UPDATE FINAL PRODUCT Valkyrie Helicopter convert

[dcrabb]

After seeing some cool IG helicopter conversions on other sites I decided to give it a try to make my own. For my projects I took a GW Valkyrie model and a 1/48 scale Revell Hind Helicopter kit I found for $13. The concept was to a nose swap and see what I came up with.

Here are the kits

IMGP3521 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

Here's a couple of comparison photos

IMGP3522 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr


IMGP3523 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

Note that the helicopter halves are NOT glued together.

After nose amputation and before reattachment (the helicopter halves were glued together after the nose was cut off)


IMGP3529 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr


IMGP3528 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

Here is the Valk nose prepped for attachment to the Hind fuselage. In order to get the cockpit canopy below the engines I had to create and add a spacer to the "tail" of the Valk cockpit assembly. I used track guards from an IG tank. I also cut down a door from a Rhino top hatch to make a bomb bay door on the bottom of the tail spacer.

IMGP3530 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

Valk cockpit attached

IMGP3531 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

Hind cockpit attached to Valk body

IMGP3532 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

Front view

IMGP3533 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

Here's a look at the Valk/hind with out weapons (I'm waiting on a shipment of magnets and greenstuff before I do the weapons and paint)

IMGP3536 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr


IMGP3534 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

In a flash of brilliance I decided to make the helicopter into a search and rescue asset so I came up with a cable and hoist arm attachment. Here it is retrieving a wounded soldier from the battle field. Note the wings of the Hind are not attached, I am going to magnatize the weapons and it works better if you do it before you attach the wings.


IMGP3538 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr


IMGP3540 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

They are a little crude but this is my first attempt at a major conversion. I have a chimera/leman russ/maticore conversion I am also working on. Any ideas on improvements?

As promised here are some final product photos. I pulled the rappeler off to make his cable longer. With the short cable he ended up right in front of one of the twinlinked lascannons. Not a good place to be. I am making a longer cable and will reattach in the future.


IMGP3600 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr


IMGP3603 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr


IMGP3605 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr


IMGP3607 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

[optimat]

Any photos with the cockpit roof attached on either? For now I really like the helicopter conversion, and I personally haven't seen anything like this done before, but I feel the cockpit roof fitting will make it.

[BG. Foster]

I'm not sure about it, I'm not sure the rounded sides of the helicopter and the sharp edges of the Valk go together. I like the guy roping out though.

[dcrabb]

May 23, 2012 13:21:54 GMT -5 optimat said:

Any photos with the cockpit roof attached on either? For now I really like the helicopter conversion, and I personally haven't seen anything like this done before, but I feel the cockpit roof fitting will make it.

I don't glue the canopies on until the final paint is completed so I can paint the cockpits first. I will try and get a shot of the canopies sitting in place though.

[dcrabb]

May 23, 2012 13:24:32 GMT -5 BG. Foster said:

I'm not sure about it, I'm not sure the rounded sides of the helicopter and the sharp edges of the Valk go together. I like the guy roping out though.

BG Foster, I agree on the rounded vs sharp edges. To me they are the biggest drawback to this conversion. I don't have the wings on the helicopter but they are angular like the valk part so I hope they soften the difference between the two models.

[BG. Foster]

In that case I will wait and see

[Deleted]

Ashot will be ALL over this

[dcrabb]

What do you guys think of the final product now that it's painted?

[Cosmic]

You've done a great job of blending the two together. It's a great piece, really well done.

[teku18]

I like it. Kinda want one even tho I would never have a use for it haha,

[3ff3ct]

It looks much better painted. I have to say I would have preferred it if the helicopter was 'boxier' to fit in with the valk kit better. A minor detail though!

I'm excited to see how your next conversion will turn out if this is your first!

[AshotNINJA]

May 23, 2012 15:00:35 GMT -5 @mael said:

Ashot will be ALL over this

hehe... yep... am i on time?

i like it... i think it works quite well, although i agree that there are some issues with the round vs angular asthetics to this conversion... personally, i would had blended the model a little better, and added more parts of the valk to the Hind... mainly the landing gear... for me, the wheels dont look heavy duty enough for such a rugged flyer, so i would had put the wingtips of the valk onto the rear of the hind ..

also (and im not being picky) the use of the track guards to the underside of the hind to blend the two peices together dont work for me... the valk hull already angles to a seemless fit (at a guess) so adding the extra un-nessasary bulk to the bottom dont seem right... look at the forgeworld vulture as opposed to the valk and you will see there is alot less at the bottom of the vulture and the angle upwards is sharper...

im not knocking it though mate, its a good first major conversion... ive been thinking of doing it myself... but not with a Hind... i think il try it with a blackhawk..

the fastroping element is really cool, how come you took it off from the final model?

[dcrabb]

Thanks for the comments.

The boxy Valk and sleek Hind mix is the weakness of this conversion. I do think that it makes it more of a fast attack looking craft vs a boxy troop carrier, ala Cobra vs Huey.

I didn't take too much from either kit to add to the other because I am trying to get two aircraft of this this. I have a Hind with a Valk nose and am working on the other one now, a Valk with an Hind nose. If I took too much from either I'd only end up with one or one and a half (and half an aircraft don't fly too good

The boxy extension under the Hind for the Valk tail was requried to get the cockpit of the Valk below the engine intakes of the Hind. The Hind fuselage is not as tall as needed for the Valk cockpit. An alternative would be to cut off the bottom of the valk cockpit part and just add a plasiticard flat bottom, but I didn't want to go that crazy on my first conversion. I didn't take a pic of it but I did add a rhino top hatch door to the bottom of the boxy extension to make it look like a bomb bay door (in case Valks are ever allowed to carry bombs ;D).

If I were to do this all over again (and I might if I can find cheap kits), I'd use a Cobra, Apache, or Havoc nose not a Blackhawk one. The first three are more anglular like the valk and the Blackhawk is more rounded like the Hind. Just a thought.

Finally I pulled the fast roper off the final model because his rope was too short and he ended up hanging right in front of the wing mounted lascannons. not a safe place to be . I have added some extra rope and will reattach once I get it the new rope painted.

All in all this was a fun and challenging build and I learned a lot from it and I think I should get two passible/playable flyers out of the two kits.

[3ff3ct]

Jun 20, 2012 15:12:10 GMT -5 dcrabb said:

I think I should get two passible/playable flyers out of the two kits.

You definately suceeded there!

[upguardsandatem]

Wow , This is awesome! Well done Sir!

[Purple Dice]

Wow. Really great job mate. I like that you used the chassis of a real helicopter model as the base for your conversion. A nice change to all the attempts I've seen of just whacking a couple of rotors on a Valkyrie. Using the nose of one, though, links the chopper into the Imperial guard armour line really well. I love it.

Purple Dice

[3ff3ct]

They look great with a coat of paint on them, I take back what I said about it being better being boxy, they look fantastic!

[Jackal-0311]

Great looking piece sir...wish I would have done that.