Stormraven 'Burning Star' WIP

[Tynskel]

Ornithopters kick butt!

[Herald of Nurgle]

Riiiiiiiiiight.

WIP shots? How to? Etc etc? That's just too insanely well done for me to comprehend it with just the end pics :P

[Tynskel]

I will be getting Sentinel Legs that will act like 'bird feet'. They will be sticking out- the idea is to make the Stormraven look like it is about to land. The legs will be eventually magnetized and will carry a dreadnought!

As for the Land Raider, I am working on a Datasheet and I will be creating a 'servo-arm' with all sorts of drills n' such-- a mobile repair facility for combat repairs.

[Tynskel]

How to...

The Stormraven is a little complicated- but basics:

The fuselage is made from the valkyrie kit, along with the cockpit. I originally tried to fit space marines into the cockpit, but after hacking away, I couldn't make them fit with the canopy. Oh well.

I dremel out the rear 'front' of the valkyrie and used plasticard and Rhino Top Hatches to create the rear doors. (I'll post a shot of the rear soon).

I dremel the cockpit at ~45 degree angle, then used the top piece of the valkyrie and attached it to the fuselage through a series of pins-- so the 'neck' won't come off. I used a series of plasticard panels to rebuild the bottom half of the cockpit and the neck. (see picture 2)

The Valkyrie tail supports that attach as to the side doors: I sliced them in half- then attached them to the normal mounting positions. The side doors are the inside side hatches to rhinos (I am still debating attaching the exterior rhino hatchways). I attached the engines to the Valkyrie struts- covering up the slicing of the struts and they ended up becoming a great mount!

The wings are from the Gundam DeathScythe-H (which I have converted into a Knight Titan Lance, still work in progress too). They mounted onto the engines- I drilled out holes to place the wing mounts directly into the engines, so they are pretty solid.

I am having a little bit of trouble with the wings-- I want them to be moveable, however, they are not stiff and automatically fall into the position that you see on the mounting stand. Does anyone have any hints on how to get these stiff?

The Skulls mounted on the top of the Stormraven are cut from the Basilica ruins.

I will be mounting the Blood Strike Missiles on the outer wings. Currently, the weapons are glued in- however, I might purchase magnets and take them off and have the weapons swap. Although, I generally like Typhoons, Lascannons, and Hurricane bolters- a little pricey, but helps make the Stormraven fulfill the gunship role quite nicely.

The land raider doors were cut from the Mechanicus ruins and plasticard fitted around them to make them look like they are mounted into the hatches. The antennae are from Battle Fleet Gothic, and I cut slots for them to fit into.

[Tynskel]

Rear and Side Shots of the 'Burning Star'

Also a shot of the Knight Titan Lancer WIP---

I will be eventually getting an Eldar War Walker- use the cockpit- replace pilot with 'tech priest' and replace the gundam head with the cockpit. Right now, the Titan still looks too 'gundam-ee'.

[Tynskel]

Overall:

I was trying to capture the image of a Raven about to land. I hope that's what people see...


I also wanted the stormraven look like it could work. One of my biggest issues is how does the dreadnought survive entering from orbit? The wings can fold under the body and shield the dread from the heat of entry. Also, the Stormraven is supposed to be quite maneuverable, and theoretically, Ornithopters are supposed to be more maneuverable than your average craft (however, extremely difficult to fly-- but that's why they are Space Marine pilots!).

Lemmy know if you guys have suggestions!

[DelphicFist]

I like that you've done something far different than all the other stormravens. Good stuff.

I'm thinking Dreads can survive reentry no problem.

[RebelGrot]

First off you need a wow - WOW! - you did say you were thinking up something different! It looks great, it's very nice to see something which isn't a Patzgcrux version (much as I like his) etc



I also wanted the stormraven look like it could work. One of my biggest issues is how does the dreadnought survive entering from orbit? The wings can fold under the body and shield the dread from the heat of entry. Also, the Stormraven is supposed to be quite maneuverable, and theoretically, Ornithopters are supposed to be more maneuverable than your average craft (however, extremely difficult to fly-- but that's why they are Space Marine pilots!).



This is the very reason I've not even put knife to plastic yet - I am WAY too confused!

Everyone uses the Valk jet turbines - ok in an atmosphere but what's pushing you along in space? Then there's exposed weaponry - entering from orbit do you really want your nice deadly bloodstrike warheads getting that hot on your wings? Lascannon fluff has barrels overheating and needing changing reasonably regularly, especially after being the leading edge during re-entry I'd imagine! Valk sliding doors - surely not pressure sealed against the void? So on and so on.

Out of all that I think the dreadnought might be kind of ok - give him a flared edge to protect (or wings or such in your case) and he should follow in the slip-stream fairly comfortably. You could always armour the leading edge of it's cradle - my plan was to have more of a full back piece for one to 'lie' on that'd fit with the lines of the Raven (rather than skinny clamp 'legs') and force any burning atmosphere around it.

I can't think of any solution to your wing flop. Are the joints screwed hinges or sort of lumps in sockets? If the former maybe you could add a washer or something to tighten the joint? If the latter then I'm really not sure - some sort of adjustable bracing? Not very helpful I guess!

Keep it going anyway dude, great to see it coming together. Keep us updated.

[OCdt Mephiston]

Cool? Yes. Space Marine-like? No.

This is in my humble opinion a beautiful conversion that should have waited for the DE codex...

[Tynskel]

heheh, thanks guys.

1) The thunderhawk n' Stormraven have cermite plating- which is why they are Melta resistant, the dread doesn't- which is why I am trying to make the body more functional.

2) the joints are more lumps in sockets- the plastic on them is super springy. I have been trying to fill junk into them-- I tried the 'blue' stuff part of 'green stuff'. But that's not working. Oh well! Your ideas sound cool- you should run with it!

3) My thought process went something like this: 40k borrows a lot from Dune (Jesuits-Sisters, Mentats- logicstatiticians, Navigators- Navigators, the robot wars, ect ect). Ornithopters used widely on Dune, and I figured, why not? Especially since the Aquilla Lander by Forge World is an Ornithopter too!

It does have more of the sleek edge that the eldar have, that's true- but I kit bash more than I create. Do you have a suggestion for different wings that could still give the impression of a bird?

[RebelGrot]

heheh, thanks guys.

1) The thunderhawk n' Stormraven have cermite plating- which is why they are Melta resistant, the dread doesn't- which is why I am trying to make the body more functional.

They do indeed, I guess the weapon etc thing is a little personal niggle - after all, most GW orbital/atmospheric vehicles (T'hawk, Marauder etc) have exposed weapons also. Apologies for the slight rant :)


2) the joints are more lumps in sockets- the plastic on them is super springy. I have been trying to fill junk into them-- I tried the 'blue' stuff part of 'green stuff'. But that's not working. Oh well! Your ideas sound cool- you should run with it!


It could be alot of fuss but, if you can pop the joints and file down the bumps, you could then drill joint and use some rod or such for a good snug fit, main problem is that this'd still wear loose over time.

The problems of post apocolyptic space engineering are never ending! Haha

[fuzzbuket]

how abvout some aquillaa lander wings but bigger with moving feathers made out of plasticard??

great job amazing conversion!!

[Tynskel]

Thanks- that might work! The conversion rate is low, so I might be able to afford a Aquilla Lander.


As for the Turbo Fan engines.

Afterburners work by dumping raw fuel into the already burning mixture after the air is compressed. It isn't hard to imagine that the engines can seal off the front fan, and have reserve propellent tanks to burn while in space.

The weapon systems, I just imagine that they can retract into the vehicle in some way...

[BDub]

here (http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1000027a_P1Mb1.jpg) is some reference material for the Storm Raven (upper left corner)

[Sanguinary Dan]

Especially since the Aquilla Lander by Forge World is an Ornithopter too!

Uhmmmm, not so much. The Aquila has vectored thrust coming out of the the "feathers", they don't flap. At least that's what it says in IA:3.

And even though it's not to my taste your conversion is pretty cool.

[fuzzbuket]

here (http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1000027a_P1Mb1.jpg) is some reference material for the Storm Raven (upper left corner)

sadly like the other zillion other "raven" pics that is another thunderhawk with dogy wings :P

[synack]

Dark Eldar called. They want thier designs back...

Jokes aside, looks very cool, but not very imperial.

[Tynskel]

here (http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1000027a_P1Mb1.jpg) is some reference material for the Storm Raven (upper left corner)

That picture is very old. That's a thunderhawk in the background--- the 2nd and 3rd Edition of Blood Angels has pictures of models that captioned 'thunderhawk' that look exactly like that one in the picture.

[Tynskel]

Uhmmmm, not so much. The Aquila has vectored thrust coming out of the the "feathers", they don't flap. At least that's what it says in IA:3.

And even though it's not to my taste your conversion is pretty cool.

They are not 'flapping' however, they still function similarly to Ornithopters, each one of those 'feathers' can position themselves at different angles.

Wings on birds provide both thrust and lift- which is what the Aquilla Lander does.

I still like the idea of the Aquilla Lander Wings-- good suggestion!

[Tynskel]

Dark Eldar called. They want thier designs back...

Jokes aside, looks very cool, but not very imperial.

haha!
thanks!

I was aiming at something different-- and different is what everyone seems to state!

[Phairsto]

First off, looks really cool, great job! Not to my particular taste for space marine stuff, but cool nonetheless.

Secondly, according to old 2nd edition fluff, terminator armor is supposed to be able to survive re-entry and impact with the ground (thats how they tested its durability, by dropping it from orbit. Suits that survived were deemed ready for use, ones that didn't were scrapped), so I have little trouble imagining that a dreadnought could survive being strapped to the back of a micro-thunderhawk. that said, I realyl like your idea of having the wings close up, like its dropping from the sky, falcon-style. (even though raven's are carrion birds...which isn't very space-marine-y either, now that I think of it...)

[Tynskel]

Okay, resurrecting a dead thread!

So, I am ACTUALLY going to finish this project!

I was never satisfied with the wings.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nqEDTl_Rf_A/T-TKQBXXHeI/AAAAAAAAADU/M3XIhXL85x8/s1600/IMG_0306.JPG

So, I have purchased the Aquila Lander (probably make terrain, or make another flyer, with the pieces), and I am cannibalizing the wings. I have Sentinel legs for the 'grapple feet'.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wjlNlSZPAcM/T-TKXdtqEZI/AAAAAAAAADk/pf8zewep4G4/s1600/IMG_0802.JPG
(taking a bath...)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wsbHSaz2NSE/T-TKTzdChhI/AAAAAAAAADc/SGcEkRlSC_o/s1600/IMG_0800.JPG

The idea was to have a 'raven' coming in for a landing. The feet will be magnetized to actually hold a dread. I will magnetize the wings, too, for ease of transport.

I also have another stormraven that I am working on, too, as well as a stormtalon.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g1yh-J1U0zo/T-TKaUmk4kI/AAAAAAAAADs/bmFTKcv8XaA/s1600/IMG_0804.JPG


Now, before I go an destroy things, does anyone have any recommendation on cutting the resin? I have a dremel, goggles, and a respirator. Wouldn't want to start by DESTROYING the model...

[Tynskel]

This is also my first Forgeworld model.

I am quite excited. The model is awesome, and I am tempted to just build the Aquila Lander, and buy another one for the Stormraven project!

Is there recommended glue for Forgeworld? I typically use Zap-a-Gap.

[Tynskel]

Alright, I started cutting. The main engines are now off the wings.
This is where the nightmare begins!

If you have never used resin before (like me) you will have dust EVERYWHERE. I highly recommend a mask. Even Forgeworld recommends a mask: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/R/resintips.pdf

I had to toss my shorts into the wash, they were covered in the dust! not to mention, you want a 'clean' work area. Don't have any models lying around, like me. Everything got covered in strands and dust from the resin. So, move your other projects away from the 'tools of destruction' area. I am 'rinsing' my models (and the wings and engines of the Aquila Lander). I will clear everything off my desk, except for the essential tools for the cuts.

Now that I know what kinda mess I am dealing with, I will remove all the vectored engines.