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Good day to all my fellow dakka-dwellers, to day I present my first ever scratch built model! Ive been posting about scratch building stuff for a week or so now and decided that to learn Id better just get up and try, and it turned out... alright. I decided to build up a valkyrie because I need a few for my soon to be drop-trooper army.(still needs a name though) So I went ahead and printed out some templates from a certain yahoo group, and ta-da!(keep in mind I only used 3 of the 8 printed sheets)

I know its not that good, but Im still learning(2 soda boxes gave their life for this!) If anybody whants to see the drop troops let me know. Im planning on building up another card one tomorrow, and from there constructing a plasticard one.

*edited for spelling

a good start

That looks surprisingly good. Keep it up.

Definitely admirable work for your first scratchbuild and I know how much you wanted a Valk, so I applaud you for trying it out. When I took a look at the templates for the Valkyrie, they seemed more difficult than the Thunderbolts I built, so I'm even a little wary of jumping into building one. I'm sure you'll find with these, as I did with the 'Bolts, that each one gets better and better as you figure out better ways to build them. Great job!

Are those shotgun shells as the engines, btw? NICE!

Nice build, it turned out great for you first time.

It's so much more rewarding to say "I built that from scratch" instead of "Got it from farce world but it cost loads!"

well done, hope to see more!

anytime you can build "ammunition" into a model, you have achieved greatness. and anytime you can add a shotgun shell, you achieved godliness.

nice job. if you spend a bit more time with the pieces you will find that the model looks more symetrical in the future. Having said that, you did a great job on a very difficult model.

cudos to you man.

(edit) because sometimes I just can't spell to save my life.

Those are used shotgun shells, right? Expecially haqving them stuck that close to what looks like batteries. :p

I wish my first build looked half that good.

Very nice work for your first scratchbuild. I look forward to seeing your future work.

Will you be doing more Valkyries for the drop troopers? How many do you think?

Yes indeed those are 20ga shotgun shells(empty hulls!)

@feor, Nope not batteries, just some extra PVC I had laying around.

@savnock, I was planning on taking the grenadiers doctrine... so id say about five!(maybe vets as elites and stormies as troops?) As well as a possible aquilla lander for my HQ. I might start a vulture after the next two valks(theyre a necessity for my current list)

Oh, another thing about the shotgun shells, as well as a pic of my droptroopers(I got the idea from a guy over at commisarproboards)

I just realized the fins in the back are upside-down, Oh well(its a goober pattern valkyrie )

skavenfreak wrote:I just realized the fins in the back are upside-down, Oh well(its a goober pattern valkyrie )

That's okay, I mounted the rear fins on my first Thunderbolt backwards, too!

I like the drop trooper conversion - especially the carbine lasgun. I don't envy you trying to collect that many Voxes, though! Very simple, but effective grav-chute - I dig it!

Yeah, Im trying to get some more voxes right now(bout 20). Alas, I made very little progress today on my second valk. I only got the cockpit and fusalage built . When its finished and primed Ill post up some more pics.

Not too shabby for a first effort!

You'll find that like any other thing, scratch building skills will get better the more you do it.

You aught to see if you can find some Italian or Eastern European made shotgun shells. One box might run you a bit of cash, but having faux latin/indecipherable writing would be a really cool detail. I am going to have to take that idea for some scratch builds of my own!

All in all, I would be fairly pleased with myself to have made that on my first try Planes always struck me as being more difficult to scratch build than tanks given their shape and nature, and you pulled it off pretty darn well for a first try!

Wehrkind wrote:You aught to see if you can find some Italian or Eastern European made shotgun shells. One box might run you a bit of cash, but having faux latin/indecipherable writing would be a really cool detail. I am going to have to take that idea for some scratch builds of my own!

You know, I was actually thinking he should try to find a way to use U.S.A. as a good Adeptus Mechanicus acronym...Forgeworld Ultima Sirius Alpha.

Hmm, I really like the forgeworld idea!(consider it stolen!) Ive started on the wings/tail booms today on the second valk. I think I might make all the fins upside down from now on, its something special about Ultima Sirius Alpha. Something like how mooney aircraft mounts their "fin"(whats the technical term for this?) backwards.

On another note Im going to buy some plasticard today and was wondering if anybody that had seen the templates could come up with a way to use a solid piece of plasticard for the tail booms.

Thanks for all the replys!
-skavenfreak

The vertical stabilizers are indeed called "fins" and as I just learned the horizontal stabilizers are called the "tailplane". Learn something new every day.

Looking at the templates, theoretically it looks like you could make the tail booms from a couple pieces of 8mm or 9mm plasticard struts. And while you could probably cut the underside of the boom pretty easily to the right shape, getting the beveled cuts of the top and bottom of the booms would be pretty difficult, IMHO. I imagine if you had the right tools it wouldn't be too bad to do, but trying to freehand it would be right out.

Nice work. i love scratchbuilding. gives me a lot more pleasure than buying somthing. sometimes you pull a goober move like the fins but its a goober pattern valk. great work. make whatever you like however you want it as long as you are happy. i build stuff out of similar material. if you ever want to make the body and wings a little thicker and more built up, you can use insulation foam to help bulk them out, and wire nails to act as rivets and to hold the card in place till the whole thing is finished.

Yeah, Ill just use the templates because...well, it looks easier! What size plasticard would best be used for the different parts of the valk?