on my thread in the last 12 hours. Thank you everyone for your kind words. Sadly, as we speak, the Pacific Ocean stands between me and my creations. So there won't be any painting for a year or so. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop building. I have a possible commision, as well as a project I've been wanting to do since last year, but my Death Tank ended up taking its place.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vkRZX6UIbGk/SOjN08vFshI/AAAAAAAABjE/nopwUe4sRCA/s1600-h/BA+Thunderhawks.JPG

The Flying Brick of old, a Mk I Thunderhawk Gunship, for all we know this is what the Storm Raven is going to look like.


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Another quick note on my Razorback, I said it in the original post, but just in case, the white resin parts are NOT made by me, but by Chapter House Studios. It's a fairly easy upgrade kit to work with, I ended up sticking the second armored section on the back (like it was intended for the mkI Rhinio), which was not intended by Chapter House Studios, so it took a little extra work to get it on there. I just wanted to showcase the weapons options I made for it.
Cheers!

Good, maybe that will give you some time to think about those Storm Bolters!

I'll be starting my T-hawk EVENTUALLY. Got some more work done on the Skullhamma last night, and my Mek is almost done, used it in a game today, and he's a winner for sure.

I'm glad to hear your stuff is coming together, send me pics! Well, I'm thinking of a new Rhino variant that might be up your alley, think Land Raider Terminus but with Stormbolters. Any Rhino can have 2 stormbolters, so why not a variant with 6 stormbolters. I can see two on the front hatches, and a cool turret with 4 mounted on each side, like a Macharius tank. This is definately 6 times the awsome, I'll post some design ideas soon!

Heliodore wrote:I'm glad to hear your stuff is coming together, send me pics! Well, I'm thinking of a new Rhino variant that might be up your alley, think Land Raider Terminus but with Stormbolters. Any Rhino can have 2 stormbolters, so why not a variant with 6 stormbolters. I can see two on the front hatches, and a cool turret with 4 mounted on each side, like a Macharius tank. This is definately 6 times the awsome, I'll post some design ideas soon!

I don't think we can be friends anymore....

I was able to snag the old OOP extra armor kit off of the electronic bay. Included is the above top panel, however I have heard several ideas as to how this was meant to be used. For example, you use it along with the extra armor parts to give your mkI rhino an armored top, and the round part is where you put the capula/ hatch, and SB from the old IG sprue, or you use it for the 2nd edition predators as an alternate turret mount. So, is there anyone out there with a pic from a collection or an old White Dwarf showing how this piece is meant to be used?

A shout-out to Ninjabiscuit for answering my question and posting up pics, thanks!

Here's my lazy attempt at a pre-heresy dreadnought. The body and legs come from the old rogue trader dreadnought, the arms are from an Eldar wraithlord, the front sarcophagus and CCW are from the ven dread kit, the power plant is off the chaos dread, the assault cannons are from the landspeeder kit, the groin is from the basic dread kit, shoulder pads from the IG tank sprue etc. Pretty much had all these junk bits laying around. I still want to add some guitar string here and there to finish it off. Overall, just passing the time.

Looks good

I love your monstrously huge tanks, they are riveting. and the dread is cute - I made one myself recently cos they are so hard to get hold of.

Thanks Bryce!

And thanks Weetyskemian as well! My monster tank took forever to rivet, haha! 'Cute' is a good word to use, hopefully he can lull his enemies into a false sense of security!

Well now, with the premature unveiling of the stormraven, I felt motivated to finally start this project, so it is very WIP, just getting the basic shape together. You can see the Epic MkI Thunderhawk Gunship model next to my dreadnought above, so that's what this guy should end up looking like, more or less. Of course, I will be changing some things. For instance, thinner wings, twin-linked heavy bolters on the wings, and an actual view port on the front etc. Just one pic for now!

I'm hoping this turns out well. The MK1 preheresy thunderhawk it is the ultimate in flying brick technology.

Indeed, once done I plan to chuck it through the window of my local GW store!



Anyways, slowly progressing as I let the wood glue dry. Thinking on it, I will attempt to make the wings as thick as they are on the Epic model, this will allow for me a base from which I can create two layers of foamboard allowing for the lasgun turrets to swivel while being kept securely in place. This will make more sense when I get to it!




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Here's a better shot at the old Epic model I keep talking about:

I think its important you give the wings that slope.

The large turrets on the wings but tucked into the body, are those what where you're mounting the twin heavy bolters?

*drool* i want one of your thunderhawks... and that mk3 dreadnought. they look amazing, keep up the work!

Thanks YtraelVladinhurst!

@Mythos: Those large turrets are where I'm putting the lascannons, I'm also thinking it might be better to have it seperated from the body. I'm scaling those turrets down compared to how big they are on the model since I'm just putting a lascannon on it. I'm chalking it up to mold limitations, unless you think otherwise. I could only justify making the turrets larger if I also put the twin-linked heavy bolters on there as well, a la the mkI Razorback las/plas turret, but I'd rather have the TL heavy bolters under the wing to mesh with the more recent T-hawks. Thoughts anyone?

You mean lascannons not lasguns?

Great pre-heresy conversions! I love these epic models brought to regular scale. Keep up the great work

Yes, lascannons, corrected!

Thanks Commander Cain!

Moar please. Hopefully we will have the resin casting rig up and running soon, been spending most of my time with the new pewter setup.

I remember using those epic models, now that I think about it, it would make more sense fluff wise if these were considered.... What are those pre-heresy pre-thunderhawks from the HH Series?

Hey Aramus, long time no see I heard about that from my brother, good luck! I'm going to need some good sized Aquillas for my T-hawk, I would rather avoid cutting them out of plasticard. So, where are my Little Debbies?

@jabbakahut I believe that was called a Stormbird, and I knid of see what you are saying, but they were meant to be massive! Maybe 3 or 4 times larger than a T-hawk. The model was called a T-hawk, but I don't know if the original Epic rules reflected the modern perception of the Thunderhawk or something bigger:


Below is the most popular pic from the rogue trader era, I've seen online some great attempts at scratchbuilding it:


I personally don't like the turbo fan look, I think it makes it look more like a Squat vehicle than Imperium/ SM. If I ever make a Stormbird I will base it off this more obscure Rogue Trader era drawing:


The HH novels give brief descriptions, but nothing you can really use as a guide.

For the top of your thunderhawk, the "textured" grated section, when I've done terrain I use this pvc knitting mesh stuff. What were your plans?

I was just planning to use tiled plasticard that I can easily get at the corner hobby store. I have a lead on something even cheaper I may use, but that grated section looks tiled up close, I imagine it was meant to be a skylight for the cockpit, since a front port was nixed in favor of giving the player a place to put his/her chaptter symbol. I will be adding viewports to the front!

Anyways, I've done some more work, made the wings thicker, adapted the wings for the turrets (placed there for visual aid), added more sides to the back, and cut out the hole where the assault ramp will go. I was mulling on whether I should even bother with a working assault ramp. I figure if i screw it up it will be easy enough to close it up again!

This is looking AMAZING. Keep up with the great work and that is the biggest troop carrier and tanks ive every seen.

I have a request.... what the back side of the epic model look like, can you post a picture?

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Oh, and thanks Comisarmilo!

What are you using for the "thrusters?"

Really big furniture leg tips, like on your drop pod

Good call... nice and cheap.

Looking good Heliodore! I've always liked that old flying brick. Glad to see someone bringing it to life.

I agree with your Stormbird thoughts, the ducted fans work well with the pre-heresy jump packs.

I finally threw out all my Epic stuff a couple years, man do I regret that.

Where are the painted pics of the fellblade? All the unpaint WIP stuff is neat, but they need paint!

Thanks Machinator, I've certainly tried to dig deep into the 40k past for inspiration!

@jabbakahut, yeah I like those old jump packs! I wonder if all the new kids see that that old pic and think the helicopters from Avatar, since many wouldn't know what a Squat was? Many see the drop ship from Aliens, which is probably what inspired the artist.

@Joyous_Oblivion, I want to paint them eventually, but I've got an ocean between me and my tanks. I am one of those guys who needs a lot of motivation to start painting. I think every project after the Fellblade was an excuse to put off painting, haha. One day, I promise, as well as an entire Clan of Iron Hands.

You'd better not put any damn pintle mounted storm bolters on THIS one.

@ Aramus: You should be grateful then that I'm a stickler for the rules, since T-hawks can't take them I won't put one on, but don't tempt me...

Anyways, all done with the foam core. Next I'll be working on some of the weapons. I'll be going to India for 3 weeks so I'll be on hiatus. When I get back I'll start work on plasti-carding the entire structure and giving it panel lines.

Here's what the main turret will look like, it will eventually house the cannon/ turbo laser destructor; I'm using the barrel off of the Shadowsword:

Heliodore wrote:You should be grateful then that I'm a stickler for the rules, since T-hawks can't take them I won't put one on, but don't tempt me...

why pintle mount it? mount it in the nose!

Jokes on Aramus, the cannons going to be pintle mounted. Or maybe you should mount pintle storm bolters in every window.

I think you should built a mini-brick thunderhawk as a Storm Raven... show GW how its done.

aka_mythos wrote:Jokes on Aramus, the cannons going to be pintle mounted. Or maybe you should mount pintle storm bolters in every window.

I think you should built a mini-brick thunderhawk as a Storm Raven... show GW how its done.

Cannon's fine, but he needs to leave those storm bolters at home! I'm frankly getting sick of his powergaming!

You guys better hope then that I never build a Space Marine Landing Craft, it has 3 Stormbolters:


Funny you mention the Storm Raven, I'm honestly fine with it, but awhile ago I was considering building my own. If I had I would have based it off of this Dawn of War building:

Hi was new to the forum and was going to say one way that may make riveting easier... I use 10/1000 plasticard and a leather punch, I found one over here in the UK for about £3. i use it to punch out rivets as it has a rotating wheel with varying hole diameters, from around 1.5mm to 8mm.... quicker, easier and lighter than pin heads i always found...

something like http://www.thevetshed.com.au/images/products/maun-leather-punch.jpg

Hey Evilpenguin! Yeah, I'm aware of that method. The main reason I don't use it is because I don't like the idea of just glueing on small punch-outs onto the surface of my projects, it seems a bit fragile. I use dress-pins because they actually work as "rivets." With a layer of plasticard held on to a layer of foamcore only by wood glue the added support of the dress pin hellp keep the plasticard in place. This way both the plasticard and rivet are less likely to fall off when somebody sneezes. The only added work is drilling the holes into the plasticard (I use a pin-vise), after that it's quite easy and oddly therapeutic. But hey, to each there own! I hope to see some of your projects past and present!

Heliodore wrote:Hey Evilpenguin! Yeah, I'm aware of that method. The main reason I don't use it is because I don't like the idea of just glueing on small punch-outs onto the surface of my projects, it seems a bit fragile. I use dress-pins because they actually work as "rivets." With a layer of plasticard held on to a layer of foamcore only by wood glue the added support of the dress pin hellp keep the plasticard in place. This way both the plasticard and rivet are less likely to fall off when somebody sneezes. The only added work is drilling the holes into the plasticard (I use a pin-vise), after that it's quite easy and oddly therapeutic. But hey, to each there own! I hope to see some of your projects past and present!

I finally got a set of different sized collets for the dremel. Dude, you have no idea how much faster it is to drill holes with that thing, haha.

Yup, I could really use a dremel, oh well, making due with what I've got!

Aramus wrote:You'd better not put any damn pintle mounted storm bolters on THIS one.

Aramus, show us on the Rhino where the Storm Bolter touched you.

Heliodore wrote:You guys better hope then that I never build a Space Marine Landing Craft, it has 3 Stormbolters:

I have an URGE. o.O Get me six Rhinos, STAT.

cheers Heliodore

so need to convert one of these for my marines. well, once the orks are done. and the scratch built warhound. and the grey knights. and the rest of the marines. and all the other stuff....

finally got round to documenting some of my bits as i go, starting with the orks, will send a link when i have added more than the first couple of pics :p

Haha, I know what you mean! Even with the things I've done I still have a list of other things I want to one day get to. At some point I'm just going to have to stop and actually paint something! I'll definately take a look when the time comes!

More = good

cool stuff, dude.

@Briancj, Haha, I think Aramus told me his story once. I always thought it would be cool to field Rhinos with 2 stormbolters, why not?
6 Rhinos, go for it!




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And thanks Finch Claw and Orinoco!

Heliodore wrote:

Oh go on pls build one, Any craft that sports three Heavy bolters AND two predator turrets and then drops 6 rhinos plus troop has to be made .

On other note the work in the thread is of the highest calibre sir, so much so I've actually started to use the plasticard I bought 6 months ago. Until now I've been wary of it, but slowly slowly I'm testing my skills. Great job, good luck with the future projects. (ie SM landing craft, lol).

Thanks for popping by Lennysmash! I remember the days of late 2nd edition when my brother and I spoke of plasticard as if it was some kind of legendary devise. There just weren't places to find it, that and we didn't realise that it's marketed as styrene sheets in the US!
I 'm considering a SM Landing Craft for far down the line, if FW doesn't beat me too it! My ethos is to only build something I know GW/ FW will never make themselves. Good luck with testing your skills! You can see in my first post a giant tank with a huge cannon next to my Fellblade, that was made in order to test my skills out, I gave it to Aramus (another Dakka user) to turn into something Orky!

Heliodore wrote:I personally don't like the turbo fan look, I think it makes it look more like a Squat vehicle than Imperium/ SM. If I ever make a Stormbird I will base it off this more obscure Rogue Trader era drawing:

Heliodore wrote:You guys better hope then that I never build a Space Marine Landing Craft, it has 3 Stormbolters:

That top one would be interesting to build as a preheresy equivalent of the T-hawk lander.

Maybe Mythos, although it does look like it's bigger than the SM landing craft, at least in volume, since what I'm calling a Stormbird encloses the vehicles it is carrying, as oppose to the Landing Craft, whose vehicles are exposed; maybe? Building the way you proposed would probably scale it down from what I had in mind, which wouldn't be a bad thing, but then I wouldn't call it a Stormbird.

Here's more work on the big top turret, just need to further secure the cannon and add plastic card around the cannon emplacement. If I had some kind of 3d Adeptus Mechanicus symbol I'd add it to the top of the turret, but I don't so I won't. The side lascannon turret is more or less done, can't see anything else I can do with it. Unlike my other projects, I'm going to be a little less rivet-happy.

One of the GW gothic ruins sets has a 3D Adeptus Mechanicus symbol.

Ah, you're right! I was thinking something out there had such a thing, I just couldn't remember it until you pointed it out. I can get the bitz off Ebay, but what a pain. I'll see how I feel about it after the T-hawks done. Thanks Briancj!

just checking in on your progress....is starting to look good...looking foward to further updates!

Looking good, sir. How are you going to do the little cathedral bits on the sides of the roof? Cities od death terrain?

Here's something on eBay that might help your cause(s).

http://cgi.ebay.com/Life-Size-Cult-Mechanicus-Symbols-/140481424859?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20b5586ddb

--B.

Thanks for stopping by Element206!

@Orinoco: The gothic elements are rather understated on the epic model so I was just going to plasticard the "window" looking parts, since it seems to be more of a design texture or ornamentation than an actual architectural neccessity. The machicalated ridges I was planning to do with small wooden cubes you can pick up at any craft store. I don't want to mess with buying any more 40k stuff if I can avoid it. Good question!

@Briancj: Cool, saved to my watch list. Thanks for the heads-up, the middle sized one could serve my purposes. Don't know what I do with the large one, maybe save it for the Warmonger Titan I may do one day!

You should check the catalogs of some of the plasticard manufacturers... since the produce plasticard heavily for the construction of architectural models they have a number of off the shelf components. Trusses and the like that might serve as a short cut on those arches.

Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard. There are a couple places around here that sell such things, I'll look into it when I'm closer to geting to that point.


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Did some final touches on the main turret. Added a cog pattern all the way around it and riveted it. It's pretty much done, just need to put a hole in the bottom, but I'll wait to do that till I'm ready to mount it onto the t-hawk. It will look better once I primer it!

I'm totally sold on the Space Marine Landing Craft, I have to build one.

Hello from India!

Go for it Jabbakahut! Here is someone's rules and work blog from BaC, looks good, but I don't know if he finished it:
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=137094&st=25

It's a dead link now, guess not!

Verrrrrry cool

that lander over at B+C is quite decent. Something you would have to use in a large game though or have it deploy and fly off. Tis a fine line in playability.

It's definitely for Apocalypse size games. Seems too fragile a design for FW to ever make one, they should at-least have rules for it.

I think it'd be very similar to how the Tau Manta works. That can carry 2 hammerheads, 2 devilfish, and 8 Crisis suits... as well as 48 firewarriors and 6 drones. In comparison to that this heavy lift lander doesn't seem too unrealistic.

Generally you can use a card cutout on a stand. All a manta does in 40k scale is cast a shadow. If you wanted to try really hard use a giant transfer

Tau Manta eh? FW has only sold 6 or so of those things, and one of them was melted by the sun because it was left in the guy's car, unless that's just an urban legend! Someone has a work blog on a paper machete one that came out great! I find it dubious to buy any kit that's as big or bigger than the animal it was named for!

Just saying that thing would be the equivalent of a manta.

Oh, I agree, I would enjoy making one I think! However, maybe I'll take a break from Space Marine things and try my hand at a Tyranid Dominatrix next!

You can start that one with an oversized dinosaur toy. Speaking of big... I'm really thinking of picking back up my idea to do an ordinatus.

I still have my Definitely Dinosaur Ultrasaurus toy I can use haha!:
http://www.collectorsquest.com/collectible/4072/definitely-dinosaurs-ultrasaurus

Go for it, I wondered if you ever finished that?

Heliodore wrote:I still have my Definitely Dinosaur Ultrasaurus toy I can use haha!:
http://www.collectorsquest.com/collectible/4072/definitely-dinosaurs-ultrasaurus

Does that bad boy really have moveable limbs?

@AG09 Yes it does, it was a great toy! I loved these guys, I have most of them too, I'm not sure if I'd actually use it seeing as it's a rare piece and a part of my childhood, haha!


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http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Fileominatrix_1.jpg

Looking at the old epic model that Ultrasaurus would make an excellent base, now I'm tempted...

Well you'll definitely be working on your sculpting skill.

We'll see about that. Anyways, now that I'm back I've had time to get more done on my T-hawk. Plasticarded the top and bottom. The main turret is mounted and I'm almost done with the front ramp. On the bottom pic you can see where it's payload of bombs will go and 4 landing gears. I am saving the riveting for almost the end.






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Attached the ramp, which opens for now, I might just close it up later on. As you can see on the original epic model there is a big circular piece on the top-front that was meant for whatever chapter symbol you wanted to put on it, but no sign of a cockpit or view ports for the pilots. I used two old hull armor pieces from the old Rhino kit, I think it adds to the rogue trader blocky-ness of that era. I'll soon cut out an Iron Hands symbol from plasticard to put on there.








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Added the Iron Hands Chapter Badge.

Looking awesome, dude. The rhino viewports are a good idea and the attention to detail on the round symbol section is marvelous. Have you worked out the turrets for the wings? How are you going to do the front ramp, with reference to it coming down? Will it actually move/be posable? And if yes, have you considered interior detail? Even if just wiremesh floors and some seats on the side? or perhaps some large loading claws (aliens power loader style). Pardon me for missing it if I have, what about the rear engines?

Now that you are nearing completion one must consider the question of how to mount it. Will a valkarie stand (maybe two?) work? Obviously you'll have to use a large piece of pvc foam for the base or some plywood or other material of choice.

It's been a pleasure watching this come together!

@Orinoco I think you underestimate the amount of time Heliodore still needs to put in. The foam is going to be patched over with plasti-card, as he appears to have done for the top. I'd guess he's 60% done.

It is really coming together now it has some detail. Nice touch with the view ports, I like models that look like they would actually work IRL (apart from it being a flying brick that is )

Hey Orinoco! Thanks for your comments and questions, I appreciate it!
The turrets on the underside of the wings and up-front will be baneblade sponson turrets fitted out with twin-linked heavy bolters. I know that the BB's front turret is a twin-linked heavy bolter, but getting 4 of those bitz is expensive, while getting 4 of the lascannon ones are not so much. If you mean the lascannon turrets mounted on the top of the wings, those are done. Right now the ramp can open and close, I'll take a closer picture of what I've done.



I've just not worked out how I can keep it closed. I've thought a little about interior detail. For now I will be putting in a floor made out of plasticard textured to look like diamond steel plate, anymore will depend on how much can actually be seen once I primer the inside black.
The rear engines will be what I'm working on next. I'm using 4 large furniture leg tips, I'll take pics of them when I can.
For now I don't have plans for a stand, but I'll do one up eventually. I'd probably need a 150mm base, Ironhalo makes some nice ones. If that's not big enough a plywood base from the local craftstore will do the trick. For big flyers like this, I've always liked the bases people have done up that double as terrain, like a ruined building or something, also a good way to obscure the rod holding up the flyer.
I still have a lot to do, and I may run out of plasticard soon. 60% seems about right, not counting painting, which as my long term watchers have seen is something I never seem to get around to.
@Commander Cain, thanks, I know what you mean; while this is still a flying brick, I've been using the Nasa Space Shuttle as a basic reference point.


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Oh, a little trivia. As you can see my cockpit is made from 2 mkI Rhino hull front plates, but they're in two different colors. That's because the original Rogue Trader era releases were cast in a light tan plastic, while later on into 2nd edition they began casting them in the medium grey we all know. I have no idea when the change occurred, but every mkI LR I've seen is the older tan plastic.



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Added the engines, pretty simple.

For the ramp, I'd suggest magnets. Not the rare earth kind, but small ferrite ones.

Tucked away in the corners, should look fine.

Thanks for the answers, most informative. Magnets may be a good idea. I was thinking of that material you can use to make magnetic movement trays from, it's kind of thin and I believe it can be cut into strips etc so you could retrofit the door with that or just drill in some holes for magnets and put green stuff/thin plasticard over it.

Yeah, I was thinking magnets, I hope I can find either ferrite ones or strips that will be small enough. At this point I'd hate to have to special order something.

I'll mail you some magnetic strips with the package I was sending you.

Great, Thanks!

Small update. My T-hawk is completely panelled and partially riveted. Next will be more rivets, and then making the gothic windows and completing the riveting. After that I will add the battlements. At this point all that will be left is mounting the final weapons and landing gears, and DONE. It will still take awhile, oh well.

Looking good; the turrets are done? Those arches are going to be a pain; I always find the repetitious details the most frustrating.

Thanks! Yup, nothing else I can really do for the side turrets, and the main turret is gold. The 4 twin-linked heavy bolters that go on the sides of the front hull and under each wing are still in transit. For the arches I'm using a thinner plasticard so it will be easier to cut, I guess I'll have to utilize some geometry to keep it even.

I'd say just draw it out on some thick paper to make a template. Do you think thin cut outs will reflect those window scaled up? I think you may want to add some other details to bring depth to them. It could be as simble as taking plastic tubes cutting them in half lengthwise and gluing them in between the arches to make them seem more three dimensional.

Landing gear wise I would suggest sentinel legs and plasticard pads under neath, perhaps two legs per pad? or maybe even defiler legs, they'd be big enough for the job.

Hey! While I like your suggestions, my plan all along is to use the below landing gears off of the old Millenium Falcon toy. I've cut them to the proper length and I think they should do nicely, their shape being very close to what is depicted on the bottom of the Epic model.




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@ Mythos, Oh, about the arches, I though about using tubes to make columns for them, but I'm running out of time and money over here for this project. How thick do you think?

Thick... its all about how thick you want that part of the arches... and how many arches. If you need cheap tubes... I'd just start stealling pens or pencils from a supply closet when no body is looking.

aka_mythos wrote: I'd just start stealling pens or pencils from a supply closet when no body is looking.

This is good advice


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Heliodore wrote:Hey! While I like your suggestions, my plan all along is to use the below landing gears off of the old Millenium Falcon toy. I've cut them to the proper length and I think they should do nicely, their shape being very close to what is depicted on the bottom of the Epic model.




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@ Mythos, Oh, about the arches, I though about using tubes to make columns for them, but I'm running out of time and money over here for this project. How thick do you think?

Wow, I didn't know there was detail on the bottom of the thunderhawk mk1!

I got something that should work, and I could always double up the pasticard. The old Epic model does have detail on the bottom, but not that much detail, enough to know that it has 4 landing gears and that the bottoms are rectangular.


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Wings and parts of the hull are all riveted up. It will look cleaner once I get that first coat of primer on it, hehe.

Heliodore wrote:I got something that should work, and I could always double up the pasticard. The old Epic model does have detail on the bottom, but not that much detail, enough to know that it has 4 landing gears and that the bottoms are rectangular.


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Oh cool, that's interesting. What are the details under the wings? Missile racks?

I assume that's what those are. They are ridiculously big. The bombs I'm using are much smaller. I assume it was done this way so one could see the detail.

6 Hellfire missiles yup, or Inferno Bombs, combined with 4 twin linked hvy bolters and aThunderfire Cannon or Defence Laser.

Looking good, I can't wait for primer coat, it will look awesome.

Thanks, can't wait to get to that stage as well! Added some icons and mounted the forward twin-linked heavy bolters. The ones under the wings are technically mounted, but I can't put them in place until the landing gears are put on. I've also started work on the gothic arches, which will be in three parts. The first, as you can see, is the straight beam that goes around the hull. The secon will be the arches, and third tubing to connect them, giving the impression of columns.

Random thought... but can Rhino's fit in this?

legally a thunderhawk can carry marine infantry and bikes and dreads but no rhinos. though in a game of apocalypse with this awesome beast personally I'd be willing to make an exception!!!

Crazy work.. it may have already been covered.. but what do you use for all your riveting?

Orinoco wrote:legally a thunderhawk can carry marine infantry and bikes and dreads but no rhinos. though in a game of apocalypse with this awesome beast personally I'd be willing to make an exception!!!

I know that. This thing just looks to border on being large enough to also do the "Thunderhawk transport" thing and carry a land raider or 2 "rhino" chassis vehicles.

Hey guys,
@Monkey, thanks, I use simple dress pins, as such they work as actual rivets in keeping the plasticard in place on the foam core.

Rule-wise, no on Rhinos. In regards to the size of my actual scratch-built, there is probably enough volume for a rhino ro two to fit inside, but the front hatch/ramp is nowhere big enough for a Rhino to fit/ drive into. I'll take a size comparison shot at some point.

Well this is technically pre-heresy, so how about Mk1 rhinos?

The Mark 1 Thunderhawk stats for troop capacity 10 space marines and 1 rhino, or 5 termies. I am running the Mark 2 thats x3 larger. The current version the Mark 6 can carry 30 space marines, 1 rhino sized vehicle or dreadnought.

Comparison pics with a MkI and MkII Rhino. Seems I channelled my inner rogue trader and built the ramp just big enough for a MkI Rhino, but not a MkII Rhino to fit.






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@ Lordwynne: I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers from, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'd be curious for a source. Flipping through Imperial Armour II the FW T-hawk is the Mk IV. It's transport capability includes marines, terminators, bikes/ attack bike, a dreadnought, but no Rhinos. However, aren't these rules superseded by the Apocalypse book, which only says 30 models, thus using the equivelant model rules from the rule book, does this include vehicles (I.E. 1 Rhino equals 10 marines?)? I don't know. I know that the Thunderhawk Transporter from Imperial Armour Apocalypse has the rules for that vehicle (2 Rhinos or 1 LR with passengers).
I would like to know more about the different Thunderhawk Mks, I assume the MkI capabilities are derived from its Epic rules?

that's damn spiffy. I would like to know about the different marks of the thunderhawk as well, especially those other rules previously posted with the rhino being to go inside.

Looking good.

Thanks! Aaarg, the arches were tedious, never want to do that again!

but they look good - faithful to the original too

Thanks!

Just for fun here is a pic of what I'd like to think of as an obscure configuration for the MkIII Predator tank. It is a Predator annihilator technically, because it's turret is fitted with a twin-linked lascannon (it took a lot of cutting), but the turret is from the old Predator Destructor, which is fitted with extra armor plates and mounted onto the Rhino chassis via a specially made plate. These pieces came with the old extra armor set released by GW for the MkI Rhino. As you can see, the specialized plate allowed you to mount the turret very much like the current Predator tank.




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Oh, a shout out to Ninjabiscuit for giving me the info on the above pieces and being kind enough to put up some pics to guide me!

That's a unique looking old school predator. Can you put up a side picture? From this steep angle it looks squished.

Is the mark 1 extra armour where you got the extra turret armour? I haven't seen it before.

ok I gotevery White Dwarf, Warhammer 40k rule book, Epic books and a few Forge World tid bits on stats for the Thunderhawk Mark 1 you have as well as several others. I got alot of info out of these books and magazines I have at home. Epic Rules on transports help alot as well as White Dwarf mags and a few onlin sights such as Dakka Dakka and Apocolypse 40k. I did research before I built my own Thunderhawk Mark 2 as it is an older model and transports the right amount of troops anf vehicles for me.

List:

Stormhawk (Pre-Heresy)

Troops: 100 space marines, 50 terminators.

Cargo: up to 4-6 rhino sized vehicles.

Thunderhawk Mark 1 (Pre-Heresy)

Troops:10 space marines, 5 terminators.

Cargo: 1 rhino sized vehicle, 1 dreadnought.

Thunderhawk Mark 2 (Pre-Heresy) transporter

Troops: 50 space marines or 25 terminators.

Cargo: 3 rhino sized vehicles, 2 rhino sized vehicles and 1 land raider, 3 dreadnoughts, 10 bikes 1 dreadnought, 1 rhino.

Thunderhawk Mark 3 (Heresy)

Troops: 30 space marines, 15 terminators.

Cargo: 2 rhino sized vehicles or 1 land raider, or 1 dreadnought and 1 rhino or land raider.

Thunderhawk Mark 4 (Heresy)

Troops: ?

Cargo: ?

Thunderhawk Mark 5 (After Heresy)

Troops: ?

Cargo: ?

Thunderhawk Mark 6 (Current)

Troops: 30 space marines, 15 terminators.

Cargo: 1 rhino or land raider or dreadnought.

@Mythos and Orinoco: Yes, I'll take another pic from the side, and yes it comes with the mkI extra armor kit. I will also take a picture of my MkI Rhino with extra armor. The funny thing is the Pred looks squished from any angle.

@LordWynne: Thanks for that, I've always liked seeing old rules and old fluff. As a long time graduate student I wouldn't mind specific citations if you have the time and energy, just in case I can get my hand on some old books. I've always wanted to read through the original Epic rules and other such publications!


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PS As it turns out, a MkII Rhino could fit through my T-hawks ramp, but only if it doesn't have its stormbolter attached!

Orinoco wrote:Is the mark 1 extra armour where you got the extra turret armour? I haven't seen it before.

A year or so before the updated rhino model was released, GW released a set of "extra armor" that was intended as a way to protract the longevity of the old kit before they outright decided to just make a new model. The blister was sold through mail order only and included some 10 or so pieces. Even though the kit was intended for the Rhino, a number of parts were distinctly intended for the MkII predator destructor turret and the predator in general.

It's a shame those extra armour kits are so scarce. I think they look pretty nice.

Sad to report my camera died...and I just got the landing gears on!! :(

Well, borrowed a friend's camera, so here's the promised side shot of the MkIII Predator tank:



Here's a look at the landing gears and bombs on my nearly finished T-hawk.



The landing gears need a little more added support and I still haven't added the columns to the gothic arches, but I have added the battlements. Once I primer this guy he won't look like Brother Joseph's amazing technicolor Thunderhawk any more!

Dude, that thing is massive!

Wow mate if you could mass produce that. I would literally pay to get more than just 1.

Aramus wrote:Dude, that thing is massive!

That's what she said? It follows the length and wingspan of the FW one, its just bulkier.

Incredible work! The rivets and other details really make it look the part.

aka_mythos wrote:It follows the length and wingspan of the FW one, its just bulkier.

Also what she said....

Thanks everyone, I am well known for my girth!
What Mythos said is partially correct. Before I started construction I looked at the FW website for the dimensions of their Thunderhawk just to have a basic idea of how big I needed to make this. I then took the basic dimensions of the old Epic Model and scaled it up relative to the FW dimensions. Counting the back engines, its length is very close to that of a FW T-hawk, but its wing span is no where near the FW mkIV. If I had scaled it up to match the wing span it would have truly been a shoebox with wings.
@Asherian Command: When I started this I considered making more than one, while I could probably pop out the basic T-hawk shape in foam core, I don't think I have the time and energy to do all the details more than once. I really should be writing my dissertation afterall.


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Oh, I wish I could show this next to a FW Thunderhawk, but since I don't have 399 GBP to throw away no dice; unless someone wants to give me one Joking aside, I'm one of those crazy fools who believes that GW will release a plastic kit one day!
Also, if anyone cares, other than my personal time, I probably put in roughly $80 USD in materials for this guy, not bad really.

@Heliodore: you had do a really good job, but i truly don't like the design, it's like a damn flying box!

@FantasyBob: Haha, thanks. I know what you mean, but then all my scratch-building has been, more or less, Rogue Trader appreciation! I wonder who actually designed the old Epic Model?

dunno, but surely he was thinking about something easy to scratch-build!

Well now, the basic shape was easy, but I wouldn't say the details were easy. He was probably thinking Nasa Space Shuttle with a MkI Rhino/ Rogue Trader aesthetic.

Sort of a big update. The MkI Thunderhawk is practically done, just some putty and the primer coat!





I went ahead and finished up my bitz box dread with guitar string here and there, not bad for a half-assed attempt at a pre-heresy mkIII dreadnought.



It just took me one evening, but I finally made an Armored Supply Carrier (ASC) or Supply Rhino. A shout out to Haywire for getting me the old pics from the old GW US web-article!



Once the T-hawk is completely done I'll get a shot of it and the dreadnought primered! After this I'll be working on a commission, and hopefully after that I'll have time or 3 other projects I think people will find nifty!

That's a slick dreadnought.

Thanks, here it is primered!



And my MkI Thunderhawk...

Paint 'em up Pre heresy dred looks great, not my style but then style did not exist in those RT days! Keep up the good work

i like the pre heresy dread. good work on everything. the work on the side of the fuselage at the top is very good. where did you say the collumns were from?

excellent work all round. does the long rhino fit in it? We have to have a pic of it on the battle field soon.

Forgive me for missing it, but was a flying stand discussed?

Thanks again Commander! By now, I'm sure, everyone has noticed that nothing gets painted on this thread. Other than my own lack of skill and time, I'm not really settled anywhere permanent, as such I don't want to create the extra hassle of transporting painted models around in the fear of getting them messed up. I get the feeling more people would be interested in my thread if I painted everything!

@Orinoco, the columns are made from a long plastic half-tube thing I bought at the hobby store, then cut up to fit. It's the same thing used to make the hinge on the assualt ramp.
Without the servo arm and twin-linked bolters attached the Supply Rhino could fit, but barely. At this point I'm of the mind that your basic T-hawk cannot/ does not transport vehicles. It would be cool to see it being carried by a Thunderhawk Transporter!
I want to make a flying stand eventually, but it's a low priority now; but if I happen to find a nice solid base for it I may just do it!

Joining the chorus of praise for your Dred- it does a great job of paying homage to the original while having much better detail and proportion.

The 'Hawk is really faithful to the original- nice work! That's one of the best Pre-Heresy large-scale projects on Dakka.

And man, once you put the sealant on painted models are about as rugged as primered or bare ones. Only a serious dropping could mess them up, and if they're in a case you'll be fine.

Oh, and shouldn't a basic T-Hawk have room for one Rhino iirc?

Thanks Savnock, I'm grateful for your praise! I'm pretty paranoid when it comes to my creations, but ultimately I won't let such a thing get in the way of my painting them one day!

I'm going by the most recent Apocalypse book, which says 30 models, I'd post a scan, but I'm pretty sure that's not allowed. I think that number excludes vehicles.

Looks great.

Taking a break from time demanding projects like my MkI Thunderhawk I decided to take a stab at two old Black Gobbo projects from c. 2006: the Armored Supply Carrier or Supply Rhino and a Dreadnought Drop Pod. The Supply Rhino was originally from a Black Gobbo US article, here: http://web.archive.org/web/20060616000616/http://us.games-workshop.com/games/40k/spacemarines/gaming/ASC/default.htm



This is still a WIP, I need to give it a proper dozer blade as well as stowage all along the top.

The dreadnought drop pod was a set of templates you could download from Black Gobbo France that included instructions that showed you how to detail it with bitz from 3 IG accessories sprues and 1 LRuss wheel sprue. It's pretty cool actually.



Ironically enough, I made it out of a GW drop pod box (and a little from a Razorback box), with foam core and dress pin rivets. It too is a WIP as I have none of the IG bitz it requires, but soon enough!

Nice rhino ve seen another post her on dakka of a pic of that very same one primed!That drop pod is really nice and Ironic lol.

Thanks, the supply Rhino you're thinking of is probably Haywire's. His is the only other one I know of on Dakka. He also got me the original pics from off the Black Gobo archive. Both my Supply Rhino and drop pod are done, not primered, my camera broke so I've been taking my sweet time getting a new one. Thanks for the bump.

Here's a list of all my projects I am working on that I have been unable to take pics of:

Supply Rhino 100% (in terms of build)
Dreadnought Drop Pod 100%
Land Raider Ares 100%
Hunter (Whirlwind variant) 100%
Rogue Trader era Grav-attack Vehicle 100%
Rogue Trader era Sabre Tank Hunter 100%
Rogue Trader era Land Raider Spartan 25%

Ok, it's been a long time, but I finally recieved a new camera! Since the time when my last camera broke I've been building a lot of cool old and obscure things (but not painted anything sadly). First, I had promised to put up a pick of the MkI Rhino with the old extra armor kit that the Predator (from above) upgrade bitz came with.



Next, I have indeed finished the Supply Rhino and Black Gobbo Drednought Drop Pod as well.




Something I have wanted to do for a long time now was find the old White Dwarf issues (119 and 120) that showed you how to combine a mkI Rhino with a MkI Land Raider in order to make a Sabre Tank Hunter and Land Raider Spartan, and then make them myself using the original instructions. The hardest part of all this was getting an old junker Land Raider MkI. Finally assembling all the pieces I did it!

Sabre Tank Hunter


Land Raider Spartan


Going back even further I found the old article from White Dwarf 95 that demonstrated how one could make a Space Marine vehicle using a used deoderant container. Thus, you have the Grav-Attack Vehicle.



Returning to what I enjoy the most, taking Epic vehicles that don't exist in 40K scale and scratchbuilding them to said scale! Here we have the old Space Marine bike from Epic (in the pic is included my Master of the Forge with Conversion Beamer on bike). Not my best work, but still fun.



Here is the original Anti-aircraft varient of the Whirlwind that was introduced in Epic's most recent incarnation, the Hunter.



Just for laughs I bought this job Land Raider. As you can see it needed a lot of work.



Looking at what I could do to make it better, I decided I'd just turn it into a Land Raider Ares, which in some ways, is the Spartan of its time. Not a bad fix if I do say so my self!



At this point I was running out of things to build, so I opted to make something with no GW fluff to support it. This is actually something AkaMythos came up with and showed me a rendering of, so I built one. He calls it a Rhydon as in Ride-On. It is meant to be a designated transport for squads of 5 marines. I think its pretty cute!



I've been doing a lot of re-furbishment with all these projects, since I try to buy everything second-hand. Here's a MkI Whirlwind I snagged. The turret was made by Epicast way back in the day, which was based off a White Dwarf tutorial on how to scratchbuild it.



Well, that's it, I really do need to paint something, probably the next thing I do after I finish the two projects I'm working on now. I recently snagged a copy of Citadel Journal 6, and got photocopies of issue 7. So, at some point I'll post pics of what is in essence, the first Drop Pod templates ever, and a Tech-Marine Rhino!

Heliodore wrote:
At this point I was running out of things to build, so I opted to make something with no GW fluff to support it. This is actually something AkaMythos came up with and showed me a rendering of, so I built one. He calls it a Rhydon as in Ride-On. It is meant to be a designated transport for squads of 5 marines. I think its pretty cute!

The idea was a 5 man carrying armored vehicle that was light enough to be carried by Stormraven for scouting mission and their insertion. I'd like to see it next to a marine. I think you got the point across well enough, but I recall my picture made the back out to be a little more truck like.

That Hunter class Whirlwind looks really cool. I believe its suppose to be carrying 6 anti-air Hunter Killer missiles or something similar.

I knew you were working on that Epic bike marine for sometime, I'm glad that worked out. Is it just a standard marine on that one? That would have been a very suitable bike for your MotF.

Kudos for actually making the deodorant flyer! They are all fairly great.

Oh, I do loves these vehicles. Your skills are very inspiring. Keep this history alive!

I also want to paint them. A lot.

--Brian

@AkaMythos
Ah, ok, couldn't recall your complete idea. I honestly couldn't figure out how to make it more"truck-like" in the back without skewing the prorportions of the front. The back part is a bit squished, not sure if 5 marines could actually fit in there, not sure what else I could have done. The Epic bike turned out better than I thought it would, not great, but ok! Its going to be my bike sgt., which is why he has a powerfist. Way back when, I gave my bike sgt. a thunderhammer and shield, options you don't have anymore, hehe. It may have been better for my MotF, but I like it as it is!

@BrianCJ
Thanks, I really enjoy the history aspect of all this, if I ever get my collection in one place I'll start doing side by side shots and whatnot!
Here you go, my Rogue Trader gallery, hehe!

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@weetyskemian44
Thanks! This is actually my second attempt at the hovering deoderant stick! My first one was simply based on the pic of the original one from the old White Dwarf. I pretty much just threw it together. This second one actually followed the original instructions, more or less. Like the use of spoons and the weapons layout. The original used bits from the old Zoids toys, which are not worth buying for just the bits, so I used alternatives that kept with the spirit of the original.

You do some amazing work!

The deoderant hover vehicle def takes the cake of the last few updates Juts about made me fall out of my chair!

Thanks logg_frogg, I'm glad you think so, but its nothing that most hobbyists couldn't replicate with a little effort.
Haha, you can probably find pics of the original floating around the web!

Just a quick update! I recently acquired a photocopy of a particular article from Citadel Journal 7, which covered some basic ideas for converting up unique looking Predator and Razorback tanks c. 1994. Included are the instructions and rules for what the author called a Techmarine Rhino, which is exactly what it sounds like. It uses the old Razorback Turret and is armed with a big claw for repairs and CC, as well as a super powered magna flash light, which you used to blind your enemies while you try to repair your damaged vehicle. As I've said, I love this stuff, so I had to make one for myself!

...wait I thought IG were the ones who use flashlights?

Looking good. Are the two 2nd edition bolters in the plan or were you just missing the original rhino's bolters?

I think you need to start painting.

I pretty much just copied the one the author of the article built, save for the smoke launchers, but he used the infantry bolters in place of the ones that came with the Rhino, it looks quite nice actually. Technically, I'm not done with the build. I'll be adding a techmarine gunner at some point. Yes...paint...


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Oh, it's called a Magna-beam Searchlight, not sure if that's any different to what your thinking of as an IG flashlight.

For IG, every basic infantryman has a S3 AP- flashlight.

Looking at its data sheet from Citadel Journal 7 the Magna-beam Saerchlight is not really a weapon. It has no strength or AP value whatsoever. It has a range of 24" and shoots a 1 1/2 blast marker that blinds targets using the rules of that time, hehe.

Heliodore wrote:Just a quick update! I recently acquired a photocopy of a particular article from Citadel Journal 7, which covered some basic ideas for converting up unique looking Predator and Razorback tanks c. 1994...[/url]

What other neat ideas did the article have?

@Zuul
Hey! Well, other than the Techmarine Rhino, the article demonstrated how a SM player could mix it up a bit by adding Lemun Russ parts to make unique looking Razerbacks and Predator tanks. The author showed off his "Armored Razorback," which used the LRuss turret fitted wth the las/plas combo, since back in the day the standard RB turret was open topped with an exposed gunner. In addition, he made what he called a MkII Predator by pretty much taking a MkI Predator and putting the LRuss's side sponsons on it. Remember, this article was written before the pewter/ plastic Predator Destructor and Annihilator kits were out, so one's options were limited. Hope that answers your question!

Hey, Helio!

I have come into possession of a Stormlord/Shadowsword kit. And I'm looking for wacky ideas on what to do with it.

Any thoughts from your experience, collection? I'm pondering, maybe, a superheavy missile battery, but since you've been trolling the old old articles, I was wondering if you'd come across anything of note, aside from what's already been made on the "Epic" scale.

Thanks!

--Brian

Hey Briancj!

Well, I have two things: 1. Much like the Fellblade is the SM equivalent of the Baneblade. There was also mention of a SM Shadowsword equivalent, which was called a Mammoth (at least in most recent fluff, because if you go back further than the HH CCG, you'll find other names used for the Fellblade and Mammoth respectively, the Glaive was one, off the top of my head.) So, yes, the SM Mammoth, which in essence would be you doing to your Shadowsword what I did to the BB kit to make my Fellblade all the way back in pg. 1.

2. This idea goes more into the direction you mentioned. If you recall, a US based company called Armorcast used to have a license from GW to make official models, like the original Baneblade/Shadowsword resin model you see from time to time. At one point Armorcast was planning on doing other varients of the BB, but this never happened, probably due to GW pulling the license and creating Forgeworld. Well, one such variant was the Stormblade, which I believe never even existed in Epic (not 100% sure). Below is the link to a collectors site with pics of the unreleased prototype:

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/File:Armorcast_Unreleased_Stormblade_Conversion.jpg

As you can see, quite the missile battery!

This is wrong on so many levels. I had the Armorcast BB/SS combo kit (two of 'em!) a decade ago. HMMMMMMMMM.

Thank you.

--Brian

Hehe, those were fun kits! One day I'd like to get my hands on the super detailed BB kit that Armorcast put out in addition to the combo kit!

That Stormblade is crazy, it looks like a Shadowsword (whatever that big cannon thing is meant to be) with both the armament of a manticore and deathstrike, and then whatever that single side turret is! Good luck and have fun!

In addition, I did a bit of looking around, and the old Stormblade was indeed an Epic model, and that currently FW has their own Stormblade kit, however, it doesn't have missiles, but retains the Large Plasma Cannon (I guess that's what the big cannon thing is on the Armorcast one). So, the missile variant would still be mighty unique.

@Briancj ...You could so easily do the four racked missiles by taking a Manticore kit and putting the launcher on the side of your BB chassis. The single larger missile on the Stormblade isn't as large as a Deathstrike, but if you buy the manticore kit I think you could easily salvage and convert the deathstrike missile into that Stormblade's single larger missile.

Well, I already have a Deathstrike...which I should actually finish. I may have an 'Epic'ally bad idea forming, we'll see.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

--Brian

I didn't mean to count it as a deathstrike since it suppose to be an all together a different big missile. Just that you could use the bits and pieces if you were intent on converting such a tank.

Just thought I'd post some pics of this old model I recently aquired, seeing as there are very few images of it online. This is the very first 40k scaled Space Marine Drop Pod model ever produced under a GW license by Epicast in 1995. Much like the Epic Drop Pod this is based on, it has three varients: a Deathwind pod (pretty much today's deathwind missile launcher), Support pod (which is a heavy plasma cannon turret), and the Assualt pod (standard transport). It's a pretty ugly model, and has a lot of casting issues, but I love old pieces of GW history, so fixing it up is part of the fun, I even have the original box!

I would love it if they made a kit for those "ball" drop-pods. I think I like its shape a bit more than the current kits.

Wow! you sure do have some crazy stuff!

- could we have a pic of the box? I love the old artwork.

Nice find! I totally remember the epic pods.

@Zuul: Yeah, that would be cool, I wonder if FW would ever consider it, hehe, probably not. My brother made one using a Gerbal/Hamster ball, here:



@Capitansolstice: Thanks, one day when all my stuff is in one place I'd like to make a website comparing all the old and new SM models out there!

@weetyskemian44 : Sadly, there is no artwork to speak of, just a black and white photocopied picture of the model. Epicast was practically a one man operation, a fellow named Nick Tompkins, out of California. This was before Forge World, and dare I say, the frontier days of GW!

@jabbakahut: It was all a bit before my time, epic was just fading away, and when I started - drop pods were soda cans, hehe!

Gongrats on the nice find man! Keep it up!

This had me going to ebay to search for fun old stuff, someone has the old RT metal thunderhawk up for sale.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280758014070?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_1146

jabbakahut wrote:This had me going to ebay to search for fun old stuff, someone has the old RT metal thunderhawk up for sale.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280758014070?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_1146

I saw that too. I had to question how long I could stand to survive on ramen...

Haha, I've been eyeing that auction! I think if I'm going to blow that much money a few hundred more dollars would be worth getting one still in its box and unused and complete!
Maybe I'll just scratchbuild one, but for uniquness sakes I'd do a scaled up version of the other oop Epic T-hawk:

The epic scale thunderhawk design is pretty nice. Have you seen this yet? It seems like a good reference.