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If this had come out a few years back, I'd have been all over it.

Unfortunately, I've reached the point where I'm having to seriously purge my collections, and I just don't have the space - or money - for it anymore.

Such a shame, it would make an excellent display piece, I'm sure.

yeah,
I already have one!... oh wait it crashed.


I need a new one

Panic...

I'll be buying one.

I have a forgeworld one, also have an original forgeworld baneblade too. Never used either one on a tabletop. They are just cool models.

For the record, last Christmas I treated myself to a Tamiya F4U-4 Corsair in 1/32 scale, it was £100 or so, and while GW lacks the finesse of tamiya when it comes to kit designs, the thunderhawk is quite a bit bigger than that, so it would even be reasonable value if the £125 price proves accurate, that's about £100 from wayland or element games.

 Peregrine wrote:
I think you're seriously understating the difficulty in building plastic kits well. Even with plastic kits you're going to be spending quite a bit of time removing mold lines, straightening warped parts, filling gaps, etc. And a plastic Thunderhawk is going to be an intimidating kit for a newbie for that reason, just like a resin Thunderhawk would be.

Have you built any of the recent Tamiya kits? They go together like a bloody dream. No straightening warped parts, minimal mould line removal, the pieces just fit together so well that gap filling is very minor and sometimes non existent. The size of GW's panel lines, they could hide the fit points in the panel lines and you'd have nothing at all to fill.

I doubt GW will be able to put out a kit as good as Tamiya's, probably not, but even if it's half as good I'd still prefer a plastic one over a resin one.

Hell, even if it's Airfix quality I'd still rather a plastic one over a resin one.

Resin can be more detailed than plastic, but that's not a big deal on a model like a Thunderhawk. The common thing with some scale aircraft is to make the aircraft plastic but have resin cockpit/engine details, as those are the only areas where the extra detail is typically needed.

Oh feth, not every day I hear someone prefer Airfix over resin. Even their recent kits are utter gak to put together.

But then again, I am spoiled by the likes of Tamiya's and Games Workshop in general.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Have you built any of the recent Tamiya kits?

Nope, but I should clarify that I'm talking about GW's plastic kits. Other manufacturers may do better, but we can expect GW's new Thunderhawk kit to follow the trend of their other plastic kits.

I'll get one, no hesitation.

I don't play the game, and haven't since 3rd (4th?) edition, but would love to have one to paint.

I've been watching eBay for the old metal model, but if plastic is soon to be released...

 Peregrine wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Have you built any of the recent Tamiya kits?

Nope, but I should clarify that I'm talking about GW's plastic kits. Other manufacturers may do better, but we can expect GW's new Thunderhawk kit to follow the trend of their other plastic kits.

What other plastic GW kits are you talking about? I haven't built any of their recent kits so mostly I'm hoping they've improved since days gone by


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 BrookM wrote:
Oh feth, not every day I hear someone prefer Airfix over resin. Even their recent kits are utter gak to put together.

Airfix is a real mixed bag, some are great some are terrible. Airfix have a real problem with warpage on some of their kits that other companies seem to avoid.

Still rather have them over resin though Especially for something that's basically a giant box.

 Peregrine wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Have you built any of the recent Tamiya kits?

Nope, but I should clarify that I'm talking about GW's plastic kits. Other manufacturers may do better, but we can expect GW's new Thunderhawk kit to follow the trend of their other plastic kits.

So highly detailed, a decent price.
10% of people complaining that it's not for there army, 10% of people complaining about how it looks, 20% of people just complaining for the hell of it and the rest of us will either buy it or keep quiet because nobody wants to read through pages and pages of the same people up on their soapboxes.

A sturdy kit that goes together without too much hassle or trouble. They've come a long way since.

 Rolsheen wrote:
nobody wants to read through pages and pages of the same people up on their soapboxes.

And yet apparently that doesn't apply to people spending page after page on their soapbox about how bad it is to criticize GW, and how a plastic Thunderhawk is the greatest thing ever.

Has anyone ever had GW plastic warped, if so on which kits?

morgoth wrote:
Has anyone ever had GW plastic warped, if so on which kits?

I had an awful Ophidian Archway. It was twisted and didn't fit in the slightest. I didn't buy a second to find out if it was a one off.
However. I have a feeling this was one of those models made in China and not at GW.

My only complaint with the latest GW kits is the poor location of mould lines. There was a time when I thought GW were getting very clever with hiding mould lines, for example those snap fit chaos cultists needed barely any work. Some of the newest models take an age to clean up and although the detail is more intricate, the mould line placement is much less thought out.

Anyway, I can imagine the largest flat panels of the Thunderhawk to be slightly warped, but with rubber bands and good plastic glue will fit together as well as the large pieces of the old warhammer fortress - was that GW or China made?

 Gimgamgoo wrote:

morgoth wrote:
Has anyone ever had GW plastic warped, if so on which kits?

I had an awful Ophidian Archway. It was twisted and didn't fit in the slightest. I didn't buy a second to find out if it was a one off.
However. I have a feeling this was one of those models made in China and not at GW.

From the screens I've seen, that's not GW plastic or even a regular GW sprue.

Yesterday, I posted about the challenges of building a kit like this.

Today, I'm giving some thought to painting the Thunderhawk.

Apart from the practical problems of how to hold the damn thing, and having to paint it in sub assemblies as it were, getting the colour scheme right will also be a challenge.

In my experience, painting big kits in say, the Ultramarine colours, can often leave you with a wall of colour, or in this case, a blue brick

So I'm hoping that there will be plenty of secondary details such as engines for example, that can be painted in a different colour, in order to break up the chapter colour that will dominate the model.

Hopefully, there will be space for chevrons, battle markings, heraldry etc etc

Weathering and other battle damage does help, but you don't want to be OTT with that. A balance is needed.

The thunderhawk should have a rule like drop chute insertion, to represent it flying low and the marines diving out.

You break up the single colour by using weathering.

Preshading, that is, painting a dark colour along the panel gaps and so on before laying down the main colour leaves the edges of panels looking darker.

Post shading uses a lighter mix of the main colour to further lighten the centers of panels, so there is a lot of tonal variations.

Do an image search for tamiya f-16 to see how what is in reality a block of grey can look interesting and varied using this.

NoggintheNog wrote:
You break up the single colour by using weathering.

Preshading, that is, painting a dark colour along the panel gaps and so on before laying down the main colour leaves the edges of panels looking darker.

Post shading uses a lighter mix of the main colour to further lighten the centers of panels, so there is a lot of tonal variations.

Do an image search for tamiya f-16 to see how what is in reality a block of grey can look interesting and varied using this.

Wise words

morgoth wrote:
Has anyone ever had GW plastic warped, if so on which kits?

Every Rhino or Land Raider I've ever put together has been warped. Granted, the more recent kits have been better.

morgoth wrote:
Has anyone ever had GW plastic warped, if so on which kits?

Not in a very long time.

Perry is dramatically overstating the difficulty of plastic kits, especially GW ones as their plastic technology has advanced.

I heard horror stories about the Plasma Cannon emplacement.

Then I got one.

No issues with it.

Always possible I got lucky (and I am noted for my jamminess). Even then, quick warming from a hair dryer sorts many ills.

 NivlacSupreme wrote:
The thunderhawk should have a rule like drop chute insertion, to represent it flying low and the marines diving out.

you wouldn't really need a big model to represent a rule like that.

Vorian wrote:
Given that Smaug was their #1 model in the year it was released... and that I doubt they were bought as gaming pieces (!) and yet GW somehow survived this.... I'm going to guess they'll survive the piles of money this thunderhawk will bring.

It's also a pretty safe bet that most people paying £125+ for one are going to have some idea of the size and understand it's really not much of a gaming piece

Smaug would have been bought almost exclusively by collectors/painters. For gaming i did not like Smaug's pose or base outside using it for RPGs. To my knowledge we never had clear feedback from GW if it was the best selling model by volume or by profit or something else.

While a good portion of people will buy a plastic Thunderhawk to collect/paint, a significant number of buyers will want to game with it at some point. Even if the model is significantly lighter and you use a CD sized heavy lead base due to the footprint of the actual model it is going to take up a large portion of a tile and be a hazard to be knocked. The longer the flight stand stem the greater the leverage, the lower the stem the more it impedes scenery/movement for other models. I regularly game with smaller flyers such as Storm Eagles or Lightning and those are prone to knocks when the action becomes close quarters, something that never happens to my super heavy tanks.

I'm certainly not saying that GW shouldn't make it, nor am I saying don't buy one, just carefully consider if you'll get more use out of something else as I haven't had much use out of my Resin Thunderhawk but I do get a lot of use out of my other super heavies.

Ok, I've covered assembly and painting, but I suppose the final question is this:

What's the best way to transport this damn thing around without breaking it?

Is there a big enough carry case out there, or will people have to build their own?

For people on a budget, factoring in the carry case question is something to consider...

Convert it to make it an RC vehicle and fly it to battles.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Ok, I've covered assembly and painting, but I suppose the final question is this:

What's the best way to transport this damn thing around without breaking it?

Is there a big enough carry case out there, or will people have to build their own?

For people on a budget, factoring in the carry case question is something to consider...

Mount it as a hood ornament on the front of your car?

I'm pretty sure KR has a case for the Thunderhawk.

https://www.krmulticase.com/product/trays/SM18?m=GW&s=WHLM&a=SMP

Battlefoam used to, but it seems to be discontinued now. They'll probably bring it back if/when there's a lot of new Thunderhawk owners out there to sell to.

morgoth wrote:
Has anyone ever had GW plastic warped, if so on which kits?

Every muther hugging single Chimera purchased before about 2012? Maybe later. Buggers didn't let the sprew cool in the mold would be my guess.

Worse than airfix wings from the 70's and eighties.


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I bet those grave Falcons at the bottom of the Atlantic are fine kits though

I'm excited to see what Hastings meant by "a few options." Will we see a totally new variant? Maybe something akin to Jervis's Thunderhawk Annihilator from Epic Armageddon? Maybe just sponson upgrades? I know I'm excited, but not about the price in NZ dollars though!