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As requested by some members, I decided to replicate the Storm Raven conversion that I made last week and do a step by step process to help out people who want to create their own Storm Raven conversion using my idea. I mainly used the IG Valkyrie and Weapon bits of the Space Marine Whirlwind to create this Blood Angels unique transport.

This was originally posted at Bell of Souls, I guess you can call this conversion the CRUX pattern BA Storm Raven.

Anyway, my main goal was to create the Storm Raven with as little use of plastic card as possible, and to use a minimum amount of boxed kits to kit bash. With these two boxes, the whirlwind retailing for $40 and the IG Valkyrie retailing for $58, I was able to keep the starting cost below $100. An added bonus of using the parts of the Whirlwind is you get a complete Rhino kit to either add to your army or use as a trade tool with your friends.



Here are the tools that I used. First off, safety. Try to cut away from your fingers and if you are using a rotary tool use some safety glasses.



Using a hobby saw and cutting board, I sliced the Valkyrie crew compartment in half, try to do this neatly since we will be using the lower half of the housing as well later on



I also cut the other half of the cockpit since I won't be needing a secondary pilot. I assembled it using the
lower half of the seat for support, the glass cockpit, the front hull piece, which as you can see I also cut in
half, and the cockpit side supports.



Now to create the other half of the cockpit assembly I cut the wing assembly support of the
Valkyrie kit at this point.



These are the pieces that I will use to create the other half of the cockpit. Note the plastic
card piece that I will use later on for supporting this assembly.



This is how the other half of the cockpit assembly should look like.
I would suggest using blue tack to temporarily mount the parts together.



A trial connection of the two parts should look like this.



Assemble the crew compartment of the Valkyrie. Now carefully place the back part of the cockpit assembly. Do a trial connection of the front and back part before doing this. I used the existing railing to help in supporting the pieces.



The cockpit assembly completed resting on the Valkyrie crew compartment.



Ok, to continue on we use the wing brace assembly, the one from an earlier image and complete assembling it with it's lower half and...



We go ahead and mount it on the side of the hull.



We need to trim down the doors so that it can fit to the side, use a hobby saw and adjust
with a hobby knife when putting it on.



I will next tackle the grapple, magnet for the dreadnought. I use the hatch housing for the Whirlwind
and one of the multiple rocket front bit and a small round magnet (1/8" i think).



Assemble the whirlwind turret/hatch as normal. I suggest gluing the arm down.



the lower piece is the MLR pod front half, it easily fits to the lower turret.



Assemble it to the rear of the cockpit, the lower half. Make adjustments as necessary.



I will go ahead and tackle the anti-tank missile which I procured from the Whirlwind. Note the
suggested cut point.



With a hobby knife, shave away the skull marking off the missile pod cover.



I attached the missile pod to the side of the wing support.



Mount the small wing tips at the side of the cockpit. we will use this as support for the
engines.



glue on the assembled engine piece, adjust as necessary to create a even flushed look.



Now we go back and use the lower hull cockpit assembly that we cut out of the upper cockpit and
we will use this bit as engine covers.



Laying out the wing pieces that will be used. I had to cut out a strip of plastic card to support
the rear wings.



Attach the smaller wings to the lower front, near the assault ramp.



Mount the plastic card first, then mount the tail wing section.



Here is the completed hull of the Storm Raven. I will take a break for now since I have to do some errands.
But you can see that this is a fairly easy and good looking conversion. I will go ahead and post more later on.

The large wings are not glued yet, I am still debating if I want to change the angle but at the current configuration it looks like it is moving and it can rest easily on the ground.



Kindly give input feedback. I think I will try to use the Assault cannon and heavy bolter configuration for this one.

Additional images of Completed Conversion with Dreadnought:

This is an image of a previous kit that I finished showing the dreadnought mounted by the magnet.















There you have it folks, hopefully this will inspire you guys to start building your own. I used the Dreadnought that came
with the Assault on Black Reach set. The base of the Dread is magnetized, fairly straight forward conversion.



4/10/10 Update

Thank you again for all the comments and kind words. I wanted to post some pictures of a commission conversion that I am doing.
My client wanted to have a weapon swappable option for when he is facing armor and massed infantry. I used 1/8" circumference by 1/16" rare earth magnets. eBay sellers sell these in sets of 100 for $12. Very use full since you can use a 1/8" drill bit to drill into plastic models. Anyway here are the latest pics:



All laid out, the parts that can be removed for easy transport.



Anti Armor Raven in all it's glory



Ork problem solved with this configuration



Here are the location of the magnets. I had to move the original weapon location to make room for the Hurricane bolters.
I will post a painted model later on since the one that I have is spoken for.

...holy crap.

Damn fine work!

Already said from the other thread , its my favorite version of Storm Raven by far , the idea is just innovative.

The tutorial is also very very detailed. You have both modesty in presenting your conversion , and generosity in sharing the step by steps.

We need more members like you in Dakka.

Fantastic. As Luna said, hang around for a while

I like it, I have seen some really awesome builds for this ..... great job on the build and paint scheme.

Awesome conversion...I have a feeling that I'll be having a friend pester me to do this before too much longer haha.

Wow, made me wish i played sm a little inside lol

I will certainly use this at some point, as i siad in the other post, my Blood Claws want one bad thanks very much

ANOTHER awesome Storm Raven, this time even better because it comes with a tutorial attached!

Thanks!

The thing that I appreciate about this Storm Raven is that while patzgcrux used parts from a Whirlwind on this model, none of those pieces are crucial to the model as a whole. I mean, yeah, they look awesome, but you could pretty easily find some substitutes from your bitz box for them and not have to buy a whole whirlwind or whirlwind turret from a bitz store.

Not a great fan of all this flying stuff turning up in 40K, but great conversion all the same

My biggest complaint is the part where you shave off a skull from the missile pod. This is the Grim Dark Future man! You're supposed to be Adding excessive skulls, not Removing them!!

I finished Detailing the first Storm Raven that I built, Just wanted to share the images.













Also, Thank you for comments. Like what I said, my goal was to create a fairly easy and game payable model.
I will try something different later on. Hopefully you guys will share your version of the Storm Raven in this forum.

sweet, and you can still make a rhino

Looks real nice!

That looks awsome!!

As I said in the last thread and I will say again I love how this Storm Raven looks. It is to how it should for carrying troops and a dreadnought, and with the tutorial I will want to make my own someday!

A great walkthrough... I'm going to move it over to the Tutorials section.

insaniak wrote:A great walkthrough... I'm going to move it over to the Tutorials section.

Yes, kindly do that for me, I was not aware that that section existed. Thank you for doing this.

Thanks for the tutuorial. I've never tried a conversion on this scale before, but I am truely inspired. I'm probably gonna give this one a try.

Excellent work. Your Storm Raven looks awesome! I can't imagine GW creating anything that would top your Storm Raven concept.

This is awesome! I'm building two storm ravens for a friends and I was initially planning on using a ton of plasticard for it but this is beautiful! I'll be sure to take a couple of pictures of the finished products, and post them here.

Sweet looking conversion.

Your idea has been officially stolen by me and I am going to use it. Thats Fething AMAZING!

Very Nice, who knows, if you keep it up, you might go along with Sersi and such. Good Work.

Great job. The design is functional and looks great!!!!

1.) This is awesome. Very, very awesome.

2.) My only criticism, and it's very minor, is the dreadnought hauler. It doesn't seem integrated enough. It's not bad on the actual Storm Raven, but I think I'd like to either see a mod on the Dreadnought to indicate it's made to be lifted, or a different hauling system on the Storm Raven to make it clear it's made to haul "stock" dreadnoughts. You know the bars they use to lock people in to roller coasters? Something like that, maybe.

Very nice. Sleek too.
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Ouze wrote:1.) This is awesome. Very, very awesome.

2.) My only criticism, and it's very minor, is the dreadnought hauler. It doesn't seem integrated enough. It's not bad on the actual Storm Raven, but I think I'd like to either see a mod on the Dreadnought to indicate it's made to be lifted, or a different hauling system on the Storm Raven to make it clear it's made to haul "stock" dreadnoughts. You know the bars they use to lock people in to roller coasters? Something like that, maybe.

Yes I think I will incorporate the harness suggestion in my next build.
I will also do magnetized weapons on next one.

Nice work and thanks for the tutorial.