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Perfect! You have really captured the look of the epic model, kudos.

This THawk is a beast! Hats of mate!

Thanks Commander Cain and MagosBiff90! Almost there, just a little left to do! After this I've got a Fireraptor to build and then I guess I have no choice but to start building my metal T-hawk!

Ok! Really close to being done with this guy! Since the last update I've added more detail to the sides of the hull, which includes some piping, more aquilas, missiles coming out of the wing as per the Epic model, a sensor thing below the main cannon, and structural detail on the T-hawk's roof.



Here's a better shot of the side of the hull, which includes the slaved twin-linked heavy bolter on the wing. I still need to do the other wing's because I'm still waiting for the heavy bolters to get to me in the mail. For those not in the US, you might recognize the part as a Kinder egg capsule, hehe!



Here's a final full shot of the MkII T-hawk. Other than the second twin-linked heavy bolter all that's left to do is some cosmetic bits and putty to fill in some gaps! The big empty space on the T-hawk's hull, in front of the side sponsons, is where my big Iron Hands decal will go, so don't worry!

Pretty damn awesome to say the least. Looks fantastic.

Thanks LeadLegion, glad you like it!

Truly epic.

Someone had to say it. But it is, an awesome build. Amazing detail work, looks well balanced. Now you just need to paint this one, and then you need, I would say, another 9 of these.

Looking good! Hope you get the heavy bolters I sent your way.

Thanks Camkierhi, that means a lot, I was really hoping for a final well balanced look with the T-hawks intended detail! Yeah, I really should paint something, just don't have the space right now, although that doesn't keep me from building stuff! Hehe, counting my metal one I have 3 T-hawks now, not sure if I need more! Well, if GW ever does a plastic MkV I'd be all over that!

@Mythos, thanks, that's all I need to finish it up!



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Since I've now, more or less, finished my T-hawk I've had time to assemble the Fire Raptor I got for Christmas (thanks Mom!). Here's a bonus shot of both of my new birds!

Amazing, awesome builds. And inspiring.

(So much, actually, that I'll give a shot to one of those tanks myself, following your lead if that's OK)

I'll be waiting for your next project.

Cheers!

Thanks Littletower, I appreciate it! Definately, go for it, can never have too many tanks!

Hehe, I'm currently waiting for the final bitz to finish my MkII T-hawk, but I've got several little projects going that continue the trend of scraping the bottom of the 40k barrel!

That THawk is a beast!

How easy was it to assemble the gunship? I was seriously considering getting it but I have never had the best of luke with the big plastic-resin kits..

Thanks again Commander Cain!

Well, I'd say, unless you are a super perfectionist, the Fire Raptor, as FW hybrid kits go, was relatively painless. FW seems to have learned a lot since they released the Storm Eagle, which, in my opinion, was pretty darn hard to assemble and made for a less than enjoyable experience, even though it's a pretty cool-looking kit! Like most FW kits, the Fire Raptor will require some fixing up with the use of near-boiling water or a hair dryer (which ever you prefer). From the looks of your Scorpius I'm confident you'll have no trouble with it. The Storm Eagle would probably give anybody a headache though!

Perfect, thanks! Maybe I will pick one up before the month is up so I can take advantage of that free shipping voucher I have..

Yeah, I'd go for it, it's a pricey enough model to make the free shipping worthwhile! Feel free to ask me anything while you build it if you want!


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As I've said before, I've just about scraped clean the bottom of the 40k barrel. This next obscure tank is what I would call semi-official, maybe not even that, some would say it's just plain unofficial. Back in the day, before the founding of Armorcast, Tim DuPertuis published a quarterly gamer magaizine called Inquisitor, which, I believe, ran for 18 issues before being ended around the time Armorcast was no longer allowed to sell their GW licenced models in 1998/99. Prior to Armorcast, this magazine served as an unofficial 40k/ wargames forum providing new rules, reviews, hobby tips and info, and later datasheets for Biasi/Armorcast models. In issue 8 were Rogue Trader edition rules for Combat Engineers in all the races. Issue 17 included an article that updated these rules to 2nd edition. One of the neat things provided was rules for fielding an Engineer Rhino with bridge-layer. The article even provides some building tips and a picture of one belonging to one of the article's writers. Now, I've seen various scratchbuilds of Space Marine bridge-layers, and I've always kind of liked the idea, seeing as my Grandfather was a Combat Engineer in WWII and Korea! I pretty much built my own, partly based on the picture and tips provided in issue 17, plus other little things to make it a bit more feasible, plus, I had a lot of extra MkI Rhino parts lieing around. So, really, I thought I'd have a little fun, hehe. Here it is, with bridge-layer parts coming from an Airfix 1/76 Churchill bridge-layer tank plastic kit.



And a side view, showing the picture frame wall mounts I used to create the tank's support structure.

That's pretty cool. I think the side of that bridge layer needs some rivets, it looks a little too smooth.

I was thinking the other day you need to revisit the Hercules tanks and do the other variants.

Looking good I like it. Why not use some more of Hobart's Funnies for inspiration. Both the Crocodile and the Crab would be good in 40k http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart%27s_Funnies

I think that the bridge needs a few more skulls but apart from that it is an excellent build.

If you are looking for more stuff to build I notice that you haven't built one of the hover Rhinos yet. Should be a pretty easy build provided you can scrounge up some land speeder bits.

There is also the old whirlwind with crayon launchers which I don't think you have made yet.

Apart from that though I'm pretty sure you made just about everything that there is to make with the exception of a few bike/jetbike variants. When you are completely out of ideas I sketched up a space mariney tank a while back if you want me to upload a pic!

Thanks everyone!

@aka_mythos: Yeah, I agree, didn't consider it because I can't drill through that hard a metal. What I might do is use the light bar (what attaches to the same place as the ram and on the back) from the MkI Rhino. Cut it into thirds and use the part with the 2 holes and 2 sets of rivets and just glue it straight on, it will at least provide some texture, hehe!

I wonder if I can get more of those tank toys from HEB, hehe. I wouldn't mind trying my hand at a second one. I would make it look more like it does in the old pic, with a lot less rivets and more armored layers!

@Llamahead: Cool link, I didn't even know about Hobart's Funnies, awesome! Hehe, I like the Crocodile, and the Crab is very Orky, I wouldn't doubt that it was the inspiration for the Battlewagon dethrolla! I'll have to look into it more!

@Commander Cain: Hehe, luckily this is a Rogue Trader vehicle, back before GW's design studio got carried away!
Yeah, I know about the hover Rhino, but its history only goes back to the HH CCG and its artbook so it was never on my list, but maybe I'll get to it after I've exhausted my current to do list. Funny you mention Whirlwinds and jetbikes! I have the old crayon Whirlwind, and my philosophy has been I only build something if there has never been a 40k scale version of it already, even if you take size creep into consideration. As such, I have some of the old jet bikes as well, and they are tiny, but they exist, but I wouldn't close the book on that idea as well, I'm sure if inspiration strikes or I learn some sculpting techniques I may re-visit the idea!
Sure, I love seeing new and clever ideas, I did build aka_mythos's Rhidon!

I don't think I've seen you do that rhino used by the iron warriors that is a fold out fort yet.

@Zuul: Ooh, I've only slightly heard of this tank, it's certainly a useful thing to have for a chapter that specializes in siege warfare. Do you have a reference for this bit of fluff? I assume its from a HH novel!

Something that I haven't done, which I am currently considering, is a Rhino Advancer, if anyone wants to look that up!

Re. the IW rhino I found some fluff on the 40k wiki.

The Castellan Rhino was a variant of the Rhino developed during the Great Crusade by the Iron Warriors' Primarch, Perturabo. The Castellan variant featured unfolding armour plating and impact bracing that allowed the vehicle to be turned into a miniature bunker. The modular construction allowed multiple Castellan Rhinos to be linked together in a chain, forming a makeshift fortified line when materials for more permanent emplacements were unavailable or a defence had to be fashioned quickly. During the Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children's siege of the ancient Eldar fortress of Amon ny-shak Kaelis the Iron Warriors deployed over 400 Castallen Rhinos as their defensive line.

No decent pics though though I'm sure I found on in my HH art book, I shall trawl through it tomorrow just in case...

This could be it?



Also I would love to see a model for the advancer! No idea how you would make it though as the entire chassis would need to be bigger.

Great info Commander Cain, thanks! Dang, I think I've read the book that that fluff came off, must not have been memorable. I certainly like the idea, but I'd be hesitant to make something without at least a picture to go by. The pic you posted could be one, but it doesn't really show the distinctive parts that would make it a castellan rhino. Also, I wonder if it would have seen widespread use with other legions, oh well. A crusade era vehicle I'd love to build that has been mentioned several times in the HH books, but has no official artwork, is the quad-tracked mastodon! Maybe FW will make it one day!

Yeah, the advancer would be fun, I'd have to totally scratch build it and use rhino bits for some of the detail, probably need some parts from a fine-scale tank model, like the wheels!

I remember when I found the article for the Rhino Advancer Munitions Carrier build online a while back. It's nice that the internet archive has old versions of the GW site.

Hehe, I remember finding that article as well, the scenerio was fun, but I had to ask another dakka member for the pics, which seem to all be dead. Black Gobbo had a lot of fun stuff back in the day!

Hello again! If you've noticed the different flags on my posts that's because I've been out-of-town for the last three weeks. Before I left I did complete my MkII T-hawk. I took some pics, but didn't have time to post them. So, here they are, top and bottom!





Just for fun, here is a shot of my MkI and MkII side by side!



I've noticed that people have seemed to enjoy my pic with the three different rapiers, so I've looked over my collection for similar shots I can take that will show off the progression of some of GW's smaller models. For instance, here are all four of GW/FW's jet bikes through the ages!



I probably don't need to list what's in the pic, but the first two are GW's Rogue Trader era jet bikes, which are kind of wimpy, but I could see them being really cool if properly updated, The next is the Dark Angel's Master of the Ravenwing jetbike that I've cleaned up to be riderless, and in the back is FW's Scimitar pattern Jet bike.

At some point I can probably do some side by side pics of SM bikes, attack bikes, robots, and terantulas.

Hello again, thought I'd pop in and post some pics of what I've been up to post-thunderhawk! First off, this is for Zuul who brought up the old Space Crusade dreadnought. I was given a couple specimens in order to mod for an Adeptus Arbite force I'm also working on. The guy in the pic has been modded into your good old riflemen dread. I used the old metal autocannons from one of the older Leman Russ varient kits. I also think that by smoothing out the dread's face, it looks much more Imperial.



Finding myself with extra mkI Rhino and Leman Russ I decided to revisit Citadel Journal 7, which as some of you mightrecal was where I found the article for the Tech-marine rhino I built awhile back. Also in this article is what the author calls an armoured Razorback, which is pretty much a Razorback whose weapon is mounted on a Leman Russ turret. If you look at the 2nd/3rd edition Dark Angels codex, you'll also see this same conversion idea being utilized by one of the book's example armies.



I've also been getting my Vindicator on! Here are three specimens I've put together. Starting from the left is my rendition of the very first Vindicator build that was introduced in White Dwarf #118. Next is my second Vindicator to use Tim Pertuis's resin thunder cannon kit. I have to thank timd himself for this pristine example! Third is Puppet War's Big Momma Cannon fitted to the MkI Rhino's track assemblies with extra armor. I bet Puppet War didn'tthink anyone would do this!



Speaking of Vindicators, I was fortunate enough to aquire Da Vinci's Sabre Tank Hunter upgrade kit, which he did alongside the Storm tank for Tempus Fugitives! I wouldn't usually bother with third party upgrade kits, but I found this design to be pretty inspired (as with Puppet War's Big Momma).



Again, I've taken some pics from my collection that shows off the evolution of some of GW's models. In the following order: Robots, the Terantula Sentry gun (2L Lascannons), bikes, and attack bikes!









Currently, I am moving forward with the Rhino Advancer, I'll have pics at some point!

Good stuff, all look quite awesome, old stuff makes me nostalgic.

Brilliant work as always Heliodore! I'm looking forward to seeing your take on the advancer.

Thanks guys, glad you like it all, even with my crap quality pics!

Yeah, the Advancer is going well. All I have done is the start of the track assemblies. The only reference I have for this vehicle is a single piece of artwork from the HH CCG. Looking at the pic, it takes itsbasic aesthetic from the MkI Rhino, but is clearly a bit longer, wider, and generally larger. Pretty much a Space Marine Trukk!