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Hi all i have just taken a leap into insanity and bought a Forgeworld GK Thunderhawk.

This will be a regularly updated (or as when often as i can) blog on the clean up, constructiuon, conversion , lighting and painting of the beast in question.

Ill have some photos uploaded as and when i can due to University work commitments and time allowing, but i shall have a lot of images on here and hopefully have a good amount of into on putting one of these things together.

Just to spice things up i am going to include full internal lighting and adding extra details.

Cool, eagerly awaiting some pics of progress

BTW, people on here tend to ignore and be irritated by threads promising pictures but not actually containing any. Maybe next time wait until you have pictures to post before creating the thread. That way you'll get more people interested instead of being irritated that they looked and there was nothing to look at. Not being mean just looks like you don't post a lot based on your post count.

I await progress with baited breath and a massive smile!

Cheers: TTK

I am going to have photos up here on monday night of the un boxing and a break down of all of the parts (tons of them!) , even before anything is glued together i am going to plan the wiring and how im going to drill out the holes and chanells for the cabling, it is a massive kit but not too difficult to put together.

I have finally taken some pics of the monster, i am going to be installing a lot of LEDs, to show landing lights and on the wings, panels of the ship are going to be removeable to allow for looking into the model, plus ill be adding new details, as its crying out for more.

It will be a very intensive build, as the extra details are going to be made from sheet styrene and brass rod, such as little pins on the tail fins to allow them to move,
Tere will be flashing landing strobes and wing lights runing on separate circuits.

cjharrisman wrote:I have finally taken some pics of the monster, i am going to be installing a lot of LEDs, to show landing lights and on the wings, panels of the ship are going to be removeable to allow for looking into the model, plus ill be adding new details, as its crying out for more.

It will be a very intensive build, as the extra details are going to be made from sheet styrene and brass rod, such as little pins on the tail fins to allow them to move,
Tere will be flashing landing strobes and wing lights runing on separate circuits.

I love it man. I was wondering how many pieces the kit was and your pictures did a great job of showing me that. I thought it might be a million parts or something dumb, nice to see it's fairly straight-forward to build. Try to show how you do the LEDs. Cheers.

thats just the main body parts, it came with 4 large FW bags, missiles, doors, wing bits, heavy bolters, landing gear, interior detail everything, its a chunky 5 kilo model.

I have been doing some more work on the gunship, Work stopped for a while due to moving flat and going on holiday, but now i can get into working on this model properly.

I have done a lot of lighting on the model. and have a look.

Thats just really cool. Any idea when you'll have it finished?

Not sure, i have about 20 more to fit, then the converting inside, so should be a couple of months work ahead of me. The painting will be the fun part.

I always enjoy the building more... Thats why I have so many half finished projects :p

I have so many half built models i cant even count them. But the Gunship is one of the modt complicated lighting schemes ihave ever done.

Your build looks well-planned. So this is probably a silly question, but anyways, here goes: Are you planning to have the lights in different colors? Green, red and blue?

The main amount of LEDs arw white, there are 3 red in each engine and there will be red and green on the wings for port and starboard.

Love LEDs and love thunderhawks, the combination of them is pure joy !!

subbed...

Subscribed! I l really like what is coming!

I have some more images for you , i have completed the front section of lighting. there are 3 in the cockpit, 2 on the underside, 3 in the cargo hold, 3 in the landing gear well, 9 in the engines 2 in the wings , 1 under the cannon, and 2 lighting up the tail.

Very nice, CJ, I am back to work on mine soon.

Being in podunk, America and having only one shop within a hundred miles that sells the glue I use, I have had to special order two cases to have some when I need it.......


BTW, I am using some of your images if you don't mind, as reference for the detail on my scratch......

I have added LEDs to the tail and rear engine...

Figured out how you are gonna run the wiring into the wingtips yet, CJ?

Epic! Looking forward to seeing more!

I had to do some creative dremelling, i have carved out channels in the wings to the two landing lights. I am leaving the wings till last as i am not looking forward to them.

Here is another update, i have added the lights to the underside, all thats left now is the landing gear, and rear navigation lights in the body. Then its the wings. I have also built the flasher module for the wing and body navigation lights. Ill get round to painting it and building it eventually.

Thanks for all of the support you guys keep giving me. I have been making models for a long time and this one is by far one of the most complicated, FW models do not lend themselves for lighting.

Awesome!

cjharrisman wrote:I had to do some creative dremelling, i have carved out channels in the wings to the two landing lights. I am leaving the wings till last as i am not looking forward to them.

I wouldn't be either, so good luck and have fun. Looks amazing.....

A small update for you , i have added the rear landing gear well lights. All that is left is the nose light then the wings.

I have completed the main body, the flasher circuit is next.

Looking good, you play much apoc?

Holy macaroni. That's a gorgeous beast! Totally sub'd.