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@Hruotland - and not to hijack the thread: the commander figure sticking out of the cupola isn't driving. the driver in modern tanks (and, one would guess, in tanks of the far future, as well) sits in the front part of the lower hull, and has either a direct window, a periscope apparatus, and/or a video screen to look out of for driving.

Historically, while its less survivable for the guy who stick his head out of the tank, it's found to make the tank more survivable. It is because a tank so drastically limits its crews situational awareness that it's dangerous. Tank crews will generally only drive with hatches shut when fighting other tanks or they're concerned about artillery. The exposed crewman with a machinegun or in this case a storm bolter would be the main defense from infantry climbing on the tank.

@Hruotland: Thanks for stopping by! Glad you like what you see! Yeah, I always get enjoyment out of flipping through my copy of Rogue Trader, so many funny little tidbits! Well, I think Mythos has it right, it can be hard to protect from infantry with all hatches closed, and for older tanks, it was needed to see where one was driving sometimes given the weather or terrain. I personally like the idea of my tanks fighting other tanks more than infantry. I also prefer the closed look for aesthetic reasons, in that it looks kind of silly to me to see this big old Space Marine sticking out of a Cupola that in no way he could get in and out of. I've heard that GW/FW tanks are at a smaller scale than their figures. I'm more inclined to believe that a SM tank commander would probably be wearing scout armor over power armor, but whatever, rule of cool tends to win the day in 40k. Yeah, Cronus was cool in 5th, and he is still around in 6th/7th, although I think he is Ultramarines only. That's a great idea, using pennants like that, and it is nice and old school! Definitely a simpler solution than mine, although I appreciate that you like what I did with just a bottle cap and plasticard!
That's a good question. My immediate answer would be that I don't have a clue. Looking at pics of some real world tank interiors it honestly looks as if the commander stands on his chair and braces himself against the sides of his designated space, since even modern day tanks are pretty cramped. There is probably more to it than that, but it's beyond my knowledge!

Thanks Warboss_Waaazag, it was a fun process getting everything together!

Thanks GawdamSumbish and Mythos for chiming in! I should probably ask Aramus all this, seeing as he was a real-like tanker!

Yep, commander pants feet on chair, braces with hands/arms. The Historical images of the Panzer Commanders with their hands on the hatch pieces their feet are on the chair.

This is an awesome blog - you have some amazing stuff. Pretty sure this was probably asked elsewhere, but am too lazy to do more than look at pics - but do you have any painted/in action pictures?

Cool, good to know shasolenzabi, thanks for the verification!

Thanks kestral, glad you like everything! Hehe, that is the big question! Many of those who have been following my thread for awhile now know that I'm more of a builder than a painter. I do plan on painting everything at some point, but I really love just coming up with a concept or project and executing it. And after I finish one build there has always been another build I want to jump right into! I'm happy to say I've finally reached a good stopping point in terms of build. I have my metal T-hawk I want to put together and I will slowly complete my SM Landing Craft, and other than the occasional FW model, I'm out of possible projects that get me excited. Not saying I don't have any long term project ideas, I do, but I feel I can truly start reading up on and learning how to decently paint all of my vehicles now! Cross your fingers!

thanksalot for the enlightenment concerning tank crew, guys! - well Heliodore, I am indeed regularly reading your blog, just a silent lurker normally. There is only so much ways you can vary the theme of "great work man!",so I stay silent most of the time, but I am definitely an admirer of your stuff! Thumbs up, keep on rockin' cause I dig what ya do!

Thanks again Hruotland, glad you like keeping up with my updates! I totally understand what you mean about lurking and posting. I'm a rather shy guy in real life, so I tend to lurk more on Dakka than contribute, and even for general praise, I tend to restrain myself because just as you said, you can only say "awesome job" in so many ways that hasn't already been said by other posters or whatnot. I love a lot of the P&M blogs on Dakka, but only post on them occasionally, but I'm definitely lurking like there's no tomorrow! Hehe, thanks, I'll certainly keep on chugging along!

Ok! Got my heavy bolters in the mail today. These have been around the world for no good reason at this point, hehe, glad I have them again. They were the quad heavy bolters that came with the Storm Raptor, now they (or at least part of them) are on my Stormblade. The side sponsons and mini-turrets are both Machinator's of course. I think it looks quite nice all put together!

Really running out of superlatives for this tank! Really Really cool job! And those sponsons are awesome. Really love the semi circular look.

Just adds another extra visual difference / detail!

I can honestly say that that's one of the most amazing tank builds I've ever seen. Been a real privilege having a ring-side seat to its creation.

Those heavy bolters I sent you look good on there.

Thanks MagosBiff90 and Gitsplitta! You guys keep saying such nice things I'm kind of afraid to start painting anything! I'd hate to break the illusion that I know what I'm doing in this hobby of mine!

Thanks too Mythos, they came real fast! I thought they might be a bit small at first, but they came out just fine!

Hmmm, paint it, then make it all in mechanicus colors and repaint the cog-boy symbols in golds and such.

Hehe, I'll figure out something when the time comes. I'm currently in the middle of taking things in and out of storage, so painting is not in the cards for the time being (will it ever?).

However, I have finally convinced myself that it is time to build my metal Thunderhawk Gunship that I bought a couple of years back. I allowed myself to get intimidated by it, but I think I'm good and ready to get her off the ground!

Yup, for those of you familiar with this kit, GW originally made it to show off at Games Day 1995. At this point they were only made for staff members, and one or more were given out as prizes. I think three or so years later GW released it as a kit that was open to the public. I remember the adverts from those days, I knew I wanted one, but it was only a wish-listing at the time. Luckily, after saving some dough, I won one off of ebay, and now I'm finally fitting it all together!

As you can guess, it's going to need pinning and a lot of super-glue, maybe even epoxy or liquid nails on the inside. It's definitely not as large as the FW T-hawk or even close to the size of my two scratch builds. At this stage, it looks as if it will only be as big as a Fire Raptor, just heavier, hehe. After just one sit down this is where I'm at:

I've been waiting for this!

Please post lots of pics of the build. Such a rare thing. I was in the market years ago, then the price blew up crazy. I would love to see all the details that I will probably otherwise not.

Glad you're looking forward to it Mythos!

No prob jabbakahut, I'm pretty much posting my daily progression. If there is anything you want to specifically see feel free to ask! Yeah, I noticed that! 6 or so years ago you could probably still get it off Ebay for around its original price. Around the time I got mine it was just starting to go up. Today the price is staggering, but there also seems to be less on the market as well.

Well, up to today, I've pretty much completed steps 1-5 of the instruction manual.





The next step has a lot going on, but I've decided to only follow the instructions so far. Having looked at other builds online it seems like a good idea to leave the top portion of the main hull off till almost the end in order to maintain the visibility of certain parts that need to carefully line up. So far so good, but the pinning is pretty tedious!

You still planning to reinforce the landing gear, to avoid that problem with the weight these things have?

I think you should give your audience some pictures of the kits contents, the instructions, and maybe something to give the idea of weight and size. Jabbakahut is right, these are so rare at this point, its a matter of recording it all for posterity.

@Mythos: I'm considering it, although I'm not sure what I can do. As we know, due to the heavy weight of this guy gravity can easily take its toll on both the landing gears and wings. I am planning to reinforce the wings and engines with a couple of thick brass rods. For the landing gear I could possibly drill a hole straight through the main strut and place a thick brass rod there, which can then be used to pin it to both the feet and main hull.

Hmmm, ok, I can probably do that, there are a ton of pieces though, hehe. I'll definitely take some pics of it next to various vehicles, after its done, to show off the scale.

Yeah, I should mention that when these kits were "mass" released (limited to 500?) GW pulled out all the stops. It came in a nice lockable wooden case decorated around the edges with metal aquilas. The top was branded with an aquila and the production number. Also with the kit came an instruction manual, decals, a certificate of ownership, and a key for the case. You can see these items here:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?48650

The reason I can't show you these things is that the one I bought off Ebay didn't come with any of it, only the metal parts and a poor xerox of the instructions. In fact, the instructions I'm using I got off of Dakka's gallery. So a shout out to Hell_Jumper_056 for uploading high quality scans of the instructions!

My T-hawk seems to have a little story, since the guy who sold it to me passed along everything he had related to it. Sadly, there is no mention of what happened to all of its extra content, only that it has been passed from owner to owner a couple or more times. The cardboard box that held the pieces of my kit is an old GW mail order box, originally shipped from Nottingham to Chicago. It would be cool to think that this may have been one of the original twelve or so. Most likely, whoever originally bought it just lost, broke, and/ or threw away all the extras.

There were a handful of these beyond the 500 that were sent to stores and employees... those didn't get the fancy box.

Ah, that would make sense!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Some more progress:

Ah I forgot about this! Looks like it gonna quite heavy...

Hehe, you better believe it Commander Cain! I only have the main hull complete and this thing is already a potential murder weapon. I went ahead and glued the top sections of the hull on as per the instructions. I really hope the secondary hull/ engines actually fit on as the instructions suggest.



I've left off the riveted strips that line the roof and cover the gaps on purpose. I really need to wait till I get the secondary hull attached, because the instructions and all the pictures from White Dwarf seem to contradict each other, so I'll have to play it by ear.

From what I remember it comes in around 20 pounds when built.

Once built I wanna see how big it is next to a Storm Raven.

Metal T-hawk,,,,,,oh the memories!

@Mythos: I don't think its that heavy, I'll weight it when I all done, and I'll take a pic of it next to a Stormraven!
@shasolenzabi: Hehe, I certainly do recall the fun times had flipping through WD during the hay-day of 40k 2nd edition!

So, more progress after 4 tubes of super glue and three broken drill bits!



As you can see I ran out of super glue here:

Ugh, for something that beefy I'd almost consider using 2 part epoxy adhesive to cobble together the load bearing parts. I'm pretty curious how much it will weigh when done.

I considered using 2 part epoxy, for now I'm using a construction adhesive that's a little easier to spot glue, alongside the pinning and super glue. I'll be using thicker brass rods for the wings, I hope it holds together in the end, hehe. I know a fellow on Dakka who solved this problem by filling every nook and cranny of his T-hawk with resin, it was a lot of resin!

Good deal adding the rods for strength