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Well, here is some more then. ^^
Added some extra thrusters, changed the turret, and tried out the canards. I temporarily set the turret on those two magnets so it sits at the correct height. This gives me a reasonable idea how to build the chin down and around the thrusters.

C&c welcome.

That's gorgeous Meph! WOW!

I'll take one... trade you a Mantis Warrior for it... * big grin*

Hehehe, it'd have to be a mighty big warrior. Cheers mate!

Alrighty, a direction has been taken. I've layered the chin up to exactly the height of the round base. Thankfully, three layers of plasticard is exactly the right thickness.
Never mind the rough, stepped edges you see. I gave them a little bit of leeway so I can easily sand them down to a flush angle. The bit behind the turret i'll box up as normal and slope back up to the top of the forward ramp.

Looking more complete with each update. You are really taking it further to the Storm Hawk than ever before

Tadaaa!


Alrighty, after a long vacation, it's time to pick things up again. i haven't gotten round to painting anything yet but I have been practicing my plasticard-fu.
The chin section is complete and I've figured out how to mount it. The whole assembly neatly slips into place and sits relatively solid during dry-fitting, so when glued it will be a firm joining. Maybe I'll add some extra internal strengthening if needed.

As a whole, I finally have the feeling that I'm getting somewhere. The sides will be easily closed using some plasticard paneling but any suggestings for details or greebles there are welcome. Same goes from the empty back section. On the sides, I'm even thinking about a plasticard wing cutout on the sides but I'm not sure if I can cut that accurately enough.

What say you?

That's thinking about becoming a Thunderhawk....

lol yeah, it has grown a bit from the original concept. The accessibility of the front ramp demanded it. :-/
I don't own one, but I'm guessing it's about 2/3 of the length of a Thunderhawk. it's probably a lot slimmer though.

It's got the right feel though Meph. You're doing a fantastic job with it... real pleasure to watch it come to fruition.

Thats so cool! nuff said

Cheers guys!

Some great conversion work! I agree, it does look more like a thunderhawk. I've always wondered if it would be feasible somehow to combine 2-3 stormraven kits into a kit-bashed thunderhawk. Would definitely be more economical. Anyway, looking forward to seeing you finish up the mods.

Cheers Eggroll!
Alrighty, got the top section sorted out. It's not glued on at the moments as I still need the access for the wing magnets, but it sits almost perfectly flush with the rest of the hull.
The sides have been closed up as well. First I thought to do some more elaborate paneling or a large BA wing cutout, but for the first I felt too lazy and for the second there was not enough room. The area is a bit too low and long for a large icon cutout.
I have some white a transparent decal laserjet paper lying about I intend to use for this. The little top plate is perfect for a decal with the name of the ship, and the large bottom plate seems like a good place to put some artwork. I'm thinking to use some GW art, post-prod something together in Photoshop and print out a full colour decal with some epic imagery. It will allow for much greater detail than a feehand and it will keep the visual style nice and tight.

The end is starting to get in sight for this build, yay.

I'm guessing that the build is about 95% complete now. Just some sanding here and there and add some extra detail.
Things done over the week:
-Magnetized the wings
-Some greenstuff gap filling
-Made the 'shoulders' for the canards to sit on. Looks better than expected.
-Added a piece to the main wings to give them the same forward sweep as the canards and tail planes. The macro perspective of the photo's does tend to distort this but all three wing surfaces now have a 10° forward sweep.

At first I thought to close the gap between the wing add-ons and the main wing using greenstuff, but actuallyI I like the look it has now. I figure it will be easier to paint those up as leading edge flaps, with weathering to clearly show that they can move, rather than to use a lot of greenstuff and excessive sanding to perfectly hide the seam. Best to hide in plain sight then I thought. ^^

Any thoughts?

Stunning work. Does the forward sweep do anything aeronautical? (I mean IRL.)

BAdaBa Im lovin it

Cheers guys!
Yeah, a forward swept wing (FSW) has loads of advantages. It's a design inspired by most birds. Because of the forward angle on the leading edge, the air tends to flow 'inwards' over the wing, adding more air for lift and maneuverability. And the position of the wing tip reduces what they call wing tip vorteces, when the air 'slips' of the wingtip and starts spiraling over the wing and negating the lift of that wing area. That's why you see those winglets on the tips of commercial airliner wings, they 'cut' those vorteces, giving the wing lift over the entire surface, and this also results in better fuel usage. On military planes they don't use these winglets as they add way too much radar bounce-back.
The reason the FSW design is so rare is because it's so difficult to construct. The wing flexes way more than a conventional wing under incredible loads.

The Russians managed to get a design that could go Mach 2+, the Su-47 Berkut.

Wow, that's pretty cool. Thanks!

cool

Amazing work, I should really get cracking on my ravens, though they will pale in comparison.

Excellent work! I am really digging the Landraiders. The metallic red on the BA is great to!

Cheers guys, I'm really glad you're liking it. I've slowly been working on it during the week, like an hour or two every day and then 3-4 hours Saturday and Sunday. So actually I've clocked quite a few hours on just those canards and wing extensions and some greenstuff. Cutting, gluing, sawing, sanding, greenstuffing... The comments make the hour-sum feel less heavy. ^^

Still, it's a quite relaxing thing to do after a hectic day at the office.

Hehe looks good

Thanks mate!

Hmmm... dipping or spraying?

To colour the transparent cockpit glasses. I am thinking of using some GW sepia or green ink mixed into Klear to get the hue. But would I spray it on using my airbrush, or would I dip the canopy into the mix and then set somewhere to drain off and dry...?

airbrushing it from afar would make more sense, because then it would stay on. if you dip it the ink will drain off

Meph wrote:Thanks mate!

Hmmm... dipping or spraying?

To colour the transparent cockpit glasses. I am thinking of using some GW sepia or green ink mixed into Klear to get the hue. But would I spray it on using my airbrush, or would I dip the canopy into the mix and then set somewhere to drain off and dry...?

Heh I had the same idea for my storm raven when I get around to assembling and painting it. I saw some glass paint at my arts and crafts store that I figure will work well. For yours I recommend you use the ink which should work just as well. Make sure it is ink and not the GW wash as the GW wash isn't as transparent and will dry matte which you wouldn't want for your cockpit. Just water down some ink and spray it as you normally would from your airbrush. If it's watered down you can do multiple coats to get the right tint. If you're really nervous, try it on a bit of the clear sprue. Once done, post pics...I haven't done any glass tinting myself yet so I'd like to learn from your mistakes

lol, that's some good thinking. I don't mind taking one for the team, lol

Hmmm spraying does seem more controllable. And I think I'll definitely do some tests on clear sprue (or the neighbour's car's headlights?). Since I'll be mixing the brew myself I'll probably want to experiment with the tint and thickness...

After having some leftover paint after a DIY job, I decided to use the half-liter thinned Levis wall paint as an undercoat. Yup, water-based paint you would normally use to paint your walls with, thinned with water. ^^

It much clearer to see like this which parts need some more attention for green stuff and sanding. Overall I'm pleased with the smoothness. The file lines you see on the back are actually from the sanding, the actual seam has gone. It just needs a wee bit more green stuff here and there to make the parts fully flush.
Also, there's a first time shot of the Dreadnought clamp, and yes, the door has clearance enough.

Whaddayathink?

That. Is. Awesome.

I think it is actually impossible to quantify just how much better that is than the stock model.

Beautiful.

Thanks guys, I'm happy it's being well received. the design was a difficult birth. ^^

Woops, I noticed I first linked an old pic, so I updated the first images of the previous post.