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I've decided I need to beef up my Imperial Navy as my army is pretty weak in regards to flyers. I really like the Forgeworld Marauder Destroyer but cannot see myself shelling out $314 to buy one. I was looking at WWII bombers all last week and think the B-25H Mitchell "closely" resembles the Marauder Destroyer. Hopefully I can make it look like it will fit in the 40k universe. I got my 1/48 scale Monogram B-25H for around $20 off of eBay today.

It's a little smaller than I would have liked but I think I can make it work. The cockpit was supposed to sit two however, the 40k universe will only allow one. Used a sentinel driver body, valkyrie pilot head to make the pilot. Think it is coming along. I will work on the heavy bolter gunner next.

It's looking good so far. I think the biggest issue might be conversion on the exterior so it doesn't look like a ww2 bomber with imperial bits stuck on.

Good luck dude, using cheaper models and converting them is a brilliant idea, I've done it myself

Thanks. Yeah, I'm going to have to straighten all the curves on the wings and fins to make it look more futuristic. I have a lot of bits in the bits box.

TBH it's not a very good base for a conversion. The actual Marauder model is 17" long with a 15" wingspan. The B-25 is a lot shorter and only matches the wingspan because it has long thin wingtips, so it's going to look way too small. You've noticed how small the cockpit is compared to a 40k-scale pilot, and it's going to be even worse when you see how thin and tiny the rest of the plane is. I guess it might be good enough if you just want a cheap proxy to use the rules, but I don't think it's going to look very much like the real model without completely rebuilding it to the point that you might as well buy the FW kit.

@Peregrine- I guess proxy would be a better word than conversion. My intent is not to replicate the forgeworld model but to make it look like futuristic bomber and give it the same armaments as the Marauder. I plan on extending the front nose out in order to fit the auto cannons. This should add about two inches or more in the length.
I have already made "proxies" a Macharius Vulcan and a Cassus armored transport. Both have turned out decent in my opinion. On top of the money issue, I also believe the 40k universe is full of many non-standard variants of vehicles and war machines.

Finished building the Heavy bolter gunner. Looks like he is looking into periscope type sights. IG tank sprue pieces plus parts from the kit. Next is the twin-linked assault cannon tail gunner.

That is very cool, and a very unique idea!!

Thanks MeanDM! Found some pilot looking dude in my bits box, used him as the tail gunner. Had two assault cannons from an old Epic Chaos vehicle. Got the tail gunner done, bomb bay, and command bay done. I was going to add more detail to the command bay however I don't think you will be able to see much on the inside from the small small windows one I close everything up. Going to work on painting the interior now so I can close her up and start the exterior modifications.

Finished the interior today. Next on going to work on the main wings and beefing up the hull with air damns to give it a wider stance. Without the front nose the bomber is only about an inch longer than the Valkyrie. I've had Anakin's pod racer kit for some time now. I've definitely going to use the engines for the bomber engines. I saw a few pieces that can be used as air damns. I'll probably have to fabricate the rest of the items needed to widen her up some.

Yeah, definitely needs a lot of work to add some bulk to make it a credible superheavy. Right now it almost looks smaller than some of the non-superheavy fighters. Here's a quick size comparison of the real one with a Vulture (pretty much a modified Valkyrie).

Also, I'd get rid of the gunner on the rear turret and replace it with a remote turret like the FW kit. There's no plausible way to have a gunner fit into such a tiny space, so having a head poking out looks really weird.

I'd have used a b-52 for that conversion if I were you.

There is a glass top window that goes over the tail gunner section so it won't look like he's popping out of the top. I thought about the b-52 but the tail fins were more similar to a marauder on a b-25. Anyways, I still think I can make it work.


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Thanks for the size comparison.

One thing I thought of: your B-25 kit is way too small to be a superheavy flyer, but it's about the right size to be an Avenger. If you remove the tail turret the weapons are pretty much the same, so you can keep most/all of your work so far.

 Invicta wrote:
There is a glass top window that goes over the tail gunner section so it won't look like he's popping out of the top.

It's not the lack of a window, it's that there's nowhere inside the plane for the gunner's body to go. It looks like you have a random head glued to the gun mount, not an actual turret + gunner.

I'm liking how it's looking so far, but there are some issues with Bulk. But as long as the conversion has a similar foot-print in terms of wing-span, length etc I don't see a problem with it.

And that tail gunner could easily be a hard-wired servitor with no legs. Which would explain why he can function in such a confined space.

Built the center fin over the hull. I widened the main wings. I'm still going to add downward 45 degree tips to the ends of them. I need to build the landing gear first. I started building the nose and mounting the 6 autocannons. Gun tip to gun tip she measures over 16 inches long. So, that's pretty close to the measurements of the actual marauder. I'm going to build the armor skirts for the front nose so the transition from the square front end to the rounded hull is smoother. The arm damn will be next, to bulk up her hull and hopefully find some more useful bits to bulk up the tail end.

I was going to just have one engine per wing and use the engines from the pod racer kit but the gap between the hull and the engines would have been really wide. I would have had to build ridiculously large air damns on the sides of the hull. I opted to use the stock engines without the propeller and add the pod racer engine as well. Even though they are different engine styles I think they look ok. Thoughts?

I think I'm done. I just need to green stuff the gaps and she will be ready for paint.

Sweet arse conversion man.

Very cool!!
I love converting as well!!
Keep up the good work!!

Good job! Looking forward to seeing it finished. It'll work great.

Thanks everyone!

Base coat is almost done. The build is almost complete. The last thing I have to do is add the missiles. Unfortunately I only have two hellstrike missiles so the other 6 missiles are going to have to be hunterkillers. I think it will look ok.

Got a similar conversion myself sitting behind me atm waiting for priming. But I stuck with the WWII look, cause thats how my army is themed.

@steelcult - You should post some pictures, I'm very interested in seeing your army!


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Base coat and assembly done, now for the fine detail work.

Bitchin'! That turned out very well. The double engines really change the look and give it good bulk. Like the color scheme too.

Thanks! I think she came out pretty good. I just have to glue the glass peices and I'm finished. Here is a close up of the pilot and tail gunner

Finished. On to the next project! A few shot from all angles and some size comparisons

Well... That's just awesome

Are you planning to convert something else in the future?