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Afternoon all,

I have finally begun work on my first stormraven and would love to hear any input people may have. The various conversions/adaptations that are appearing are very much what I had in mind for this model and I have been feverishly looking around to see what I might want to use on my own version. Kudos to any and all on the forum(s) that have posted there work, its been a true inspiration, especially MajorTom, Hits and fasteddiexx1.

Below is the first iteration, partially glued with detailing and magnetising still to be done. In my over eager ways however, I just went ahead and built this and now I am questioning is it TOO long have stretched it out to improve proportions and silhouette. The only really notable change beyond the obvious is the moving back of the turret mount. Here it is so far -


















An alternative is something more akin to a shuttlecraft type look, as seen in the early photoshoped image edits and broadly based on the 'MajorTom' pattern design that is about This is a much stubbier design than above and looses the tail altogether, possibly adding a spoiler style tail fin, something like the current landspeeder. It does look quite a lot like a bus though....









What do you reckon?
I was planning to smooth off the nose by covering over the nose mounted weapons, but I have decided against this for now on balance. I would like to magnetise the tail in some fashion too, still thinking about how to do this and ensure its a strong connection.
Any and all suggestions/criticisms are more than welcome!

Cheers,
H

Looks lovely. If you add some fins maybe on the white card, it'd really help the dynamicism of it.

Thanks for the speedy reply sphynx - If the tail is kept, which I'm leaning towards, I was planning to build the detailing up on the roof of the extension to make it look like an integral 'spine' that runs down to the tail, very similar to what Hits has done with his. Is this the area you meant when you say adding some fins?

I don't know if it's too late but have you seen the conversions where the cockpit is widened and two Marines are put in side-by-side using the seat bits from a land speeder?

Oh, don't magnatise the tail. Magnatise weapons if you want but you should have the body and wings glued in to make everything as stable as possible.

Thanks for the feedback all!

Breotan - I have seen that conversion, as done by dakka's own Emperors_Champion I believe, and even started costing up the parts for it, but I decided I want to go for the more armoured cockpit meaning you'd see very little of the two crew cockpit making it a bit redundant. It is an excellent converion though! I took your advice - glued the tail as I could see no tidy way of magnetising it securely. Did magnetise the wings though as that seemed more plausible...


I should mention the amazing work of leechambers and his Black Library blog - he's been making all manner of Dawn of War models, as well as his own miniatures, and his Stormraven really caught my eye. Hence the desire to do all this really! A quick look at his 'Raven, and you can see why I 'went long' with this model -


Managed to get some more work last night, mainly focused on the magnetising and tidying up of joints etc. Fairly happy with the turret now, although I will probably lower it a bit but cutting down the weapon mount slightly, maybe 2-3mm, to make it sit that bit tighter to the body. I have the 'tail fins' for want of a better term cut from the engines test fitted to the back - what do you reckon? The tail is glued now and the wings magnatised as there was an obvious and secure way of doing this. They aren't going anywhere! I am very tempted to shorten it by about 12-15mm so the back of the mid-point of the 'tail fins' is in line with the back of the engines. A shame to break apart what's been don't, but it may bug me otherwise...!
More detailing to be done, especially under the wings, rivets to add and a base to sort out/counter weight - but I'm itching to paint this thing!

Have to say it looks a bit too long with the tail on. It was just about right prior to the addition - some kind of spoiler directly on top of the rear extended compartment perhaps would have been better (IMO).

Still looks much better than the original model though

loved the magnetized load out and the look of the turret. Very nice.

Some speedy updates having finished the painting of the interior. There is actually quite a bit more external detail on there now as well, but no pics of that yet though. Further inspired by Hits_the_spot's project, I will be adding a bit to the exterior details.









Hope you like - I will try and get some better macro close ups of those internal panels when I get home tonight.

Cheers,
H

It looks alot better than the original!
keep this going and you will have yourself a solid looking stormraven!

//Avach

I want one....
It looks so much better than the original death trap.

I hope it's not too late, but don't shorten it! It looks GREAT as-is!