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So I really like the FW Thunderbolt. Not too into the Avenger but I love the rules and everyone loves gattling guns.



But I really hate resin. So I've been playing around with alternatives.

One easy one is the Dakka Jet



It's in GW's style and apparently it can be cleaned up to look Imperial.

Or the Dark Angel Nephilim



But the extra wide cockpit (do Marines need a lot of elbow room?) just turns me off. And there seems no easy way to swap it.

Revell makes a 1/48 A10 and well, who doesn't love A10s.



On the sci fi side there's Nausicaa's classic gunship



And one I keep returning to, this plane from Last Exile



Soooo Diesel Punk I want to take it home now...

Any more thoughts? Looking for something plastic, the right size and the right look.

What's wrong with resin? Both of those kits are pretty straightforward and likely to be much easier than trying to convert some other kit to look like a 40k model instead of a toy airplane with some 40k guns glued on.

 Peregrine wrote:
What's wrong with resin? Both of those kits are pretty straightforward and likely to be much easier than trying to convert some other kit to look like a 40k model instead of a toy airplane with some 40k guns glued on.

Warping, fragile, heavy, needs super glue, limited ability to convert...

Resin just isn't as much fun as plastic.

It's a matter of taste but I'd rather spend time gluing 40k bitz and guns to a plastic kit then wrestle with resin.

Do you want something that looks like a 40k plane? Because you should be looking for square, angular shapes while all the ones you've listed are very rounded. That's going to mean an awful lot of work to make it look right. Unfortunately, there's not may square aeroplanes in the world, so not many model kits to work with.

Your best bet would be to look at WW2 heavy fighters; a P40 Warhawk or P47 Thunderbolt might be the most obvious options, or the P59 Airacomet (a jet fighter, with engines near the wing roots).

An appropriately-sized model kit of an X-Wing fighter from Star Wars might work as a base - it's at least got flat angular wings and fuselage, although you'll need some heavy modification to make it not look like an X-Wing. You'd need to bulk out the fuselage, move the cockpit forward (and the wings, obviously) and add a rear fuselage and empennage.

I'd say the Nephilim

I think you ought to make some kind of 40k hybrid jet-powered biplane.

I feel the resin hate though... try repairing surfboards. *shudder*

I actually quite like that Dakkajet cum F-86 Sabre conversion. The Thunderbolt is a sexy piece of resin, KK. Gonna be hard to emulate that armored, angular, front-heavy profile. Although, I've always thought the Thunderbolt looked a bit like an A-1 Skyraider, minus the huge prop.

I had a crazy idea.

The old GeeBee racer. The biggest engine possible with itty bitty wings and a cockpit put on it.



It might not be angular but remove the piston engine, put a massive jet fan inside the cavity, engines out the back and mount lascannons, auto cannons and the like.... Just might work...




Like this but with more dakka, 40k bits and a little bit of chopping to get the wings a bit angular.



My dream though would be to have the Warhawk from the Ps3 game Warhawk. Its design screams it being a brother to the Thunderbolt.



Just beefy and lots of guns.

If I could I would have a squadron of Warhawks in place of Thunderbolts.

My thunderbolt / lightning.... hawks

Here is a really gakky picture of my avenger..... talon

@Sledge, very inspirational, in fact your Thunderbolt pic is what convinced me this can be done.

Not as in love with your Avenger, like I said I've looked at the Nephlim but I just can't get past the stubby nose. I like you how you built it out but it's still a box...

@Engine, love that War Hawk, that's so Diesel Punk I want 10 of them now!

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Unfortunately, there's not may square aeroplanes in the world, so not many model kits to work with.

The OV-10D Bronco begs to differ.

http://www.squadron.com/Kitty-Hawk-1-48-OV-10D-Bronco-p/kh32003.htm





Look at the sexy beast, it's like a Black Widow and a Cobra had a baby.

That being said, yeah.

By oddest chance I came across a good deal on some Dakka Jets so it looks like that will be my model of choice.

Now I just need time.

Another alternative from an obscure 12 year old science fiction film, General Grievous' star fighter.

http://www.amazon.com/Revell-General-Grievous-Starfighter-8482/dp/B00439GX1Y/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1454040072&sr=8-14&keywords=General+Grievous%27+Starfighter

1/32 scale, diesel punk as all get out, just add wings?



Might be worth $18 to see.

Are you opposed to a kitbash? The Nephilim might have a boxy cockpit and too square of a nose, but those wings and engines are golden. They'd even cover the missile options.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
What's wrong with resin? Both of those kits are pretty straightforward and likely to be much easier than trying to convert some other kit to look like a 40k model instead of a toy airplane with some 40k guns glued on.

Warping, fragile, heavy, needs super glue, limited ability to convert...

Resin just isn't as much fun as plastic.

It's a matter of taste but I'd rather spend time gluing 40k bitz and guns to a plastic kit then wrestle with resin.

I promise that resin isn't all that bad. I've made the Avenger kit and didn't have a single problem.

The warping, if there is any, is solved by dropping the piece in a bowl of hot water and gently bending it to straight.

Fragility... Well, sure, but it's not like resin falls apart on the gaming table. I (horrifically) dropped my Avenger off the edge of the table- it all stayed intact, and split along the glue lines (praise be to the Emperor!).

Heaviness isn't significantly more than a plastic model of the same size. Yes it is heavier, but ultimately it's still a relatively light material This isn't concrete we're talking about.

Super glue is... Not really any different to plastic glue? If you can use one you can use the other.

Resin isn't harder to convert. If anything it's easier, since it cuts and shaves easier than hard plastic.

If you're not convinced, what about converting a Valkyrie? It's plastic and will have that Imperial look. Similar sized model too. I can confirm that the rules for the Avenger work brilliantly in game! A very effective unit.

I plan on making some thunderbolts out of P-47D, but that Bronco, looks like it could make an awesome unique pattern of Lighting, like a Phantine cloud fighter atmospheric version of a Lighting. Hmmm.... bending fluff to match function.

The Sisters of Battle had a fighter in Soulstorm called the Lightning.

I feel like that star wars fighter and a Nephilim would combine to form the right parts you'd need for a sick conversion piece.

You can get papercraft model of it. Construct it out of heavy paper, spray it with varnish and then paint it normally. Its fragile, but lightweight and easy to convert.

If you can get the parts matching, I'd atually suggest for the Thunderbolt, a kitbash of that Last Exile plane and the Nephilim or a Storm Talon.

The Neph/ST engines sitting between the fuselage and the wings would give you a very Thunderbolt-like profile, as well as giving it the boxed-up look of Imperial fighters.

As far as Avengers are concerned, this is my version;



The other thing I would suggest is a Sea Vixen;


The twin booms with recessed intakes mean it actually fits in pretty well with Valkyries, and a little filing on the curved surfaces will give you a 40k-appropriate blunt object look.

Thanks all!

I've got some Ork fliers in the mail and will see how they work out for me.

I also put in an order for one of these



It needs Valk engines and useless stubby wings but I think it makes for a nice shuttle/Arvus Lighter.

So I took some better photos of my avenger.

Thanks

Besides the nose did you also lengthen the tail somehow? It looks a lot more plane-like.

Anyway I now have 3 ork dakka jets to play with.

What to build? What to build?

2 Avengers and a Thunderbolt sound good?

If you have a strong idea of what you want the finished flyer to look like, you could take any kit (GW or otherwise) that roughly fits the proportions / shape of that design, and then plasticard the living s**t out of it! Granted, it's a lot of work, but you'd have a stand-out piece.

Italeri make a nice 1/48 scale kit of the Ka-50 Hokum.

It's a single seat attack helicopter that never really got beyond the early stages because of the fall of the SU and the preference for two seater gunships. Because of this, not a lot of people are familiar with the aircraft, which would make it easier to pass off as an SF design.

http://www.italeri.com/scheda.asp?idProdotto=1916&idCategoria=2&idSottocategoria=6



As you can see, it's fairly angular and by leaving off the rotor assembly and extending the wings with plasticard, and stuff like that, it would look pretty good.

Not sure about Avenger et al but have seen a lot of NICE stuff combining parts of Valks and Hinds lately.

I'm not sure what the problem with resin is. If anything I find resin easier to convert and superglue easier to work with. Also the Forgeworld flyer models are amazing and I have no idea why anyone wouldn't be happy to have those on their table. The vast majority of GWs imperium flyers range from totally awful to just slightly ridiculous.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Italeri make a nice 1/48 scale kit of the Ka-50 Hokum.

It's a single seat attack helicopter that never really got beyond the early stages because of the fall of the SU and the preference for two seater gunships. Because of this, not a lot of people are familiar with the aircraft, which would make it easier to pass off as an SF design.

http://www.italeri.com/scheda.asp?idProdotto=1916&idCategoria=2&idSottocategoria=6



As you can see, it's fairly angular and by leaving off the rotor assembly and extending the wings with plasticard, and stuff like that, it would look pretty good.

Oh, that thing is CUTE! I need one XD