Dark Talon to Lightning Strike fighter conversion

[commissarbob]

Hey all, just thought I would start a thread that will detail my adventure converting a Dark Angels Dark Talon into a Lightning Strike fighter for my Imperial Guard. My intention with this is to establish a functional conversion guide with templates to make it as easy as possible for others to get a nice looking Lightning with minimal conversion and effort at less cost than the Forge World model. I will also be adding more detail to the cockpit and showing some other modeling techniques I have picked up over the years doing scale modeling such as working with clear parts.

[hendrik]

this should be interesting!

[commissarbob]

Ok, sorry about the wait for the initial real post, work and home life has been hectic (visiting outlaws, er, inlaws...).

Ok, up to this point things are pretty straight forward, keeping in mind that I am trying to use as much of the original kit as possible in this build. Follow most of the instructions leaving out the marine pilot and leave the wings and tail off. Build the twin linked lascannon weapons option for the chin and place the sensor pods in the wing root locations. For the under wing pods I am using the triple missiles to show the 3 Hellstrike missiles under each wing. At this point the biggest things that you will need to do are remove the vertical stabilizer from the bottom of the fuselage and the stub for the vertical stabilizer from the top. I used a razor saw to cut close the the body and then used a file and sandpaper to smooth it out to the body. I also removed all of the Dark Angels iconography at this point.







The next steps will involve the wings and tail sections using the templates I made below to extend the wings to the 10 inch wingspan and to blend the wings further back into the body. Download and print at 100% (assuming US format with letter size format). Use 1/8" thick plastic for the primary structure and .020" for the panels and ailerons/flaps. I will be doing a more thorough step by step at this point now that it is departing from the instructions provided in the kit...

[Soap]

Oh this looks good!!

[GrMantho]

Very nice idea. I will try other variants of imperial aircraft. Thanks for the idea. Avenger comes in mind

[AshotNINJA]

I recon I could build an avenger using nothing but a rearranged valk kit....

[leinadyor]

Just as a thought with a bit more work this kit could easily become a Thunderbolt, extend out the nose and bulk out the tail a bit. Also I found that for rocket boosters you can use the left over Deathstrike missile body that comes with the Manticore kit just the very end if you cut it off. If you don"t have any they sell really cheap for some reason.

Lein