ZouaveCapt Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Well, I broke down yesterday while shopping at Michaels with a 50% off coupon in my pocket. There, sitting on the shelf, positively mocking me, was an A-10 Warthog, 1/48 scale model. Oh, those lovely turbofans and cowlings, they called to me, and in a moment of weakness, I bought it, and thus, officially, began my Thunderhawk Transporter semi-scratch build. I chose the Thunderhawk Transporter because, apart from Drop Pods, it seems to be the epitome of the Space Marines, able to deliver troops where they are needed, when they are needed. I'd contemplated a Gunship, but in the end, I can't wrap my mind around the ugly looking cannon up top. It just hurts my head. So a Transporter it is. I'll be posting the fluff as I develop it, I am currently searching for a suitable name for it. Currently, my army draws heavily from Roman history for vehicle and squad names, so if anyone has any suggestions, bring them on. I will be basing my model off of what few pictures I have from IA books, the Forge World website, and at some point, a Thunderhawk Gunship that a friend of mine recently got, so I can get a few dimensions right. If anyone happens to have a Thunderhawk Transporter and wouldn't mind snagging a few dimensions for me, I would very much appreciate it! So, here is my golden standard... Forgeworld Thunderhawk Transporter First on my building list, I am going to get some work started on the engines, now that I have the appropriate fans, courtesy of my ex-A-10 Warthog. I'll be turning the cowlings some time this week, and then making an RTV silicone mold to cast the cowling and fans in a single piece that I can replicate in resin (since I want to make at least 2 TTs somewhere down the line) the pieces I need 8+ times. After/while that is going on, I'm going to do a mockup of the body to get proportions/sizing correct. This is going to be a rather ambitious project, as I plan to use my friend's RC airplane expertise to help me set up some mini-servos so that the clamping arms actually articulate and hold vehicles in place. Yes, I know that will be tricky beyond belief. I'm silly. That's all there is to it. :-) Any suggestions as I embark upon this project? And a couple of things about me and my army: Custom Chapter of Space Marines, founded from the geneseed of the Ultramarines. Currently working on fielding a full Battle Company, need 1 assault squad (in mail, I hope!) and 1 Devastator Squad to complete that band of badness, and then I'll need to round out my supply of transports. After that, I'll be working on fielding First Company, and I'm also taking a look at the Titanhammer squad, which looks like all kinds of fun to play with. As soon as I save up a little for a decent sized order, I'll be picking up a few Whirlwind and Vindicator conversion kits from Forge World to run a Suppression Force and Line Breaker Squadron. Questions, comments, encouragement... All are welcome! For the Emperor! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Master SFDRF Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Oh dear... a perfectly good warthog. Welcome to the B&C Sounds like your gonna be going to a bit of a longer length then the normal plasticard scratch builds. Please! Continue! Show us pictures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firenze Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 WOOO A-10 For the Win! This sounds to be a amazing progect. BUT GET PICSDAMMIT! Almost forgot, Welcome to the B and C! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alys Dwr Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Sounds like you're in this for the long haul, i hope it pays off! The servo-clamps shouldn't be that hard to do (i'll draw up a sketch of how i'd do it for you), the only problem being the ground clearence when the TH feet are down - it will drop the vehicles a few cm and then not pic them up tight in to the belly. There is a way around this but it does get a bit complex and i don't know how feasable it would be in the constraints of the model; ie the arms might have to be built completly different. I'll have a think for you though and edit my post when i've got it on paper. Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZouaveCapt Posted March 22, 2009 Author Share Posted March 22, 2009 I was tenatively planning on doing a cable system for the legs, similar to how a bike's brakes work in general principle, but I'm not sure if it'll work exactly how I want it to, I'm going to build a larger size mockup this week to test the concept. I'd also have some torsion springs in the joints to open the legs when the tension on the cable is released. And as a brief introduction, here is my plasticard (with some pvc sheet for thinner panels), the A-10, and my master plans.... A-10 and plans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulson games Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Since you have access to the forge world book I'd suggest enlarging the picture to full scale and taking the measurements straight from that. You can do that either by enlarging on a xerox machine or by rescaling it on photoshop or another paint program. (the gun ship is 19 inches long) Forgeworld should say how long and wide the transporter is on their web site. I rescaled it to the correct length in photshop, then disassembled it into several pages, printed it out, then reassembled the pages on a piece of foam board. I did that for both the side and top views. The thunderhawk I've been working on is very, very close to the forgeworld one. Later when I bought an actual thunderhawk I found that nothing was off more than an 1/8th of an inch, which is really good considering I'd only been working from a scaled up drawing. I'd highly suggest getting a small metal T-square, and a metal straight edge to keep things square when cutting the styrene, no matter how well you measure and draw lines they come out crooked it you aren't using a metal edge to guide the knife. The T-Square will be a huge aide when making the body, little panel pieces, or scoring. I'd suggest scoring the lines as opposed to cutting individual panels out, I did individual panels it looks great but takes an insane amount of time. Here's my thunderhawk thread for reference: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...;hl=thunderhawk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZouaveCapt Posted March 22, 2009 Author Share Posted March 22, 2009 Thanks for the advice! I'll swing by your thread and check it out. I'm a little lucky, I have access to a shear, so I can make panels pretty easily to add individually, which is what I was generally thinking about doing to finish it up, but I'm a LOONG way from that point. I'm planning on scaling up the drawings like you said, I'm mostly trying to figure out what scale factor I need to use, since GW and FW don't stick to a very consistent scale as far as I can figure out. I'll probably just measure up a Rhino and a LR, compare them to the ones in the transport drawings, and go from there to figure out the necessary enlargements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulson games Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Their vehicles are in the same same scale as the GW plastics, the only thing that's smaller is the infantry which is about 10% smaller. I'd just scale it up to whatever the dimensions are listed on the FW site and see if the rhino/landraider picture is the correct size. Also having played with the thunderhawk in game you don't want it any larger than it already is as, it's absolute hell trying to fit that thing on the table with lots of terrain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZouaveCapt Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 I'd just scale it up to whatever the dimensions are listed on the FW site and see if the rhino/landraider picture is the correct size. Advice taken, here is the result. :-D Sorry about the crappy painting on the Rhino, just getting the base coat on for my custom chapter colors. Its a little hard to tell in this picture, but the Rhino is almost EXACTLY the same size as the one on the layout. Within 1/16th of an inch. So, now that I have appropriate scale drawing of the side, I'm going to do the same to the front, then build a mass model to make sure it all looks right. Stay tuned! Plans and Rhino Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulson games Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Nicely done! How long does the transport come out as? I noticed the rear and tail section is a bit differant than the gunship, the gunship has a center engine hat it's exhaust port/cone sticks out in the rear. The top view at the same scale will also be a huge help when making sloped or angled pieces. I also had a front view to work with but it was a much poorer qulaity scan, I didn't find it of much help except when adressing how the engine details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZouaveCapt Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 Nicely done! How long does the transport come out as? I noticed the rear and tail section is a bit differant than the gunship, the gunship has a center engine hat it's exhaust port/cone sticks out in the rear. Just a hair over 19 inches long. Its a beast. I like the configuration of the Thunderhawk Transport a lot better than that of the Gunship, which has always seemed to lack any semblance of hover ability, like it should have. With the forward engines, you can at least pretend there is some sort of vectored thrust, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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