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I'll start with a missive.

I had the idea to build a Space Marine Lander for a while before Mplonski over on the Apoc 40k forum started his build, but had little resolve to make such an undertaking.


The Space Marine Lander, popularly known as the 'Warhawk'

Three things have urged me into action:

1 ~ Seeing the first painted example of Mplonski's work. He chose laser cut acrylic, for it's strength and ease of replication, but it loses the layered armour effect of the Space Marine design.

2 ~ I found a UK suppler of Large cheap plasticard sheets (Bay plastics up in Sunderland)

3 ~ I found Eli Patoroch's work

I initially started with Thunderhawk in cardboard, as a prototype



Although I overdid the interior



Now I've decided to build a plasticard Warhawk, and at the same time redo the Thunderhawk in the same material...

Thunderhawk




Warhawk


This may take some time....

~ Bob

Thanks both. Trust me the Interior detailing took half the build time, and you can see the cardboard warping even without a layer of paint.

I've started to layer lighter plasticard over the base structure for that 'Marine Armour' look.



The one cockpit cover I've built was a right and is still too flimsy for my liking. I'll probably come back to it later on in the project.



I'm having to make things up as I go with the Warhawk, so the layering is only just started.



I've decided for the time being to only detail the floors of the interior.

The top half of the hull comes off so I can add to it later if I feel the need.

~ Bob

I've been working on 2 sets of wings. One pair for the Thunderhawk and another to fit on the front hull of the Warhawk, in a similar vein to the ones on the Thunderhawk Transporter. This should make it look a little more air worthy than it's Epic incarnation.



Having build the top half I filled the interior of the wing with expanding foam for rigidity and to prevent warping.



I had to cut off the excess foam with the longest blade I had to hand to get a straight cut.



~ Bob

Cheers.

Done the detailing on one pair of wings.



Bolter mounts will wait till later.

~ Bob

A bit more layering on the Warhawk



The door slots will fit standard Land Raider doors



The lugs on the sides allow the wings to slot on, like so;



I considered magnets, but this is sturdier and cheaper



There's a little more layering needed to finish the front off, and a ramp to build.

But I feel like fleshing out the rest of the Craft first.

~Bob

Planning for the main beam. The top half will be angled.

With Land raiders


With Rhinos


Looks like it will be half a metre in length, that's before the front and rear hulls are added into the equation

~Bob

The beam structural work;



It's a composite design, mixing the chunkiness of the Epic model with the angles of the Thunderhawk Transporter



Box structure on the inside for increased rigidity. The flying stand will most likely join at the centre of the beam, so both the front and rear hulls will weigh down either end.



Rhinos for scale, they'll hang a little lower when I work out the holding brackets



A different angle with rhinos

~bob

Well I'll need to jin up some house rules, but I do hope to use it in Apoc games.

Working out the points value is difficult;
- The Thunderhawk is greatly over pointed in 6th ed. rules
- The Warhawk has more guns, but is less shooty overall
- But it does give a Whole Company of Space Marines the ability to redeploy.

1500 points maybe, but is it as powerfull as a Reaver Titan?
1000 points would be almost the same as a Thunderhawk?

I'll also using it as part of an army display board at tournaments with points or competitions for painting & modelling.

~ Bob

Awesomesauce wrote:What armor values does it have? I would imagine it would be like a land raider of the sky with14 all around, especially for >1000 points. What AVs does the thunderhawk have?

12/12/10 for the Thunderhawk with 3 Structure points and Ceramite shielding. I'm guessing this should be the same armour value, with double or triple the structure points.

That's the way they generally work it for Titans so it seems appropriate, but those rules were before 6th Ed when AAA became so integral to the game.

SickSix wrote:Wow. Great work! Looking forward to seeing the completed vehicle.

Thanks, could be a couple of months, before it gets completed though.


Closed up the holes in the beam;


This should slot into the rear hull


Four Land Raiders for scale, they'll sit a little lower when I build the cradles


I really need to repaint my 'raiders to a single chapter, else it will look a bit silly.

~Bob

Planning out the rear hull, this is the forward profile:



The Circles are the engine intakes. The central square will run all the way through the rear hull section;


Never lend your camera to anyone

The main beam will slot into the end. On top, and at the rear will be the thunderhawk rear section;



~ Bob

Cheers,

The rear hull is well underway;

From off the Starboard Bow


From off the Port Bow


From off the Port Quarter


High Port Bow with the Beam and Front hull in place


Low Port Bow with the Beam and Front hull in place


~ Bob

A long weekend away dodging Panzers at Detling, but still managed a bit more on the Warhawk.

Some rear Wings, the design is half-way between the thunderhawk and an epic warhawk;


To do the layered detail I cut the wing shape out 4 times (top and bottom for each wing) in 0.5mm plasticard.
I then glued them to each other with spraymount and sketched out where I wanted the gaps in the plates on the top plate.

Here they are with the rivet holes drilled;


And here I've cut the plates up


Next I'll need to use white spirit to unglue them from each other, then glue them onto the wings.

~Bob

Thanks for all the comments.

I've been distracted by Dark Vengence over the past week, as I'm sure many others have.


Scraping off all the DA iconography is a real pain.

But I've manage a few small advances with the project







~bob

Well a slow month for the project, distractions from the rest of life.

Returning with a small bit, the tails



Comparison between the standard thunderhawk tail and my design for the larger version.



for the large warhawk the set width of the t-hawk would not look right, so it starts at 2cm and shrinks to 5mm.



I think I'll eschew the t-tail of the thunderhawk and stick closer to the epic style.

~ Bob

 Kepora wrote:
...tell me, you think you'd ever be up for making an Iron warriors Thunderhawk? In a Black Crusade game, my fellow had "fat-bellied" thunderhawks, the lower half widened something like the dropship from Aliens. I'll try to mock up something in paint.net later...

You mean this ugly bug?


The old Space Marine Drop Ship is not very in keeping with the current space marine aesthetic.

I've nearly finished the Warhawk's rear engines


Exhausts on the left, Intakes on the right.

However; having mocked up the position on the hull I'll need to redesign the vehicle clamps. They partially block the intakes.

This will make the tanks hang a little lower, so I'll have to add a little to the bottom of the hulls. This will probably be done by creating housing for the landing pads

Lots to change, I'm glad I didn't detail those sections yet.

~Bob

 Kepora wrote:
No no, it was a ship of my own creation. It's kinda like your warhawk, but the same size as a Thunderhawk and with an enclosed 'belly' that could be detached to act as a temporary HQ/lab/etc.

Nice concept, thunderbird 2 style almost. I thought about having a special rule to allow the Warhawk to transport a Apoc stratagem in place of a land raider, like a jammer or force shield generator.

The main engines are in place and I've added the predator turret hard points



I've also updated the wing mounting points, before they tended to flop a little.



No idea why the engine cowling has a structure atop it, but it's on the epic model, so why not?



The Tail won't be attached 'till I've completed the detailing



C&C welcomed

~Bob