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Once again, by commission I've started another digital model. The Imperial Jetbike:



This is the preliminary model. There will be a heavy duty version for power armored riders and a light duty version for the non-powered armored riders.The part break down is the hull, foot rest/suspensors/boosters, and the handle bar/controls. Each version assembles in three pieces where each variant has a distinctive booster section while retaining commonality with the other components. The light duty's boosters will be relatively slim, similar to an elysians grav chute attitude adjusters and conform to a sleeker look, while the heavy duty version will have boosters more reminiscent of a marine jump pack.

I think it needs control surfaces (wings) and controls, somehow, and weapons also.

Im having trouble imagining a seated marine on it not dwarfing it, from memory of the scale with the bike fuel tank which seems identifiable here.

Also insufficient skull quantity.

This is the preliminary model and a WIP, this is 40%. Its larger than a standard marine bike. I did 1:1 concept art to get a better sense of proportions and there just wasn't a good way to get the look that was wanted without stretching out the length.

When it comes to Imperial Jetbikes, GW's depiction hasn't shown them with wings or control surfaces. Its suppose to be anti-gravity technology where each "Suspensor" counteracts an amount of weight, but not mass. If such a technology existed you would be able to control the vehicles pitch and yaw without control surfaces, simply by decreasing the anti-gravity on one side of the vehicle would be drawn in that direction. That type of throttling might not be as practical for the larger Imperial vehicles with anti-grav

UPDATE:
I did more on the interfacing of components. Beefed up the look with work on the boosters and guns, and added rivets.





I think I want to enlarge the guns some... we'll see.

I appreciate any comments.

Amazing! This must have taken a long time to create. I agree with you saying that the guns need enlarging, just a little bit. Maybe around this size http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440275a&prodId=prod1060092

I can't put up a picture now but I did scale it up. In those two shots the barrel diameter is .03-.04"... its doubled now... along with part of the control panel section.

Nice, I WISH i could work those programs, even sketchup hates me

the only thing that doesn't look right is the front seems to drop of quite sharply. I would of thought a very pointy, more gradual slope would of worked better for Imperials.

though

Hey _mythos,

What rendering software are you using? 3d CADD, Mudbox, what?

Anyway, looks great.

I'm using the program "Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4.0"... its a parametric engineering design program.

seems like a simple enough scratch build, if you've got the £'s a space marine bike (body) and a BFG (battle fleet gothic) Imperial cruiser (for the front and jet engine)

Well this will be 3d-printed by the guy who commissioned me. He'll have it printed in a resin, plastic, or wax (if wax recasted in metal) to make his master which he can then have cast.

i really like this model you've made of the imperial jetbike. since it was a commission how would one get in contact with the person who commissioned you so that the bikes could be bought?

Well it will be a Chapterhouse Studio piece, so you'll be able to get it from their site: http://chapterhousestudios.com/webshop/home
...my guess is March/April at the earliest. I know Nick wants his sculptor to do some of that emblazened eagle detail on the control/handles section... so that could add time. I don't know the plan on that; they could very well have a decorated and undecorated version with release dates separated by the time it takes the sculptor to add that detail.

well then.... let's hope GW doesn't shut them down then as i really want those jet bikes

Looks good so far! I assume it’s designed with the standard biker marine legs in mind?

This variant will come with less armored legs for both varieties of non-power armor wearing types of Imperial troops. The "heavy duty" jetbike is intended for the more heavily armored soldiers... though really the riders will be interchangeable since the main body of this is common with both variance, while the other two parts will vary.

Looks great, so the jetbike isn't an add on kit, but a complete kit, more or less?

I really do like the bike design but I'm not so sure about the no wings idea.

Granted & agreed that anti-grav can give a non-control surface method of adjusting a vehicles trajectory however GW has it's imperial vehicles that use anti-grav do so more as a means of lift not propulsion. Guidance is generally via conventional wing flaps and thrusters like you would find on the landspeeder.

That aside GW does have jet bikes out there for imperial forces (well one) and it does have wings.
Sammael


His design is more based on the Imperial fleet than anything else but the fluff has this as an ancient bike one of the last in use across the imperium
so although different than those from the heresy (which is what your design is based on from appearance) it is an old design STC.

Putting all that away I could easily see those bikes in a SM army on my table top no problem at all! Great work and I can't wait to see the results of all this effort.
It will be a sad day if they do shut Chapterhouse there is just way too much goodness to have form that company.

The rationale for not adding wings I have to write off as a matter of the limited number of parts I can have in the kit... but I'll look into it.

Non power armoured legs sound like a good idea. I’d be able to an imperial army squad for my pre heresy army.

The heavy lift version, for armored infantry, will have in place of the small square boosters, larger jump jets. I'm hoping when it goes to CH's sculptor for its emblelishments that they choose only to fancy up the heavy lift version. I really want the light duty jetbike to look like its comparatively stripped down.

For general cavalry makes sense.

Here are the images I promised a while ago:





Mostly just a number of tweeks, but this ones pretty much 99% done.
I should have up pictures of the "heavy lift" version soon.

Looks good. Close enough to the Horus heresy artwork without infringing on ip.

What? What's this Horus Heresy artwork to which you speak?-

aka_mythos wrote:What? What's this Horus Heresy artwork to which you speak?-

this

Think he may have seen that before mate.

It's off topic but, which programme did you use to do this?
It looks amazing!

It's really nice, but desperately needs to be more aerodynamic at the front, just a few more degrees on the frontal grill please!

RaptorsTallon wrote:It's off topic but, which programme did you use to do this?
It looks amazing!

Its a program called Pro-Engineer Wildfire 4.0; its a straight forward program that I use at work and managed to get a cheap copy of at home.

sphynx wrote:It's really nice, but desperately needs to be more aerodynamic at the front, just a few more degrees on the frontal grill please!

I realize the HH artwork is more aerodynamics... but do any of the other marine skimmer and flyers have aerodynamics? -No... I do however feel when I enlarged the component the guns are part of, it changed the balance and look enough... that I wanted to fiddle around with the front end. I think it will do a little to make it look more like what you want.