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Hey Everyone,

FOR SALE

So I just found this thread from ages ago. I still have the model below, exactly as it is shown in the photos. Its going to sit in the box forever, unfinished, which is a shame.

So if you are an experienced modeller who wants to take on and finish this conversion, Its for sale for the highest reasonable offer. PM me if interested. UK Shipping is £3, worldwide £4

MODS - feel free to move this to a more appropriate section now its a "for sale" rather than a conversion thread.

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So I *wanted* to like the Storm Talon, so much so I impulse bought one in london yesterday, and as I need some occasional hobby time to myself, I spent this afternoon hacking the kit up to see if I could get an aircraft out of GW's brick on turbojets.

I didnt have time or tools available to make all the changes I wanted, but Ive fixed what I saw as the main issues, I wont get round to actually completing this WIP model, or painting it, for months most likely, but Im hoping a few people will steal the ideas!






Alterations-

Assault cannons moved from the hanging box, to directly integrated into the nose cone.

Rest of Nose trimmed down to make it a lot more streamlined and sleek looking.

Missile pods integrated into the top of the fuselage. Again, to make the craft sleeker and more aerodynamic. If Id used the lascannons or heavy bolters, I would have integrated them into the sides of the nose cone.

Old tail fin cut in half and used to make new engine wings, which are longer and thinner and have control surfaces, more realistic for horizontal flight. I cut off the old top fin completely and used one of the engine side fins to make a new tail upright.

Hope this provides inspirations for other people who dont like the regular Storm Talon! Im happy to answer any specific questions about the build.

Cheers,

AH

Interested on how you did up the nose gun. Dont have mine in hand yet, but planning similar.

feck me! now that's an aircraft. fantastic job on this one, much preferred to the actual kit, and thankfully it doesn't look like it was too complicated to achieve.

absolutely amazing, carry on

Pretty nice, I was considering moving the missle pods to the top too. I personally liked the tail the way it was though. Excellent work on the Assault Cannon!

looks less like a goldfish now

Now I might buy one.... looks wicked !!!!

The missiles on the top look nice for the skyhammer missiles. Keep modeling on!

Can we get some closer detail shots of the rear fuselage? I really like this!

omg that is one sexy bird!!!

I wonder if i could take this idea and make a mean count as flyer for a vendatta conversion out of it

MUCH better! This gives me ideas.

Seeing that almost makes tonight's insomnia worth it.

I dunno. Tail looks pretty weak the way you have it now.

Could always slap the leftover wings back there after a bit of trimming down mebbe?

whalemusic360 wrote:Interested on how you did up the nose gun. Dont have mine in hand yet, but planning similar.

Same here. I really hate the turret they are in. However, I really like the rest of the Talon...maybe its because I grew up playing with GI Joe...and it really reminds me of the old Joe toys.

Yeah, I do think it needs some tail wings (don't know the technical name), especially given that the main wings rotate. Well, not that I'm an expert on VTOL flight, but...

Other than that, i really like it, especially that you managed this conversion using only the standard kit parts.

hey,

Thanks very much for the feedback everyone!

This conversion only used the box content, a pair of clippers, flat needle file, and some brute force where necessary!

Its still WIP, nothing is glued yet. So for those of you who wanted more details on the conversion-

Here are some photos showing the tail assembly and the main modifications to the base components required to make this-





Quite a few people here and elsewhere have said it needs a bit more work on the tail, some horizontal wings for example, which is a fair point, the easy way would have been to use the original tail fin and original engine wings.

As Ive choosen the hard way, Im going to have a think about it and see what I can come up with. Stay tuned.

AH

Nice work. Rather than top mounting the missile launchers, have you thought about fitting them to the underside of the engine nacelles? They would be a bit more like hardpoints and the rocket trail won't blind the pilot when it fires

Very nice work, looks a lot smarter and less clunky than the original.

Flinty wrote:Nice work. Rather than top mounting the missile launchers, have you thought about fitting them to the underside of the engine nacelles? They would be a bit more like hardpoints and the rocket trail won't blind the pilot when it fires

Hey, Yeah I certainly considered this, as the fit is very nice indeed.

The issue is that in hover mode, the engines point up to the sky, whereas missiles need to be pointing forward.

I imagine the missile would have a "kick" charge which blasts it away from the cockpit before the missile engine ignites, so the pilot isnt blinded by the exhaust from firing.

I also suspect he can "fly blind" using the sensors in the cone.

Thanks Wildboar!

Cheers,

AH

Nice work! My biggest issue was the massive chin turret, and your modification makes that much better, without having to go out and buy extra bits. Could you have left the missiles where they were and still moved the ACs up?

It's nice to see this done just with basic tools and just the kit. I'm still on the fence on if I should get one of these or not. Knowing that it can be made presentable without massive conversion and a fist full of extra bits is good to know.

Anvils, do you know how you are going to fill in the spot where the original missle pod mounts were? I cut one off last night and now I am at a loss on how to fill the hole ... oops.

Nevelon wrote:Nice work! My biggest issue was the massive chin turret, and your modification makes that much better, without having to go out and buy extra bits. Could you have left the missiles where they were and still moved the ACs up?

Im going to leave the missiles in the normal place on mine, I like them where they are. Also gonna leave the tail alone.

Thanks again to OP, you did the AC conversion I was thinking of...nice to be able to see it before I started cutting on mine.

I like the original kit, but Anvils Hammer your mods are nice as well.

The way I see it, a Land Speeder is comparable to what the U.S. Army uses for scouting, an OH-59D Kiowa helicopter.
The new storm talon is the attack bird, comparable to the AH-64 Apache
And I think Anvils mods change it to more like a AV-8B Harrier jet.

I like the placement of the missiles and AC, but you do know that you lost the firing arc you used to have with it mounted as a chin turret. Not a big deal, but you now can only shoot to the front, where before, you had missiles/HB/LC firing forward and could aim the AC at another target.

Just an observation, still looks cool.

@Nevalon. Yes of course its pretty straightforward to leave the missile pods alone and still move the cannon up.

@whoadirty, she needs a fair bit of work with plasticard sheet and milliput! Anyone on a budget could also use the thin shiny-on-one-side cardboard they use to make breakfast cereal boxes.

@Darknight.

yeah, I know, but this model is never going to be used in a game, so its no loss. In theory its possible to mount them in the nose so they still have a 90degree fire arc, | just found it more realistic to lock them forward. Id imagine the missiles can actually lock to any target in the front 180 degree arc..

Does any one know, rules wise, what the impact of fixing the cannon forward is? what happens if the flyer is immobilised?

AH

Nicely done!

Anvils Hammer wrote:

@whoadirty, she needs a fair bit of work with plasticard sheet and milliput! Anyone on a budget could also use the thin shiny-on-one-side cardboard they use to make breakfast cereal boxes.

I'm kind of hoping I can find some bits from another kit to help fill up the space because I have never worked with plasticard (and the like) before.

Anvils Hammer wrote:

@Darknight.

yeah, I know, but this model is never going to be used in a game, so its no loss. In theory its possible to mount them in the nose so they still have a 90degree fire arc, | just found it more realistic to lock them forward. Id imagine the missiles can actually lock to any target in the front 180 degree arc..

Does any one know, rules wise, what the impact of fixing the cannon forward is? what happens if the flyer is immobilised?

AH

I'm pretty sure all "fixed" have a firing arc all the time. Off the top of my head I can remember if it is 45 or 90 degrees. So you would still get that if it's immobilized. I fixed mine too, I don't really care if I lose the firing arc.

The tail looks a bit unspectacular and the assault cannon is still too long, but the wing part is incredibly nice.

Anvils Hammer wrote:
Does any one know, rules wise, what the impact of fixing the cannon forward is? what happens if the flyer is immobilised?

It will happen one of two ways.

1) People will know that in reality it should be able to swivel around and have that firing arc.
2) As whoadirty said it will be a front firing arc (45 degrees)

I think 2 would be more common but I would let you play 1.

With that said the model looks much better IMO. I wanted to do the same with the assault cannons, maybe use the punisher gatling cannon instead, but I didn't know what to do with the missiles. The tail looks flimsy though without the wings.

I like it. Some improvements would be to add tail fins. Also use plasticard and magnets to make it so thechin mounted assault cannon can rotate if it does on the stock model.

you have any shots of its rear? if its not too much can we get a little 360 sort of shots?

awesome job man, I'll be giving this a go at some point