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Planning on making an air wing for my imperial guard/PDF/militia battle group. Planes will be converted historical models (1/48th scale) because I'm not diggin the Imperial Auronoutica's theory of beating the air into submission and want something a little more aerodynamic (also it helps my planned air wing will cost roughly the same price(before modification) as a single forge-world fighter).

That aside my jets may well require pilots(mainly in a crewing position(or convertible I'm not afraid of tearing them apart and putting them back together; faster stronger, better...) Not so great with the putty yet(I guess I would not be asking this if I was lol), So here is my question pilots and/or pilot parts: Where to get them? Any suggestions for places to look for parts etc.

As of now
So decided what parts I will use and will use this as alternative Imperal Aeronautica blog for the project.

If you want seated pilots, the sentinel kit comes with a seated guy. You can get the forge world thunderbolt pilots on ebay but not sure how pricey it would be for shipping to NZ, and he's also in a standing static pose.

Just get the IG Valkyrie pilots.

EDIT: depending on how your plane's interior is, like if the seats are already there and just need the pilot for example; then I 2nd suggest sentinel pilot or taurox driver and gunner parts.

Have you had a look at Victoria Miniatures?

Yeah, have looked at Victoria Miniatures and Forgeworld, but I want crew in flight not tarmac.

But along with looking at historical flying kit(mainly post war era) it has given me an idea(and more importantly confidence) in what I want to emulate.

With Victoria Miniatures certainly going to use some of their metal gas-masks if I can't/decide not to get Valkyrie pilot heads(and likey their bodies as I want some female pilots(about 1/4 of my army is female so it makes sense for some to be in the navy).

Forge world pilot seems to be holding what looks like an Elysian helmet, and I like the idea of having a detachable mask.


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For any curious I plan to use an Airfix English Electric Canberra, two Trumpeter De Haviland Vampires and an Airfix Gloucester Meteor. All 1/48th scale.

I will however leave each craft's role open to rampart speculation.

So, decided I wanted Elysian helmets, Victoria miniature masks(probably bodies as well) Am confident to model harness and padded vest with milliput.

Want to model at least one head with visor up, which will be tricky as Forgeworld seemingly made none, but it's nothing some careful drill and scalpel work won't fix.
Visor should be easy enough to emulate with putty

Want to model at least 2 female pilot/aircrew (out of 6)

Want to model at least one mask off pilot drinking from a canteen, and another mask off, possibly female.(so yeah more drill and scalpel work.


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Will update this page when I do work on this project, but Don't expect any fast progress, Pilots will require being fit into their craft, and I've got a ton of land based projects at the moment. Which get the priority because I'm a raging tankaholic

That did not last long,

Meteor was on sale $20 off so I got it, a heap of paints and a Vampire at the same time.

Justified it by telling myself that I'll be able to see what I have to work with. (Canberra is basically a giant Meteor in design anyway)

And well $20 is nearly another bren gun carrier...

Waiting on heads and will have to get some bodies and more masks from Vic

Sooo, Vampire, Meteor and pilot heads have arrived, had a preliminary look at the sprues and they look good for it.

Nose cones have enough room for armaments I had in mind (auto cannons+las cannons) And Punisher cannon for Meteor.

Meteor's stubby wings seem well suited for addition of hard points (Which is great because it's to be my fighter bomber)

The conversion I have in store is almost a shame because Airfix have made such a beautiful kit.
Comes with fully detailed engine, trolly(for engine under maintainence) and 4x nose guns, options for a fighter or photographic recon.

Vampire is well a vampire, it's tiny and looks great. Is a comparatively basic kit (Instructions have 6 stages in all)


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Have 2x masks for my pilots and will have to order some more at some point, should not be hard to fit the pilots into the cockpits.

Boxart from kits




First Pilot Heads WIP






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Face in the middle is a Victoria miniatures Guthrie Female head.Still have to give her a riased visor, thinking styrene rather than putty.

Decided I didn't like the two raised sections on the front of the helmet so will trim them all off.

Happy with the mask turned out well and was very easy.


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Did not even have to use the drill!


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LOL just realised that Forgeworld din't line up the visor pins on either side of the helmet.

Mask is modified by cutting the pipes off a Victoria Miniature's gas mask (be really careful not to cut the straps(as you can see I cut the strap on the left hand side. Glue one over the grill on the front of the mask. Trim off any unwanted details with a sharp knife.

Here's my 1x Cadian for scale

Vampire



Meteor Wingspan


Meteor Fuselage

How's the cockpit size for 40k models? I found 1/48 WW2 models the cockpit was way too small for 40k models, going up to 1/32 the cockpit was probably too big (maybe the right size for an Ork?) but then 1/32 are too huge to be used in a 40k game nicely.

I did think maybe using a really small aircraft in 1/32 might work.

My cockpits are looking pretty spacious at the moment Skink, but pilots will certainly be much reduced from the norm of Cadian chunkiness,

Some Piloty Inspiration, why post war pilots you ask? Feel of Imperial Aeronautica seems stuck between ww2 and more 'modern' aviation so it fits, and well the uniforms haven't changed much!
Forgeworld Pilot

Vic's Pilot

Australian Pilots Korean war

North Korean Pilot (Mig 15 I think)



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My guys will have life jackets and parachutes instead of that weird padded vest.
Also planning on purchasing this kit at this stage: (read: when I've finished some other projects!)

Airfix Canberra, sould have attaching points for rockets (handy that!)

Worked on other 4 pilot heads(only one more facial transplant thank heavens!), haven't worked on visors yet, haven't ordered torsos or legs(as waiting on Victoria-miniatures to email me when they have some gas masks in stock. And then I'll put a big order in. Need to buy a whole sprue white metal masks)

All of my pilot heads have faces now! Just waiting for that email for the masks!


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Aircrew heads thus far, as follows:

Male aircrew mask off visor up, Canberra
Undecided Male pilot mask on visor down ?Vampire?
Female pilot mask off visor up Meteor (my ground attack pilot, purposely chose this head for that grin, the grin of someone who evidently likes their job.)

Last 3 undecided as yet but here's a thought:
Female aircrew mask on/off (face is neither here nor there) visor down ?Canberra?
Male pilot mask on, visor up ?Vampire? (like the idea of this guy sorta looking over his shoulder in a "Can"t bloody shake him" moment. Alternately could make a great Canberra bombardier in a real "You like it hot scum?!")
Male pilot visor down mask off taking a drink ?Canberra? (don't be mislead that this guy is the only one with a mask on, he's going to have his off)

Totally overthought those Elysian visors, ended up putting a sausage of milli-put over each pilot's helmet from visor pin to visor pin, flattened it and squared the bottom side so it didn't get on the pilot's face, waited for it to dry, put each head next to an unmodified Elysian for reference and used my knife to carve off any excessive putty. Then cut the two angels on each side and carefully craved out indent the bit for the nose. All in all looking good.

Vampire ans meteor pilots at mocked up 'bust' stage held together with bluetack.
Vampire

Meteor



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Didn't want to bend the hose too much because it'll break!

Pretty happy with her myself, Was also reading a bit on Imperail Aeronautica

My 2x vampires are going to represent Thunderbolts (they may suit lightnings more by being small interceptors but I found the lightning underwhelming in armament and loadout(besides I couldn't work out where I'd put a single cannon)

Thunderbolt loadout as follows (I am condident I can dril that many holes in the nose)
2x las cannon
4x auto cannon

+(2x of any of these I guess (based on the Avenger index from forgeworld(well a tiny photo of it I found online( although it would make more sense to have fewer hardpoints)
6x bombs
4x anti tank missiles
or
6x anti aircraft missiles
No word on anti-personnel missiles (in other words you'd better bet I'll be covering that with 57mm FFAR pods)


Meteor is an avenger, except it'll be more like a real ground attack craft (like a SU 25 Frogfoot or A10 Warthog) It will carry a TON of ordinance. (Totally just going to have 2 magnetised hard points each wing)

1x Bolt cannon (I guess they wanted to do better than the A10, but I'll be going with a regular punisher, becasue I'm not trying to impress anyone)
2x las cannons
1x heavy stubber (totally going to leave that out(might go Aussie beaufighter style and have 4 of the bastards, but in the wings, facing the front)

+(2x of any of these I guess (based on the Avenger index from forgeworld(well a tiny photo of it I found online)

6x bombs
2x Anti-personnel missiles (lol they have not heard of FFAR? besides, when someone needs to die that bad that you're using a guided missile you just fire an anti-tank missile at them)(perhaps could be thermo-baric instead? Ooo, nasty, but still 2x missiles on each wing or both wings is not acceptable)
2x anti-tank missiles (pitiful, really is, mine will have a tonnage of missiles)
2x missile launchers (i guess if you want more versatility perhaps with auto loaders? interesting idea, but I don't think I'll buy into that idea)
2x auto cannons
2x multi-lasers



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Canberra - Marauder
Not going to have weapons turrets all over it like, It will instead have a nose full of hostile metal and aggressive pilots.

Will put hard points on wings (perhaps 3x each side)
Normal bomb load
12x 200kg bombs (quite light I thought)
Or
6x 400kg bombs


Will add choices for additional loadout.
2x mass ordinance(1200kgmrs, hardly I know)
2x mass ordinance penetrator
2x mass ordinance air burst
6x Barrel bombs, lots of em
Tactical Nuclear Option (what better for aerial interdiction? lol)
FFAR, more pods, the more the merrier
Auto-cannon pods
Las cannon pods
Punishers?
Racks of Missiles (I'll have options for Anti-aircraft or Anti-tank thank you very much)

Pilot dry fits in the vampire, wasn't such a hard task and he's looking good!





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Made him an oxygen mask regulator(on his belt which will connect to a cylinder on his ejection seat) and modified him some arms, (putty on which is drying) He's basically a single unit with his seat at this point.

So could not put required amount of hole in vampire nose. Instead of making it an ugly fraken-plane by trying to fit the weaponry(I mean I am using the vampire because it looks cool). I have thought on the issue. I have come to the conclusion that: Hey, why am I actually making it a re-skin of an existing vehicle? I mean it would be odd next to my entire army. Besides a vampire is not a Thunderbolt. It'll be it's own thing.

Should be able to make a good lightning out of it if you're interested, and you'll be able to use most of this blog for that.

Showing excellent discipline I put a order in for paint and some modelling supplies (as the closest model shop is 65kms away and although it's great, does not have the best range) And I brought the Canberra as well. Looking forwards to seeing it in the plastic.


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The Vampire's fluff.

The KLAFI 0138 BI M21 Mk2 Baza

Lighter than its more common counterpart the Lightning Interceptor, the Baza has more powerful turbo-jet, and much less armour and thus is more agile. The Baza is equipped for dog fighting other craft where it makes use of it's agility and speed to overcome it's foe. Although it is comparatively lightly armed the Baza is extremely versatile and is capable of being kitted with a wide array of under-wing weapons systems. The Baza was desined by Bruenell Industries on Klomn, and it's designs have been made available to many forgeworlds in Segmentum Tempest.

Designation: Klomn Air Frame Interceptor 0138 Bruenell Industries Model 21 Mk2 "Baza"

Armarment:

Nose
2x 37mm automatic cannons
4x 15mm machineguns or 4x multi-lasers with similar performance

Wing hard points are capable of taking:
2x 225 Kg bombs
2x 3 75kg bomb clusters
2x 3 anti tank missiles clusters
2x 3 anti aircraft missile clusters
2x Hyperion heavy anti-aircraft missiles
2x Wyvern heavy anti-tank missiles
2x 32 57mm FFAR pods
2x 225 lt extended fuel tanks
2x 15mm machineguns/multi-lasers in gun pods
2x las cannon in gun pods
2x 37mm auto cannons in gun pods

Wing tip hard points:
2x Anti-aircraft missiles
2x extended fuel tanks

Canberra will be the centre-piece of my air-wing. In real life it was designed as a fast bomber being able to outrun fighters and operate at higher altitudes. Therefore paying homage to the actual design of the craft I will modify it from the mold of the marauder bomber. I believe the model will be much bigger too. In light of this I have come up with some roles it could fulfill.

Super heavy fighter
Developed mainly to counter threats such as giant flying nids, ork bombers formations, traitor Valkyrie (which are in the fluff slower than other aircraft) or marauder formations, tau mantas and any kind of large target or landing craft.
The craft will have options for gunpods, AA missiles and big AA missiles.

A super heavy ground attack
Carrying a ton of ordinance to annhilate ground targets at low altitude. Mainly carrying out AT and rocket runs against ground targets. Will have access to many heavy AT weapons. Can be loaded light(for speed) or heavy(for killy).

Fast bomber
A halved amount of ordinance and the thing is in and out like lightning.

Standard bomber
For when you just need to drop a lot of bombs and you're not worried much about interception or ground fire, put that engine power to good use hauling bombs.

This thing won't see the table top, but it will be fun to make. Pity they don't have a speed mechanic for aircraft on table top.

 OldMate wrote:
Canberra will be the centre-piece of my air-wing. In real life it was designed as a fast bomber being able to outrun fighters and operate at higher altitudes. Therefore paying homage to the actual design of the craft I will modify it from the mold of the marauder bomber. I believe the model will be much bigger too. In light of this I have come up with some roles it could fulfill.

Super heavy fighter
Developed mainly to counter threats such as giant flying nids, ork bombers formations, traitor Valkyrie (which are in the fluff slower than other aircraft) or marauder formations, tau mantas and any kind of large target or landing craft.
The craft will have options for gunpods, AA missiles and big AA missiles.

A super heavy ground attack
Carrying a ton of ordinance to annhilate ground targets at low altitude. Mainly carrying out AT and rocket runs against ground targets. Will have access to many heavy AT weapons. Can be loaded light(for speed) or heavy(for killy).

Fast bomber
A halved amount of ordinance and the thing is in and out like lightning.

Standard bomber
For when you just need to drop a lot of bombs and you're not worried much about interception or ground fire, put that engine power to good use hauling bombs.

This thing won't see the table top, but it will be fun to make. Pity they don't have a speed mechanic for aircraft on table top.

Running it as a Marauder Destroyer could work. Three twin-linked autocannons in the nose, twin-linked assault cannons in the tail, twin heavy bolters in a dorsal turret behind the cockpit, six bombs in the bay and up to eight missiles on wing pylons.

Oh no it's got no gun turrets, think giant jet powered mosquito, instead of b17

Canberra arrived on Saturday, (I went to a party and well, only got back this arvo) Beast of a model, 40cm wingspan, 50cm ish body, If you wanted to make it an maruater you should be able to drill requisite weaponry in the nose and paint over clear nose.

As it is I'll have an interesting craft. with options for a fast bomber, heavy fighter or heavy strike craft


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As a craft comparable to the marauder destroyer I'll be able to fit bombs on 2x hard points on the wings, then magnetise the bomb bay, and belly gun-pod (which will fit 4x auto cannons

Of course this is on top of nose mounted weapons which will likely consist of las-cannons, and perhaps auto-cannons or something similar

Saying that the more vanila version will have full bomb load.

Kit comes with 2 types of 1000ib bomb, 6x rounded nose or 6x tapered nose,
2 missiles,
4xfuel tanks
4x rocket pods
and of course 4x 20mm cannon belly gunpod

So it is quite good value wise if you are looking for something that looks nice and can stand in as a marauder on a friendly tabletop.

brought bases for aircraft,
2x50mm for vampires
125x? Oval for Meteor
150x170 Oval for canberra
bit of a stuggle finding the ordinance I wanted, (as I wanted it to be a bit consistant between craft)
So far I have decided this

AT missile: IG HWT missile - yeah that torpedeo looks sorta similar to Russian air-surface AT missiles
AP missile guided Hellstrike: That squad ugly HK from the russ I think, chunckier missile, heavier payload is the thought
AA missile light: got this coming:

Have bombs with canberra and others in pack. Want to check out the gun pods from the kit above as well
Rockets: Blood and skulls
medium/heavy AA missiles:Blood and skulls
Fuel pods mostly already in kits

underside auxillary fuel tank for meteor is the right size to fit the punisher cannon so that's happy news! will post a pic later

That kit arrived, 4x 20mm gun pods that will suit 40k auto cannons. and 2x 30mm pods that suit las cannons. So all up I'll have 4x las cannon pods and 8xauto cannons. Also have plenty of air to air missiles and a few anti ground missiles. All looking pretty good.

I would love to see a WIP photo of the gun pods, as I always found those interesting to look at in historic models. And if it is not too much hassle, could you maybe post a WIP size comparison of the Vampire, the Canberra, Meteor and some Games Workshop model? I would be really interested how they match up.

Looking forward to see your airwing,
cheers,
Pyro

Sorry Pyro, not working on these at the moment. Am working on ground units ATM. But can say I'll be able to fit auto cannons on the 20mm gunpods. And Las cannons in the 30mm ones. Would be cool to have assault cannon pods.
.

Well, the Vampires project is officially reactivated, I have assembled both pilots and they're at stations, will be painting the pilots up and the cockpit over the next two afternoons/nights hopefully and then I can glue the aircrafts together.

I have also acquired a ground attack aircraft from models and minis. So whilst it's assembeled already it should be a suitable stand in for a FW thunderbolt.