Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Curse you Blackadder for your thoroughness in building... Only you could find a video of a thrunderhawks landing pads in operation. If I get a job here soon, I'll eventually be able to get my modeling gear and start building. I think I'll start by copying your hawk.

great work.

I agree with Jabba. In that once I get around to building the ever fleeting Thunderhawk, I'm gonna be copying your idea. Part of it. A little bit of it, in the form of a rather more logical landing pad from the front foot. You made a very valid point in where the foot would go. But, unlike your idea, I'm not going to get all cool and making it be able to be out or in. That just gets a bit silly for the realism factor. Maybe next time, though.

Kaesar II, stealing ideas since 1894.

jabbakahut wrote:Curse you Blackadder for your thoroughness in building... Only you could find a video of a thrunderhawks landing pads in operation. If I get a job here soon, I'll eventually be able to get my modeling gear and start building. I think I'll start by copying your hawk.

I have dozens of willing accomplices from this and other forums offering information they find on the 'net. That particular tidbit came to me from Walkyrie222 on a French forum I subscribe to and to whom I am greatly appreciative.

It pays to advertise.

Lord Kaesar II wrote:I'm not going to get all cool and making it be able to be out or in. That just gets a bit silly for the realism factor.

The Blackadder (Who's never been accused of being 'cool') is an indolent chap and does nothing with out purpose. The retractable landing gear has an aesthetic value for 'display and play'. There is no practical value for movable ailerons and flaps and add needless complications to what is already a complex fabrication and therefor will not be included. Side hatches and the front loading door give a view to the interior detail and the deployable air brakes disclose the underlying interior so they will be incorporated. The stunted upper wing panels bearing the lascannons will be deployable mainly because they look like they should. (Attack mode à la X-wing fighter perhaps?)

Besides tackling a knotty problem such as a workable nose gear is part of the hobby. Carried to an illogical extreme one could just as well offer a shoe box with the word 'Thunderhawk' written on the lid to play the game (and keep the troops and vehicles within to boot . Not a bad idea and cheaper too, )

As you can see my vision of the Thunderhawk is slightly larger than the FW offering. My first impression of the Thunderhawk concept was that it be capable of carrying a Rhino. After all for what else would be the purpose of such a huge loading door? Imagine my disappointment when I found the FW Thunderhawk too diminutive to disgorge even so small a tank as a Rhino. I am still mulling over the necessity of hinging the forward side panels to allow more clearance; hell I probably shall in the end not being satisfied with compromising measures. Image the dramatic effect when your Thunderhawk glides to a touchdown, the ramp drops, the side doors open, and it vomits forth an APC.

Sweet!

isn't that a bit of a waste, an APC being carried by a bigger APC (albiet one that flies). sorta like a gun firring a smaller gun. right?

Beats the hell out of me but war is illogical to begin with.

Just an excuse for guys to get together and act macho.

Haha, good point.

Woah. Subbed man, that's some seriously cool stuff.

Just to widen the door clearance but not to go to extremes I've been toying with a clamshell hinged side door egress to compensate for erratic Rhino drivers. This design does not compromise the visual effect and opens the area where the door clearance is minimal.

Any opinions would be welcome?

This looks like it should come out pretty nice

Onestly, i think the cargo bay need to be a little large....how the rhino crew presume to enter it!? are they dwarf!?

I wouldn't personally advocate so much for the clam shell door- gives probably at least a good couple of feet or so of air over the ground for a rhino to drop down. I foresee getting stuck, maybe turning over, all that stuff that happens in a 2d bmx game. Just sayin'. Though I could be wrong. I have 0 experience with tank physics, besides WW1 tanks and their way with going over trenches.

Do what you're gonna do and we'll see what happens. Kaesar II

By the way, wouldn't the box where the front foot lifts up into the main bay bump into the bottom of the rhino (even with the reduced height of the box)?

I think you should stick to the generaly accepted loading ramp style. but thats just me.

The_Blackadder wrote:Just to widen the door clearance but not to go to extremes I've been toying with a clamshell hinged side door egress to compensate for erratic Rhino drivers. This design does not compensate the visual effect and opens the area where the door clearance is minimal.

Any opinions would be welcome?

These would be in addition to the ramp, right?

Also, subbed, I am really liking the Superhawk-pattern idea.

FantasyBob wrote:Onestly, i think the cargo bay need to be a little large....how the rhino crew presume to enter it!? are they dwarf!?

Below is a quote from Wikipedia. although it is not mentioned it seems improbable that the driver cannot exit and enter through one of the various other ramps and or doors. There would nothing to gain by keeping the driver isolated and insulated from the passengers. There is plenty of room inside the cargo bay for the loading ramp to be lowered to allow ingress even though as you point out the top hatch would not have the headroom clearance to open whilst the Rhino is in the cargo bay.** Also to been realistic the Storm bolter would have to be unshipped while the vehicle is stowed.

Wikipedia wrote:A Rhino is crewed by a single Space Marine driver who also controls the remotely operated Storm Bolter. In addition to this, a pintle-mounted Storm Bolter may be fixed to the APC's top hatch, which can be operated by an additional Space Marine serving as the gunner. All Space Marines inducted into an Astartes Chapter are trained to operate the Rhino as part of their training.

A Rhino is capable of carrying up to ten fully armoured Space Marines** within its well-protected hull. It is probable that the Rhino is capable of carrying a greater number of normal humans, due to their smaller size compared to the mighty Space Marines. Access gained via four doors and hatches. Disembarkation can be achieved through the hydraulic rear ramp and two side doors. There is also a hatch on the top of the vehicle, which provides its passengers with an opening from which to fire their weapons. It also provides a quick escape in the event of catastrophic damage, or if the other doors are jammed.

**While we are on the subject of realism this is a formula for stowing ten fully armoured Space Marines into a Rhino: (Note only attempt this with plastic Space Marines.)

Take 10 ten fully armoured Space Marines, insert into blender with 1/4 cup of water. install cover, turn blender on 'Full speed', remove cover, pour contents into rear hatch.

Haonn wrote:I think you should stick to the generaly accepted loading ramp style. but thats just me.

In retrospect I think so too although my initial idea of having the entire beveled side panels open in this way would be awesome but it would just compromise the layered armour too much.

The_Blackadder wrote:Take 10 ten fully armoured Space Marines, insert into blender with 1/4 cup of water. install cover, turn blender on 'Full speed', remove cover, pour contents into rear hatch.

Most of GW will admit (just not in print) that although the tanks are in scale to each other, they're not in scale to the infantry - which themselves are not in scale to each other. But to be fair the game wouldn't play quite as well with 2ft long Baneblades! At least it's not as bad scale-wise as Epic :-)

I'd like to see a Thunderhawk capable of stowing a Rhino, I've never liked the idea of dangling tanks from flimsy mag-clamps showing their vulnerable floor armour to the enemy

Definitely subscribed. Amazing work


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CH54B_and_M551_Sheridan.jpg

Starting on the ramp today because I need to install the hinge tube before I can apply the nose armour. Below is a practical demonstration of how to make ribbed flooring. Amazing no, tedious yes.

I totally agree with the Rhino sentiment, the thing has always looked like it was built to deploy a rhino.

Nice ribbing.

Part of the fun of scratchbuilding (If you have a penchant for masochism that is.) is inventing ways to replicate in stock styrene the intricacies of injection mould plastic kits etc. There were two ways to approach the manufacture of the object below. One was to attempt to cut the slots in a single piece of sheet plastic and glue it onto a backing. I rejected that straight out because the finished product regardless of the care exercised would be crude and amateurish. The second, the option I chose was to build the corrugations one slat at a time as demonstrated in the previous reply, score the perpendicular channels with a sharp utility knife, widen and deepen the score with a razor saw, and shave out the residue with a chisel bladed Exacto knife. This worked well for the wide center longitudinal reinforcement but how to make the narrow side reinforcements? Start as before with the score and the razor saw to accomplish the primary cut. Then taking your razor saw at a 45° angle carefully widen the score to the required width. If you have jewelers files you can dress the sides of the channels but in this case it was not necessary.

Now I'll see if I can repeat the process on the other side without screwing the damned thing up.

Then taking your razor saw at a 45° angle carefully widen the score to the required width. If you have jewelers files you can dress the sides of the channels but in this case it was not necessary.

Pictured below are the only tools necessary to accomplish this exercise . Had I to do this over again I would have angled the side channels slightly out at the bottom to dispel the illusion that they converge.

Really really nice work so far, I'm definitely going to sub this thread. I'm a huge fan of scratchbuilds and yours look extremely detailed and precise so far. Keep up the good work!

Shooms wrote:Really really nice work so far, I'm definitely going to sub this thread. I'm a huge fan of scratchbuilds and yours look extremely detailed and precise so far. Keep up the good work!

I plan to render faithfully the 3D version or die trying no matter how long it takes me.

Call me Ahab and this Thunderhawk is my White Whale!

Well that and the Warlord Titan and the Marauder and a Mars Pattern Chaos Warhound!!! (God I love that concept.)

Now that's something worth shooting for should I live so long!

Alas, the all too mortal Blackadder

I really like that breakdown of doing the ramp. I especially like seeing the work that goes into creating these masterpieces of yours.

Considering it took the better part of a week just to make the loading ramp fruition will be a long time coming. In my defense my workload this week was extremely heavy and I could only devote a half hour in the morning to working on the ramp. Each slats had to be secure before the next could be applied or they would move when the spacer was run between them. I also managed to apply the outer skin (1 MM sheet styrene) to the forward hull. I finished up the ramp this morning and taped it into place. Everything is square and true so tomorrow I will start applying the forward armour. This will be the fun part when the model starts to look like something other than a long white shoebox. Right now I am sitting back sipping a well deserved Martini and reflecting on a satisfactory accomplishment.





My patience is holding strong and the worst of the build is behind me now it's just a matter of detail, the part I relish.

That ramp is superb! cant wait for more updates.

Right now I'm gluing on the second layer of sheathing to strengthen the hull and provide a good base for the armour.







Not really much to see for all the work involved but as a matter of interest the hull is square and true to the width of a sharpened pencil line in cross section and in length. Speaking of length I may have gone overboard in extending the aft hull I'll have to see after the forward armour is installed. I'm trying to avoid the blocky look of the FW model but right now I feel it may be a decimeter too long.

No matter I can always slice the excess out of the midsection.

A whole decimeter! thats not good.