Smurf Thunder Hawk - on parade needs more work... - 29/12/13

[dougeye]

Space Marine - My lord ---gar th-s is sq--d alpha. We are under h-avy f-re from enemy pos-t-ons north of cu--ent location............ Requesting su-po-t!

Marneus Calgar - Request accepted!

Marneus Calgar - Tech Marine Mathius, reroute to squad alphas position. May the emperors will guide you and your Thunderhawks armour protect you!


Ive just bought a new toy

So ive finally gone and bought myself a Thunder hawk for my Ultramarines! Going to be spending a lot of time on this model with a few customisations.

I will also be talking through the building a bit so people can get an idea of the issues that may arise with a large kit like this.

my initial thoughs are to have the top sections and wings most likely magnetised. the wings so that it can be stored easily if needs be and the top section so that the internal compartments can be viewed.

As of the 31/10/13

work on Thunderhawk 1692 on Terra will comense......

First up so screens of the initial unboxed parts and the cleaning and trimming down of the 6 main body pieces....










So my initial thoughts are that its a very sturdy and hard wearing kit, which is good! However a modelling knife is not man enough to trim of the excess resin lumps from the casting, I had to saw these off in a ventilated area due to the resin dust.

I have so far only cleaned down the six main pieces, this took me the best part of 4 hours this evening. lots of little details to scratch out and some annoying ridges along surfaces which should be flat but with a model like this a bit of bodging is to be expected, nothing ive found so far would warrant sending it back etc..

Top tip ------ take your time! better than making a major cock up on a £400 model!!!------

you may notice that the resin is very shiny. since taking these pictures to prepped parts have been put in a bath of soapy (fairy liquid) water for the night to clean the release agent of them before painting. For those who don't know, if you leave the release agent on, especially in large quantitys your paint will literally repel away from it! I found this out when I first bought a forgeworld model!

Lastly you may have noticed a box of Veteran vanguards and a lord executioner, this will become part of the internal diorama within the model. I will also place magnets inside the hawk were these models will be place so that I can take the figures out at any time and use them on magnetised bases.

I expect I will be spending a whole second evening cleaning down all the smaller thunderhawk parts tommorow!

My only question being do I have to go to work tomorrow? lol (yes to pay for the project!)

02/11/13





03/11/13

Dry Fitting Complete!!!

Ok so ive been busy! trimming, glueing, bending and magnetising

The whole Kit is ready for priming so here are some pics.......

First up are some images of completed parts and some of the slight issues ive had to fix. one being I though there were two more windows than there actually is on the nose cone of the thunder hawk due to the resin being thin and broken there lol so ive had to fill the gaps with plastic panels. Ive been green stuffing the gaps between parts that are fixed in place but one issue you will see in later pics is small gaps between parts which I want to be removable. I may have to beef these up with green stuff and trim them down.

I also solved my own poll question and magnetised bothweapons so I can change them around whichmakes sense realy lol

The other thing im pleased about is the hunter missiles on the wings will actually snap into grooves which means not having to magnetise them to take them off during battles etc as they deplete.













Next up I want to show off the vcterans which will be inhabiting the craft. they will be magnetised (when my mini magnets arrive next week) as I said before so that they can be removed and used on normal bases.

I had more plans in terms of customisation but after working with the model they are all but impossible (at least for me without bugging a £400 model lol)

The upper deck will be left standard as you cant fit any models in there!








Finally some shots of the bird with nearly all her part in place! Top sections fit on nice and tight so no need to magnetise! Next Job is to prime and base coat everthing and then start painting individual sections which will take a while!!!! lol






Just the last thing to mention, I was going to magnetise the wings but even three strong ten millimetre magnets were not strong enough to hold the weight lol so im developing a bolt on system which will fortunately be hidden withing the model when assembled

09/11/13

Update! been a while, thread was dropping... ;)lol

So last time I posted I was ready to prime the models. This is now complete, I used Halfords matt white primer, twice the size and nearly half the price of GW primer. I then Base coated the whole model with the new macragge blue spray.

since spraying the base on last weekend I have been slowly getting some block colours onto the thunder hawk and painting some troops in between to break up the monotony, this model is big! and takes a long time to get round all the details even with a large brush. So here is a teaser of how im getting on so far, by tomorrow night I hope to be ready to start adding some proper detail colours and experimenting with washes and highlighting before I get onto the main model in this way......





I have also been working on a plan for a flying base, got to love ebay on this one!!!!

Ive decided to use 30mm diameter clear acrylic solid tube for the flying base pole rather than a solid metal or wooden one, i also dont want to drill a dirty great whole in the underside of the model to fit the flying base so im developing a small clamp with rubber grips that should fit nicely into the space were the landing gear comes out of, ill give pictures of this at a later date.

For the main base itself i was wracking my brain trying to thing of the best thing for the job, do i use a very large wooden base, do i fill a plastic dish with lead for the weight? then it hit me, (not literally) a microphone stand base! 3.5kg base with a 25cm diameter! bearign in mind i want to mount the thunderhawk about 25-30 cm in the air from the base i need it to be heavy (the model is very heavy!) The Base is cast iron but with a rubber coating which will be an ideal base the paint from! the base will end up being a diorahma of sorts....




well thats all for now, more updates soon. Need to crack on though before i start my next big project!

13/11/13

Teaser of the Day



24/11/13

hello peeps,

been a bit slow with the updates due to work and stuff but getting back on the project this weekend.

been experimenting with finish.

The rest of my Smurfs follow a snowy/icy theme, (bases etc)

I finished the rest of my painted smurfs by dry brushing necron compound on edges and raised surfaces and I found (IMO) it fives a nice metallic / icy effect.

Here is a shot of my test piece next to its counterpart. I need to go back a re touch a couple of areas but you should get the basic idea from this....

Honest and constructive critique is welcome as always! .......



Update 29/12/13

well its been a long time since an update proper and tbh its going to be a little longer still until I give you a detailed look at the whole model, im still debating how or if im going to weather the model as im being a bit cautious because of the amount of time ive spent on it, need to practice these techniques a bit more before I go wild on the t-hawk so anyways for today ill just leave you with a picture of the t hawk amongst the rest of my ultramarines (half finished ultramarines lol) the outside of the t hawk is basicly complete save weathering so it parade worthy at least going to take a small break from it now its in a glued together state and concentrate on getting more of my marines painted up a bit. enjoy....

[Boobs McGee, Esquire]

Does it begin with a t and end in an n by any chance?

[dougeye]

no it doesn't actually that's Decembers project

[Cosmic]

Tech priest and armour.....hmmm........it has to be from Forgeworld I assume........so it's either a Land Raider of some sort.....ooooooooooorrrrrrr that massive Legion Tank? Or a flyer!

[dougeye]

It is from forgeworld! and its not horus heresy...... or the lazily designed rounded baneblade lol

[optimat]

Then the new mechanicus stuff maybe? I don't really know whether that could be considered heresy... Era I mean.

[Boobs McGee, Esquire]

It must be imperial and it must be a vechile and its not a Titan, but its space mariney?

[dougeye]

think of the one awesomly cool model which every space marine captain needs which no one has guessed specifically yet!

[vegna]

dreadnought?

[dougeye]

nope! can't believe you guys are overlooking the obvious!

[Cosmic]

Thunderhawk...

I've just looked through the FW Space Marine products and that's the only thing that I can think of if it's not a tank

[dougeye]

correct!

although I may have confused peeps saying tech priest as opposed to tech marine. planning to make the whole top section magnetised so that you can view the interior, im planning to make an interior diorama aswell!

[Cosmic]

Is my prize for guessing correctly going to be that you give me any spare bits you don't use?

[dougeye]

need to check all the parts come in the first place cosmic

well now we all know what im getting its time to talk lore and names.

I was thinking possibly "lance of jove" from the ultramarines novels. Most of the other famous ultramarines thunderhawks are directly linked to Cato Sicarius who I don't run in my armies theme.

any other made up names will be considered!

got an etched brass sheet on the way as well so I can tart it up with plenty of iconography etc.

I need to see the model at dry fit stage before I make decisions on the internal diorama etc,

my initial thought however is to have a techmarine performing repairs, possibly with servitors on standby (depends on room) maybe a combat squad of marines on standby ready to deploy out the front doors and somewere in the craft an apothecary performing surgery on an injured marine. all of which will be hidden when the doors are shut and the bird is in flight!

[Cosmic]

Lance of Jove was the Thunderhawk from Space Marine (the game) which transported Captain Titus. As far as I recall it wasn't mentioned in the Ultramarine novels. So I hope your Marines are led by Titus .

As for the idea, I think I would be nice to see a Marine squad at rest, around the gunship talking with one another, sitting, just standing etc. We read about their social interactions and what they do when not on combat, but very rarely see it.

[dougeye]

I feel a space marine poker game coming on!

or to twist the quote from star wars.... "Let the Dreadnaught win!" lol

[dougeye]

Reinforcements have arrived!

[BG. Foster]

Photos?

[optimat]

I would like to see a squad leader prepping his team before insertion. A good mix of helmetless faces chatting and concentrating giving the off duty feel that I feel cosmic rightly wanted, but also checking bolters and sharpening blades, maybe the commander is addressing a tac-display, something like that.

[Boobs McGee, Esquire]

Yeah mix some of the space marine boxes with a sarge pointing at a holo display with a couple others loading magazines and what have you

[dougeye]

all very good ideas guys! to start I have a set of veteran vanguards and a lord executioner model which I want to be prepped behind the main exit ramp. then I will think about a tactical squad and a tech marine inside depending on space within the model.

another idea ive had which will have to be tested and looked at when the model is dry fitted is putting green lighting film in the place of solid resin monitor screens etc then putting tiny LED's behind them. running all the tiny wires through the thunderhawk either hidden or modelled to look like cabling (this is a WIP and may not happen)

now I have a shed load of resin to trim off! I love the fact the wings and the main chassis and nose come as single lumps of resin though! will make the model nice and strong.

will stick some picks up in a bit and also edit the first post to keep a running diary of pics etc!

+ thank Christ they are making space marine base sprays again! nothing worse than painting large flat areas the same colour with a brush!

[dougeye]

Space Marine Pilots must get really bad backs!

So ive found a slight design flaw with the thunder hawk.

in the first picture you can see a full height space marine can stand up inside the exit ramp area no problem.

there is also plenty of space in the next picture for a pilot to sit in the cockpit. however if you view the last pictures you will see that a full height space marine would have to crawl their way through to the cockpit of the craft lol

I wouldn't fancy crawling in power armour through tight spaces!

I would actually be surprised if a guardsman could walk to the cockpit without cricking his neck.






so it looks like my plans for a game of poker going on upstairs are on hold still planning to have magnetised points behind the exit ramp and at the top of the first set of stairs which im going to fill with veterans which can be taken out and magnetised to tabletop bases!

[Cosmic]

MOAR!!! I want MOAR! NAO!

Looking like a ice kit

[vegna]

nice, then when you relise the space marine models are smaller than the fluff...

[dougeye]

exactly!