Some Background... I may not complete this project. It's a hobby and I have a busy life, but I enjoy the occasional model conversion / kit bash, etc. When I seen the Stormraven (SR) on paper, I thought 'flying landraider' then thought 'mini-thunderhawk'. When I saw the new model, I seen a lot of potential and plenty of opportunty for changes. I picked two up, and I'm now trying to bring some of my vision to reality. Unlike many, I really do like much of the model's fuselage and overall concept. In my mind's eye, I don't 'see' this thing flying any better than a Thunderhawk, but that said, its a fictional game and I see potential in the piece to have fun with on the modeling table... Execution may be another thing all together - hah.

My Significant Dislikes:
T-shaped tail fin that looks like it came from McDonnell Douglas MD-82 EC-HFT
Tail fin horizontal component is backwards from what I see in modern avionics engineering of jet fighters
Turret - too large & tall, should not have an exposed man, looks like something the fruity Eldar would do
Intake / turret housing - again, way to tall and screws up the profile I have in mind

Major Appeal to Me:
Star Trek Klingon Bird of Prey style, flat side forward wings
Nod to the thunderhawk nose
Dual high propulsion engines
Wing and nose mounted thrusters

Most of my Ideas below are Inspired by:
Thread(s):
- Major Tom's photoshop of a SR idea
- Another with meltas replacing lights on side, cockpit dropped down and engines/wings moved forward
- Another that discussed predator turret vs. razor back vs. forgeworld razorback turret as replacements
Star Trek Bird of Prey for the aggressive low wing mounted flat side forward wing design
Star Wars X-wing for the front shot X appearence
Aliens Dropship for the front shot X appearence
Modern Day jet fighters for their canted out dual tail fins
Forgeworld's Caestus Assault Ram for dual-plane main wings and 'layered metal' appearence
Forgeworld Razorback turrets lower profile and technical designs

Possible Ideas (which may or may not see light of day...):
Generally speaking, keep weapon mounting points close to standard positions for gaming / LOS purposes
Lose the stock tail-fin
Give it modernized dual cant-out tail fins
Move cockpit down to nose more
Lower the profile, eliminate or completely rebuild a newer lower profile styile intake
Side mount Meltas from nose to allow space for cockpit adjustment
Lower profile / recess turret - possibly redesign and move forward

OK, enough talk... here's the idea.

I played around with some different plasticard ideas and even considered mounting the dual tail fins with flat side forward to match the lower main wings. However, after looking at so many modern avionics and prototype jet fighters, it's clear to me that 1. dual wings play a significant role in arial navigation, 2. tail fins tend to angle away and back from the front of the plane and 3. the cant out design seems to be quite prominent amongst jet fighters. It also looks better to me.

I wanted to incorporate the original SR tail fin into the redesigned tail fin, but once I abandoned the flat side forward, I was going to have to scratch build.

In scratch building, I went with a thicker stock core shape for the form factor. Then I used a thinner stock plasticard to create a template for the various 'cut outs' and now 'building up' the core. In the end, it should be about the same thickness of the main wings.

My daughter was kind enough to hold the two WIP tail wings in place so I could get a feel for how the thing looked...

Very nice, I'd been considering doing something similar with mine. Looking like I might have to go through with it

Looking good. The simple act of removing the tail fin improves the model no end IMO.

CommK,

Lol, When I get the tail fins done, it is entirely possible that I dont like them. I also like the model with no fin. For now, I like where its going. I am in total agreement though, the stock tail fin has to go - no matter what.

Not bad so far, Rob.
Probably my only concern would be the thickness of the fins.
I don't know how they compare to the original, but they look pretty thin. There's a kind of imbalance between them and the wings.

I agree with you that it looks better without the T fin, but...
It's still a chickenhawk to me. LOL

Eric

Those x-foils sure look locked in attack position

I think your work so far has a lot of potential. Just the simple act of removing that tail has improved it quote a lot.

I'd agree with MagickalMemories that the new fins look like they could do with bulking out a little bit more. Other than that, I look forward to seeing how you progress

I second all the hate for the original fin. Even just breaking it off would have been an awesome conversion.

Dual rear wings are coming along. Thickness added.... I was going to add more detail on the under side of the rear wings. But the more I looked at it, it didn't seem meaningful, so I only added the front most notches, cleaned everything up and test fit. Hates where I am at.

Looking better with the added thickness - though I feel you should do the underside as welll, but I'm a bit OCD when it comes to those things, so feel free to ignore me

Flinty wrote:Those x-foils sure look locked in attack position

It's a trap!

I've got to say, Rob... I'm surprised.
It's really not like you to half-ass... err... decide against putting on details that, while unnecessary, would look appropriate.


Eric

Also, @ Cpt Rex,
I find your avatar creepy. VERY creepy. It looks like a reversed image of the tattoo on my left forearm... only with less sharpness and detail.

half assed? WTF?

You cant even see the under side of the wing and I added the detail for the indentions on the front of them. I just didn't put the line work for the seperated plates. Frankly, I don't think it's needed or visible.. so... unnecessary work in my opinion.... <shrug>

anyway, new stuff:

I attached the new tail fins. I decided I'm painting windows and don't want 'plastic' windows visible. I'm also not going to paint the driver... yeah, cutting a corner (Eat dung Eric) My reasoning is I don't like plastic visible on an otherwise fully painted model. To me, the medium clashes. Also the purpose of the model like a landraider, predator or rhino is the vehicle. The driver is just a necessary evil like gunners, engineers, servitors etc in warengines. For me, I want the focus on the vehicle, not the driver. So, my window will also be painted - no driver needed.

The intake cut down was a straight forward. I assembled the full intake first, then figured out where I wanted to cut it. I use a metal ruler for straight edge and cut right below the natural intake vent profile. In the sample shot, you can see where I'm contemplating attaching it.

The turret is still a work in progress, but I figured out how I'm going to initially get some lowered profile. Again, no driver this will be a pure weapon turret design. I started with the default bottom turret piece in the kit, reversed it, cut off the default 'front' lip of the bit, sanded it a bit to get a flat horizontal plane. The assault cannons are the standard in the kit, but I rotated them. I also sanded the shield down so I could make three meeting points for stability. I'll have to do plenty more with it to get it looking proper, but I wanted to get an idea on the height and general look.

I decided to add sponsons on both vehicles because I like the way they look. I also use the upgrade when I field the model. So, their in - no conversion. I also went with the default mounting of the meltaguns on the front mount. After looking at the model in person, I like the lights on the side of the ramp and with what I've got in mind for the turret, I dont think I need to do anything with the cockpit after all. So, default melta is staying. Here's the pics...

Half assed?
I think you misunderstood. I never said "half assed."
Not entirely. LOL

Also, you should know that I like the idea of painting the windows. I agree re: mixing mediums. Probably the only time I *might* differ would be on FW models.

Assault cannons & intake look a lot better.

Still don't like the chickenhawk model, but yours looks LOADS better than standard, already.

Eric

Your cloudpelican has ears. Jutting ones. Its not trying to look like one of those fruity eldar, is it?

Eldar tend to have exposed crew, rounded metal and soft lines on their vehicles. I do not feel the tail fins create an Eldar feel to this vehicle.

Chicken hawk... cloud pelican... lol. In a game where there are hovering pyramids, Dark Eldar jet ships with ... umm sails, Eldar vehicles that have no visible way they could feasibly turn or control a bank, thunderhawks that hardly look like they could fly or land... or take off... I'm suprised at the verbal lashing the storm raven receives. I guess I'm one of the few that actually like the look of the model.

The irony, I don't even own a blood angels or Grey knights army... I'm doing this because I really do just like the model. <shrug> Different strokes for different folks.

Moving on, I have to mount the intake, figure out the turret assembly so that it 'works' and then make the other stormraven match. The conversion work is relatively minimal overall I suppose.

Tac

Lookin pretty darn good. I quite like the turret-it looks a lot more reasonable than some of the cut-down ones that I've seen. Do you think it would be possible feasible to magnetize the weapons with that turret arrangement?

I believe the joke in the above post wasn't that it looked like an eldar vehicle, which it most certainly doesn't....it looks like an eldar with its brand new big ol' pointy ears

I'll look into weapon swaps for turret. I suspect it would be easiest to cut away the barrels under the shield, magnetise there, and then make each weapon mount under the shield.... just thinking out loud though... I'll look into it.

Great, I made a flying eldar head... lol, aswome. :-/

I am really diggin' the wing conversion....Its simple conversions like this that make a person wonder if GW crossed all their "t's" and dotted the "i's" before releasing the model. Your version is definately better than theirs!

Great, I made a flying eldar head... lol, aswome. :-/

Ah, Rob.
Knowing your disdain for Eldar, this statement really made me laugh.

Eric

Messed around with some turret armament swap ideas over the past week. It's all a bit fiddly and tedious work, so progress may not look like much, but it all takes time...

Cut up the assault cannon mock up turrets to create a turret base with sheild housing.
Created a cylindrical extension for the assault cannons so a magnet could be insert later.... came up with a slightly extended weapon system based on some research.
The turret base required some stability, so added an stabalizing shim between the base of the weapon frame bases under the shield.
A plasticard rectangular piece with 2 chamfered corners (barrel base) was made to provide a common shaped insert for each set of weapon barrels. Two corners were chamfered so the insert would fit into and under the front of the shield housing.
Clipped all the weapons and cleaned them up at a common point so I'd have a relatively standard mounting point onto the rectangular insert with chamfered corners.
Each weapon set mounted on at a 90 degree angle to maintain the lower pofile and keep all magnetic points the same.

Future thinking....

Going to look at extending the turret shield and embelishing it a bit to the back. I want to hide the default Assault cannon ammo hoppers as all weapon systems will be used. I'm going for more of an automatic loading system vs. external magazines that would need manually reloaded.

I still have to determine how the turret main assembly will be mounted to the horizontal roating element. I'd like it to traverse left and right as well as appear that it can elevate.

I'm also considering making some kind of targetting system, but it may add more height than I want... thinking about something like in the reference salamander picture... I'm guessing that's just a landraider sponson bit or something, but don't have the bit so I'd have to create it out of plasticard. I may mock a crude one together to see if I like the height....

Each weapon system and the two turret base assemblies also needs to have the magnets inserted... but this is a look at what I came up with.

I'm contemplating magnetizing some iconography bits too...

I think I'm going with a black color scheme with both red and silver highlights. I want the models to work for both blood angels and the upcoming Grey Knights. So I'm thinking if I go with a Black paint job for the most of it I can highlight edges in a blue blended to space wolf grey corners. I can pick out certain plates and components for the red accents. I'll have plenty of silver on the model for all of the mechanical bits, but will add enough accents there to compliment the Grey Knights color scheme as well.... it looks cool in my head anyway.... I was inspired by the Stormraven painted shot I put below... it's grey with Red accents, but you get the idea perhaps...

I like where you're going here, Rob.
I'm really glad you decided to go with the magnetized mounts for swappable weapons. I think that, in the end, you;ll be a lot happier with it.

I like the extension on the A Cannons, too.

I think the only thing that's not sitting well with me are the lascannons. Although it matches the 'theme" of the rest of the funs (tops of the weapons on the outside), I think it would looke better if you rotated them 180 degrees, and put the tops of the lascannons on the inside.
KWIM?
Something about the inward angle of the lascannon barrel tips that just looks weird to me.

I look forward to the finished results.


Eric

Eric, thanks for the feedback.

I looked at the Lascannons both ways. I opted not to turn the bottom out because it caused a different mounting point for the magnets and it looked more Elder than Space Marine to me... So once I placed it both ways side by side I'm happy with my decision.. I also doubt the cannons will see any play lol, so may not matter.

Added magnets and forward shield extensions to the main turret housing. The magnets are underneath the white plate. I added the front shield housing exension to clean up the front edge and hide any magnetic alignment imperfections.

I also have magnets insert into all of the weapon options. The magnets were a lot of tedious work, but needed to be done.

Future thinking...

I put a marked up image with some possible weapon system stabalizers that I'd like to add. I would follow the thickness and general shape of the original stabalizers. I'm not sure exactly what I would do with the lascannons, but they need something. The mock up also gives an idea about how long I envisioned the shield housing to be... and a rough idea of shape.

Enjoy,

Nice conversion work, like the angled wings in the back.

Question: If the air intake was going to work, wouldn't it need to be free of obstructions in the front. I can imaging that a moving gun turret directly in front of the air intake would create havoc with the reliability of the air intake system.

Gitsplitta,

Thanks for the comment and question. In short, I totally agree with you...

I'm pretty sure spent shells from an assault cannon (or nose mounted heavy bolter) would play hell on the side mounted turbines as well as the intake... In fact, I'm pretty sure there's no place to store near the amount of fuel this thing would consume in order to stay aloft... but the same could be said for the thunderhawk...

I decided to go with what I thought looked cool. Perhaps in the 41st millenium, they figured out a way to have caseless rounds or some kind of incinerator field keeping all non gaseous particles out of the intake / engines... after all, they have warp fields for interstellar travel <sigh>

For better or worse, that's my engineering story. Maybe I should stick to Ork-engineering!

Great response Tactica... LOL! You're absolutely correct of course.

And it does look cool.... kudos!

Question: If the air intake was going to work, wouldn't it need to be free of obstructions in the front. I can imaging that a moving gun turret directly in front of the air intake would create havoc with the reliability of the air intake system.

Edit: Ninja'd below (my inability to read the next post before i reply)
I dont think the sheer ammount of A.cannon empties being drawn into it would do it much good either

Also, reminds me of landraider sponsons, and people throwing them on the back set.





Anyway, to finally go on topic for once
Nice to see someone going to such lengths to make something actually look as they want it.
Most will just hack away for a few hours and call it done.

Also thinking i may have to borrow a few ideas.

Gitsplitta wrote:Nice conversion work, like the angled wings in the back.

Question: If the air intake was going to work, wouldn't it need to be free of obstructions in the front. I can imaging that a moving gun turret directly in front of the air intake would create havoc with the reliability of the air intake system.

This is very much like the conversation Rob and I had Saturday, when I saw them in person.
He's right, of course, that *so* many things are off kilter about the game vs reality that one more little thing isn't going to make a difference. The intake being where he's contemplating putting it does have a lot of visual appeal, thoughh. And, let's face it, that's all we really want anyway. Right?
Otherwise, why would we bother to put fruity eldar ears on our airplanes. LOL


Rob, I like your idea for stabilizers. I like it a lot. I'm not sure how I feel about the extended housing, though. I think I'll have to wait to see it.
Is there a purpose you had in mind for the extended housing (covering gaps, cut lines, etc), or is it just something you thought would look good?

Eric

Wicked awesome...love how the tail wings are coming along. Can't wait to see more

Git / Jack / Zeke: Thanks for taking the time to look as well as the comments.

Eric: The piece needs to fit over the rotating plate that fits into the roof turret hole. So I questioned how to create a piece that will adequately take up the space without adding to much height and not look forced? I also like the overall 'length' of that salamander turret on page 1. The guy did a stellar job and I want to see what something like that looks like on this vehicle... not going to duplicate it of course, but using it for some inspiration. And despite my position on the intake... I like the perceived 'weight' or frame of the weapon to appear it can handle the perceived 'work' and rate of fire that I imagine the weapon could dish out... (considering the intake question, I'm not sure why that matters to me though... lol).

Final thought Eric before you get back on the plausible reality train:
"I think your ether-sail just came off of your Dark Eldar hovercraft because the warp engine was pushing your land fairing boat too fast after you jumped over that forest to land on the roof of that 3-story building...

Why you gotta be hatin'?
I was totally in agreement with you on the intake, and you had to go there.

Now, every time I Dark Lance one of those pointy fairy eldar eared looking b*stards out of the air, I'm making a wise-cracks about A-Cannon shells getting stuck in the intake.

Eric

Also, it's "Aether." If you're going to insult me, at least do it right! LOL

You'll have to forgive me if i steal an idea or two from your conversion. Its looking sweet.

Eric: LMAO, "Aether Sails" my bad, you got me there. Taunt away... I'm sure you'll be conceding again in the near future. PS - do you remember what two storm ravens did to your force a few weeks back? Good times.

Jack / Misfit: You are welcome to steal any idea you get from this project. I use several projects from others as inspiration for this work. I encourage you to do the same. Have fun with the hobby!

Cheers,

No, but I remember what my DICE did.

These improvements are great, this is really making me wanna buy one and start converting !

Keep up the awesome work

To be fair -though, not to demotivate you- Rob is really good at this and excels at making it look easy. He's not a "pro" converter or anything, but he's really quite skilled.

You should look at his thread history and check out the WIP on some Ork Kannons he scratch-built. They're incredible.

@Rob... don't go letting this go to your head!

Eric
::Still trying to figure out where I can rummage up an extra $98,000 a year that my wife won't know about::

Hehe thanks, but I'm pretty sure I'll be all right I've had my share of scratch build rodeos

I have a heap of work posted on warseer, I just haven't been very busy at this forum. Here's the links to my threads there if you wanna have a look

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249857&page=12

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19868

Eric: Thank you. You give me more credit than I'm do. I just like to pick up the hobby knife every once in awhile. I take inspiration from others and go forward, that's all...

Artificer: Props, love the titan. Hat's off to you sir. Thanks for sharing. That's quite an inspirational piece and achievement! I put together and painted a chaos warhound from FW, That alone took a crazy amount of time. Scratch building... well... <bows>

Cheers,

Tac

I like what you've done! FOr the lascannons, couldn't you just turn the nozzles 90° so they look 'up' instead of sideways?

@CK
Then, they won't fit into the housing. They'll be too "tall." The only way that MIGHT be possible would be if he removed the additional support structure, and I doubt Rob's going to want to do that. Might look too weedy, then.

Hmm..
Then again...

@Tac

What if you DID do that? What if you sliced off the support bits, turned the lascannon barrels the right way, then attached them together by rebuilding the support structure between them?

Eric

I just want to take a minute and thank you…. My Storm raven was 90% completed with all it’s LED spender and then I see this post…..
Oh well, back to the drawing board.
On a lighter note… I love your ideas. The top mounted gunnery is sweet and is more fitting then what comes from the box.
More pictures when you get a chance !!!!

I just posted some progress on mine:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/349835.page

The major change I made was to move the turret to the front and make it a gunner's station with a chin turret. I also added some small canards off the forward thrusters to help balance out the model.

I know it's been awhile... real life gets in the way sometimes. Had a chance to do a bit of work recently. Here's a few progress shots.

In summary:
Cleaned up the rotating turret bit and added a clean disk for mounting
Turret main body rear armor housing added and notched
Underside of main body housing built up for flush mounting to rotating bit (no pic)
Las and Assault Cannon systems received support inserts

Enjoy, I'll try to make the next update faster.

Tac

Yet another Stormraven conversion idea I need to steal. I really love what you're doing with those guns. Significantly better than the servitor turret.

Though I may not use this idea in the end, this is a concept drawing for me to reference later. Basically, I'm trying to come up with something that looks like it fits the space marine look and is more appealing that just a round disc for the turret base. My thinking is I glue the top disc and middle layer ring together. Then cut away notches in the partial assembly that would reveal the middle layer disc edge. Then glue the middle layer disc in place and the bottom disc to contain it.

This all may be too fiddly and the angles may become a headache to get symetrical. I could and may just glue the turret armor housing to the rotating disc.

However, I'll look at putting something like this together to see if I like the finished product. (Hopefully my intention is clear...)

[EDIT] copied and marked up the salamander razorback reference pic from page 1 to give an idea of what I'm trying to recreate at a different dimension for the storm raven turret.... which probably communicates the point more clearly.

Looking really nice, a quick throw back to the first page and what you said about liking it, I agree with you, the front look s fine, I think it's the back the messes this model up, the proportions don't really work. Again a great SR blog, I think I'm going to use the same sort if turret idea if I ever get one, good luck with the completion

Breotan / Young Logan - thank you and feel free to use what you see helpful.

Cheers,

Tac

I love the more streamlined design of your raven. It does more justice to the unit than GW ever gave it.

Could we get a shot of the back of the Stormraven? Id really like to see what the stabilizers look like without that dumb T-fin

Messed around with the turret rotating base a bit. I think I'm happy with it. Here's a few shots.

@Archmagos, thanks for comments and here you go.... hopefully this is what you were looking for... and yeah, still no landing gear.

Thanks Tactita! Consider me even more in awe of your mighty conversion skill. *bows head respectfully* Awesome work on the mechanicus and reaver as well.

Archmagos_Amadeus wrote:Thanks Tactita! Consider me even more in awe of your mighty conversion skill. *bows head respectfully* Awesome work on the mechanicus and reaver as well.

Glad you like where the Storm Raven's are going (doing 2 in parrellel effort).

Regarding the reaver / mechanicus stuff above, that is from "the damned artificer" here at Dakka I believe. Not my work. I'm sure he'll appreciate the props if you follow the link to his threads though.

I believe there is some additional links to my work on an ork grot tank or supa kannon on the first page though, if you are so inclined.

Cheers,

Tac

Archmagos_Amadeus wrote:Thanks Tactita! Consider me even more in awe of your mighty conversion skill. *bows head respectfully*

You guys want to calm down with that stuff?
The guy's going to be MURDER to deal with on Saturday. There won't be enough space in the room for him AND his big head. LOL


Seriously, though... I told you before, these look MUCH better than the original (even with the "fruity eldar ears" LOL). I can't wait to see them, once they're finished and painted up. Any decisions on what you're going to do about the iconography?

You planning on bringing them on Saturday?


Eric

I like the direction you went with the turret. I did similarly for the "aliens dropship" version of the thing I did for my friend, but the look of your turret has a more Adeptus-look to it.

Very nice.. your techniques are giving me some ideas I'll use in the next one I do...

Thanks!

Love what you did with the rear. The turret looks a lot better then the orginal as well, though I still feel the weaponry should be underslung

Sick! That is seriously cool, i love the bitz on the rea, cant wait ot see it painted


Automatically Appended Next Post:
edit: to instead of ot

CommissarKhaine wrote:Love what you did with the rear. The turret looks a lot better then the orginal as well, though I still feel the weaponry should be underslung

If you compare underslung to what Rob's doing here, I think you'll prefer Rob's version when all is said and done. He looked at underslug but, in the end, the "realism" of doing it that way means that a landed SR cannot shoot it'sunderslung hull mounted weaponry forward. The opened Assault Ramp and/or any dismebarked passengers would block it.


Eric

@ MagicalMem: attached is a photo of where I'm thinking the iconography will go. My goal is to have a blood angles set of icons and a Grey Knights set of icons. As mentioned before, my color scheme of predominately black with silver and red highlights should allow the icons to fit in either case.

Figureing out a mounting solution is another story.

First, I need a 'no spin' solution that will adequately secure the icons during game play. To create the no spin, I'm going to have to have to have two points per icon for securing the piece.

Now, what to use? The icons are all pretty thin. I thought about two magnets, two pins or a magnet and a detent relief for a spherical guide. There's a limited amount of plastic material, so I may be foreced to go with a pin solution.... or, build the back of the icons up on some kind of plate, which will create a boder for the icon and will thicken it up to create more space for seating a magnet...

So I'm just babbling and talking through it, I don't have a good solution in mind yet.... ideas are welcomed.

@ CommissarKhaine: lol, understood. I'll be checking on the KhaineRaven for the underslung goodness.

@ hearne / nicknick: thanks, with any luck, both will be on the painting talbe soon. Stay tuned,

Tac

tactica you've got great skills.i much prefer how you have modded the raven.

MagickalMemories wrote:

CommissarKhaine wrote:Love what you did with the rear. The turret looks a lot better then the orginal as well, though I still feel the weaponry should be underslung

If you compare underslung to what Rob's doing here, I think you'll prefer Rob's version when all is said and done. He looked at underslug but, in the end, the "realism" of doing it that way means that a landed SR cannot shoot it'sunderslung hull mounted weaponry forward. The opened Assault Ramp and/or any dismebarked passengers would block it.


Eric

It would involve major rebuilding, I agree. But it makes sense to me from a logical point of view. I'm messing up a stormraven myself, and I've been trying to get it a bit lower. In the end, the stormraven could always bank when flying around it's target to allow LOS.

MagickalMemories wrote:

"<snip>...The opened Assault Ramp and/or any dismebarked passengers would block it."

Eric

Eric, not if you relocate the access ramp to accommidate! Anything's possible with plasticard, motivation and vision - after all, this is a fictional universe!

BTW: Take a look at the ComKaineRaven blog, http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/358671.page From the posts so far, I gather he's exploring a different vision of this model. He's looking at a forward mount turret and floor-based front hatch as opposed to what I will call the default wall-based hatch. He has also lengthened the model and incorporated various panels and plates from the factory chassis into the fusilage.

I am reminded of this, "I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." -- Thomas Edison Inventor, Businessman (1847-1931)

Cheers,

Tac


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@ MagicMem / ComKaine: CK beat me to the response!!

Lol, ninjas everywhere

On a more serious not: have you consider simply glueing magnets to the icons, then drilling holes deep enough to fit a piece of metal or a second magnet in the fuselage (making the depth of the hole two magnets deep)?. Magnet + pin would work as well to prevent spinning. In short: it's easier to drill in to the hull without messing up then drilling into the icons.

"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." -- Thomas Edison Inventor, Businessman (1847-1931)

Especially true with plasticard

@Tac
hadn't seen his blog yet. Thanks for the link.

@CK
I like where you're going with the hull extension.

Re: Iconography.

I think you're overthinking it, Rob. The icons aren't so big or heady that they'll spin, readily. I think your answer is a lot easier than you think.

Insert magnet flush into hull (the magnets I gave you should work fine... might be too thick for the "ear wings," though.
Attach a magnet to the back of the icon (the thin, sheet magnet that you use on the bottom of your bases should work & allow you to cut it to fit the icon. Plus, it has the added bonus of being relatively soft, so you don't need to worry about it scuffing your paint.

I really don't see the icons being heavy enough to spin on their own. Only handling them would cause that and, do you really think you'll be fiddling with the icons during game-play so much that you'd need to worry about it?

If you still think you need 2, then I'd suggest a couple small diameter magnets in the vehicle and the sheet magnet I mentioned previously for the icons.


Eric

Thanks for the feedback gents.

Yeah, might be overthinking it.

I hadn't actually thought about just gluing the magnet to the icon, leaving it stick out, then drilling a sink hole into the hull... I'll play around with some ideas tonight if I can get some time. I just need to make sure the icon is durable enough to be pulled off and on from time to time...

I really don't see the icons being heavy enough to spin on their own... do you really think you'll be fiddling with the icons during game-play so much that you'd need to worry about it?

@ Eric: Well... not the icons directly, but come on now - you know me, what do you think will happen when I zip it around our game room - making all of the after-burner-turbo-blaster-shooty noises as it zooms in for the straifing run to obliterate all your smelly wet-paper bag Dark Eldar vehicles Eric?! Sheesh - of course they will move if not secured! I'm not going to try and 'fly' it like someone did with a forgeworld valkyrie many years ago, but I can't have crap falling off during a high speed bank!! (yeah, I'm a 36 year old kid on the weekends, and lovin' it!)

Tac

Unless you're *actively* trying to flick them off with your fingers, it would hold... profided you don't run it into any chairs.
Should that happen, though, I doubt the icon will be near the top of your list of worries. LOL

Attaching the magnet to the icon, then sinking it will keep it in place, but won't stop the spinning. Might even make it easier, since the magnet attached to the piece is circular.

Eric

No pics, I just did some maintenance and filing tonight.

Glued the turret housing into the turret bases
clipped, cleaned up and glued the landing gear in place on both vehicles (went with the up position, because I want it to look like its flying)

Since my sponsons are glued in place... I may put the door bits to use for icon backing. The icons need something otherwise I fear they will break over time pulling them on and off the model... especially if I use the magnets. The field alone could cause some stress fractures to the icon's rather fiddly bits.

More thought required...

Tac

Again, no pics. I put some blue / white stuff on the turret tops to fill in gaps where plasticard met plastic model...

After fussing around with the grey knights and blood angels icons, I really couldn't commit and decided to leave them off all together. I didn't like any of the magnetising or pinning options I came up with. I had two spare aquilla eagles and space marine banner icons. So I put one of each on either side of the cockpit above the front thrusters.

Rivots... its about the last thing I have to do on the new plasticard pieces... if I due them. For my ork conversions, I could snip down some very fine plasticard dowels to get the small rivots of varying sizes. For space marines, they use even smaller rivots... so I don't have a good solution for that.

What do folks use for space marine rivots... uber tiny...

Tac

I'm totally digging the conversion for the Stormraven! I have seen people use little semi circles of green stuff, but I have also seen brass straight pins used to some success. Again, sweet conversion!

Got a bit done, figured it was time for pics.

Looking at the old tail bits and wings, I noticed that the wings have recess rivet holes, not raised rivets... so, that was easier. i found a bit that matched the holes on the wings, drew some lines and went to town. The raised rivets on the turret were a bit different. I went to the left over pieces and shaved off some rivets then glued them in place... yeah, that was tedious... but it worked good enough. Finally, I primed them both black. Tomorrow, hopefully I'll have some time to get the airbrush out....

Rob, those look REALLY sharp primered.
Now that you can't see the difference between standard kit & plasticard, they look damn near like a standard alternative set up.

Very nice!


Eric

Those are looking nice, and two at a time as well? Wish I worked this fast. I like the sleeker overall look!

Thanks gents.

CK: yeah, I've been working on two at a time all along. So, it just means I don't have to try and remember how I converted anything or fit things or measurements... I get them both done and once and never have to look back. It hasn't really been a 'fast' process though. Looking back, it's april now and I've been at it awhile (two months yesterday in fact). Family and real life concerns such as jobs, home bills are too important, and those come first (and in that order LOL). I also have other hobbies so everything gets its slice of time. So, it's an off and on kind of approach for me. Avoids burn out too...

I find its better to work toward smaller goals vs. larger "gota get this done" goals. Example: cutting the shape of the tail fins tonight.... or, creating and adding rivets the next time I sit down... or, priming and planning paint scheme this week... etc. Small goals equal small victories, continue progress, and before I know it I am done without being overwhelmed... LOL

Cheers,

Tac

Got out the airbrush last night... thought I was going to do all the edging work with airbrush, but changed my mind after looking at the width of the spray.

I did put a coat of chaos black on over the primer... unfortunately, that was all I got done as clean up of the airbrush is always time consuming, I got home late from work, and family needed some time so... no pics.

Piccies! We demand piccies!

Ahum, know the feeling, real life can be quite busy sometimes . Good luck with the painting!

As soon as I get more than black on it, I'll post more pics. Had to shoot last night (competition pistol shooter) and preparing for two matches this weekend, and game day Saturday... sheesh... will try to find some time to put paint to model... somewhere... LOL...

Few pics of some early paint... this is a trial paint scheme, so, we'll see how it goes. First is an example of the outlining. I plan to highlight the edges several times. The black will receive a blending wash later on. The second pictures show the base red paneling idea. These will also receive several laters of paint and blended edges with a wash.... but right now, I'm planning out my color scheme. The two turrets are me playing around with different color scheme ideas. I think I'm going with the red turret.

I like it.
Definitely go with the red turret!


Eric

Read through thread beginning to end - Your ways in the Plasticard are strong, Jedi...

Also looked at the Titan thread link(I am a small fan of Titans so couldn't resist ).

*Aside* So cool that you get to hang with the man, Magikal !

Those would be awesome games to hang out around/play.

And on topic, your Stormravens put my jaw to the ground. Combined with your painting skills, is a project to be proud of Sir.

Super impressed.

Interesting that the Icons are going on the half assed, X-wing Eldar foils also....

Would almost seem like you planned it that way, no?


Genius at work.

Red turret, definitely. Off to a great start I'd say!

*Aside* So cool that you get to hang with the man, Magikal !

Are you f'ing serious?
Oh, God. I'm gonna vomit.
LOL
There goes gaming. Now there's not gong to be room for all 4 of us AND Rob's head!

Besides... It's cool that he gets to hang with me. I'm Internet Famous.
Don't believe me? Ask my mom. She'll tell you.


Eric

Real sharp looking. Very nice.

You should do some small details in green or blue, to make it a bit more interesting.

Thanks for the feedback and compliments. Though it cannot be seen in photos, I have a foundation coat of dark Prusia Blue (vallejo) on both wing perimeter lights, windshield, light between nose gun, small light to left and right of nose gun in head lamp assembly... also, plasma cannon induction coils for alternate turret weapon option. I'll blend each of those to ice blue or something similar.

There may be some green accent lights, but don't have many opportunities for green.

Eric, internet famous... lmao, gonna be a good game day.

- I LOVE plastic-card work! And this is among the best I've seen! -I'll be rifling through your other posts/pictures now

Been a really long time, but with the new flyer rules coming out, I blew the dust off these and started working on them again. Here's where I'm at... Oh, and while posting pics, here's some Vortex Gernade templates I made for upcoming appocalypse game. The one on the left is the GW template... the two on the right are the ones I made... Took about 1 hour of prep to cut foam spheres in half, cut and glue plasti-card to bottom, seal, treat surface and sand the rough texture out. Then took another couple hours this morning to prime paint and seal them.

Wonderful! simple and nice conversion!

If the original kit was like this from the begin, it was perfect!

Started working on a blood angel champ conversion monday, primed him and put some paint on him last night. It's a bit of a kit bash and small conversion. I wanted a power axe with combi-plasma model, so that's what I landed on. If interested, the axe started from a sanguinary guard axe, lost it's wing back side and got cut up. the hammer head on the back comes from an ork dakka bommer missile bit that I hacked up and cut down to fit. The power cell things on the back come from a plastic lascannon bit I had left over from the storm raven turret conversion. A bit of plasti-card, brass rod and there it is. I still may add some 'hose' for power cabling, haven't decided. The tourny I need this guy for is Saturday, so for now, he gets painted as is.

A word on the photos. I'm using a smartphone and for some reason, it is really bleading out the colors. The red is blended and looks nothing like the red in these pics... but, it will have to do for now. It has three shades of red on it and will try to get better pics in future.

I look forward to the completed mini. I'm sure it'll be cool.

I still wish you were taking your Orks Saturday. LOL


Eric

E, well... I've been playtesting the BA the most in 6th. I like how the orks played, but the ork list I would to take hasn't been tested at all... so, that would be a shot in the dark. I also think it has some weaknesses... with all the bikes, so objectives at the top of ruins would be a bust. Playing the BA just gives me a balanced list that is less likely to piss anyone off too. I'm pretty sure a bike boss with nobz bike troop plus the IA boss with init power claw and bike troops along with dakka jet, jetbikes and lootas in big squig would really irritate some opponents... so, BA are... friendlier.

Awesome thread, love what you did the Stormraven.

Will be watching this thread from now on.

D

EvilDrcheese,

Thank you for stopping in and glad you like the conversion. The stormravens are on the bench still getting more paint. Hope to have more updates on those in the future. Right now, I'm getting ready for a tourny this weekend so have a couple WYSIWYG models to finish.. this sergent being one of them.

Cheers,

Interesting little side study... Appears my smarthphone camera likes the flash a whole lot more than I thought. These photos are of the same stage of painting... the first set is no flash, the second set has the flash turned on... with the flash, that's closer to how it looks in real life - LOL. You can actually see all the highlighting with the flash on, go figure... on the other hand, the flash adds some over brightening to the photo causing glare too, so <shurg>

Anyway, got more done last night. Changed the power weapon blade base color from blue, to green, then back to blue. I *think* I've landed there... added several details. I did an experiment with the blues on the accents, wanted to see how it worked with the red in contrast, I think I like it. Lot more work to go... can't work on it tonight, so only one more day of work before tourny... to much left to do... <sigh>

Looking good so far! As with the Dakkajet, however, I don't like how you painted over the windows. It just doesn't work for me.

Anyway, aside from that, top notch!

There's something about the *look* of the windows that looks a bit off (I think he's still got a bit more to do on them, though - they are in a "good enough for gaming" phase, currently), but I'm with Rob (tactica) in the "painting over the windows" thing. I far prefer the look of painted windows over clear plastic (that doesn't match the look of the painted model) covering a tediously painted pilot that, really, doesn't matter for gaming purposes.

Eric
(Who also leaves the interior pieces out of Rhinos and Land Raiders and glues all the doors shut. LOL)

MagickalMemories wrote:
Eric
(Who also leaves the interior pieces out of Rhinos and Land Raiders and glues all the doors shut. LOL)

Preaching to the converted on that one ... LOL.

I hate fiddly crap on models. Thats why I avoid magnetising too... I just hate dealing and traacking around all that tiny fall apart and get lost kind of stuff. Maybe I'm just getting lazy(er) and cantakerous(er)... LMAO

Good times,

Sorry for the potential threadomancy but this Stormraven conversion is awesome. I'm doing something very similar based on this, thanks for the inspiration!