The Neurode Crusade

[Brother Carpenter]

I'd never fully appreciated the detailling you did on the interior. It looks great.

Keep on going and you 'll have something to be really proud of.

[Brother Christopher]

Majkhel, thanks for your kind words AND your words of encouragement!

 

I'm using 1 mm plasticard for the main structures plus -- for some time now -- an additional layer of 0.5 mm sheets for the finer details, like 'armour' plates, grilles etc. I also have 0.25 mm sheets for the fines of details and tubular elements. I used to work with 1 mm sheets exclusively - luckily that changed. I wouldn't have been able to achieve this level of detail and that'd be pretty unhealthy too. Actually, looking back I think that delaying the project for so much time turned out for the best. Now I can make use of the skills I gained and do this iconic model justice.

 

An apparent drawback of delaying assembly of the model is the technological development - with the increased availability of 3D printing and laser cutting, I sometimes have doubts about the type of scratchbuilding I'm doing. After all, the parts will never be as precise and crisp as those machined/manufactures. Luckily, this week I found immense pleasure in making (slow) progress and couldn't care less about these new (and better) solutions for hobbyists And that's a pretty priceless and "new" realisation - I haven't felt that for years. Thanks covid-19!

 

Brother Carpenter, many thanks! Actually, the work that's to come should be even better quality-wise. The interior was actually my very first attempt at scratchbuilding - I'm surprised how diligent I were back then, working with metal paperclips and pins... That was truly something - I did it to lower costs, of course. Luckily, I have better resources now :D

Edited May 8, 2020 by Brother Cristopher

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I've not seen your Raven before. God they look better longer and without that awful turret.

[Brother Christopher]

@Adelard - It sure does! It's a shame that the original model deviated from the original SM aesthetics and begun a new trend. Though, I have to admit the top turret with the servitor is pretty 40K-ridiculous.

 

I'm happy to report progress on the Thunderhawk. Here's a teaser:

 

 

All boxed-up:

 

 

Something very Templar-specific:

 

 

And the cockpit dry-fitted together:

 

 

 

 

You'll find way more images in my thread in the WIP subforum.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You're scratchbuilding an entire Thunderhawk?

[Brother Christopher]

You're scratchbuilding an entire Thunderhawk?

That's the plan! Though, I've started it in 2012 and, up till now, I haven't made much real progress. I hope that I'll advance the project as much as possible over the course of this month. Bringing me closer to completion of the flyer is probably the only relatively good thing about the pandemic.

[Brother Christopher]

I am extremely pleased to report that after I (basically) finished the first part of the model, something clicked into place and I'm making extraordinary progress, by my standards. It seems as if everything's downhill from now on. I'm working on the main fuselage and have most of the sides, bottom and top parts ready; at this point, after two days' work, I estimate that I have 1/3 of the second part of the model done. The toughest part will be the engines and their nozzles, but I'm planning to do some alterations to the engines. The wing-mounted engines will be encased in armour/housing, inspired by the style of other SM flyers - Stormravens and Xiphon Interceptors - with the main section (in the original Thunderhawk, the cylindrical bits with all the pipes and other fancy detail) covered. I'm not sure if I want to go with the same style for the central engine, though. What I mean here is something like in this image I've found this image from Dawn of War:

 

 

Any thoughts? Or maybe you'd recommend that I pursue the looks of the original and go with the exposed engines?

[Majkhel]

By all means - the more armour, the better. I frankly don't quite understand why the original FW sculpt has exposed engines apart from the visual effect of exposed cables and machinery.

[Brother Christopher]

It's the looks, rule of cool I guess. Though, it's pretty strange since most other Imperial flyers have engines covered in some kind of armour plates. Your input also reinforces my feeling that armoured engines are a good choice (and they seem to be easier to make, too!).

 

I'm looking forward to getting to work on the engines. I must admit that my spatial imagination is pretty poor, nor have I skills with graphics software to properly visualise what I have in mind and will sort of have to improvise. For now, I think that the armour will cover the engine along the wings; I'll leave some exposed cylindrical bits "behind" the wings and -- I suppose -- "in front", since I feel that the air intake and turbine akin to the original has to preserved - it appears to be important since it's been carried over from the original model through all iterations of the Thunderhawk. I'm a bit worried about the inlet, though - it might stick out too much. But this is something I'll have to figure out as I proceed with the assembly.

[Brother Christopher]

A quick photo update of last week's progress on my scratch-built Thunderhawk: I basically have 80% of the "superstructure" - major panels making up the sides, top and underside of the "main fuselage". After I assemble the wings (which is the next step I'm planning to take), I'll build the internal skeleton which will support the already assembled bits. I'm thinking whether to magnetise the front section to make storage and transport of the model easier. It'd surely be cool, but I'm worried that more "moving parts" will pose more problems - I'm worried about finding the right magnets to carry the weight of the entire front section so that it's aligned with the remainder of the craft.

 

 

Here are some close-ups of details:

 

 

 

And here's the whole thing roughly and (very) temporarily dry-fitted together:

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive. Will you put beads of glue on the dots you drew on the panels, so the latter will look riveted when you paint the Thunderhawk?

[ThirtySixNights]

Looking fantastic and boxy just as any space marine flier should!

[Urkh]

You, sir, are a mad man. I have no idea how you do these things.

[Brother Christopher]

Impressive. Will you put beads of glue on the dots you drew on the panels, so the latter will look riveted when you paint the Thunderhawk?

 

Yes, exactly! I'm postponing the moment, but I probably should get started with this... and pace myself. I'm afraid, however, that the work will be chore and not at all... riveting :P

 

Looking fantastic and boxy just as any space marine flier should!

 

Thank you for the comment! The boxiness makes scratch building way easier, haha. I'm pretty about the old Space Marines' aesthetics - it allowed me to get into my love-hate relationship with model making.

 

You, sir, are a mad man. I have no idea how you do these things.

I admit, I'm not at the best place right now ;) I know that the amount of work I put into this is, well, ridiculous, but we also have ridiculous times so I kind of feel this balances out. And on top of that assembling the model helps me keep myself mentally afloat. In that way this objective madness (I feel that scratch building is pretty outdated and will soon be ousted out by 3D printing and the like) helps combat other mental problems making it not that insane! How about that for a convoluted argument?

 

And when it comes to making these things, it's mostly patience. The vast majority of the time I cut a piece of paper out from a PDF printout - this piece of paper serves as a "matrix" for a given part that I'm working on - temporarily glue it on a sheet of plastic, cut the "main shape" of the part out using a knife, remove the paper "matrix" and reattach it to another sheet of plastic and cut all the details out - for example "armour plates" or these little rectangles which are along the edges of SM vehicles; then, affix all of these details on top of the "main shape" that I previously got. Sometimes I have to trim the details down by 0.5-1 mm to get visible separation from other parts/panels. On the odd occasion, I have to add details missing from the PDF (which I find by comparing the files with photos of the original Thunderhawk) or introduce and design my own parts.

[Brother Christopher]

A progress update on the Plastic Thunderhawk. There's a lot of commotion with regard to the preview of the new edition, but I'm still soldiering on... working on this. Regardless, here are some work in progress shots of the wings, before adding the external panels with all the details. More to come after the weekend.

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by Brother Cristopher

[Medjugorje]

just one an a half month ago I build a stromraven gunship - your tinkered parts are close to perfection and remember exactly on those parts.

[Brother Christopher]

Admittedly progress on the Thunderhawk Gunship project is slower (things are improving in real life), but I have not abandoned it yet. For the last week or so, I've been working on the cylindrical parts of the flyer's engines. I finished the intakes and turbines:

 

 

 

 

If you're interested in seeing more photos and a description of the tiresome process of assembling these, feel free to visit my WIP thread in the Forge section of the forum.

[Medjugorje]

again great work. Impressed how close to original models your job is done.

 

 

btw... I need a new Ferrari, can you help me?

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for the kind words!

 

Regarding a Ferrari, sure - as long as it's made out of plastic ;)

[Brother Kraskor]

I'll take a plastic Aston then please!

 

Great work on this, what an enormous project to undertake.

[Marshal Reinhard]

There's  being industrious, and then there's this

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

Man, looks like I returned to your thread at an opportune moment. As I have been sitting idle, contemplating IRL things as well as working on "another project", I've speculated on whether you've made progress on the scratch-built Thunderhawk. Needless to say, my eyes nearly popped out of my skull to see the fantastic work you've accomplished in so short a time (compared to the lengths of time between previous updates you've shared before this point, I mean). I look eagerly forwatd to seeing more of your work on this and the eventual completion and painted representation of this mighty and arduous task you have set yourself.

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you, brothers! As always, you are such a great source of motivation that's so needed in a project of this... magnitude.

 

@Sword Brother Ryan - I hope that everything's fine in your real life and you're not contemplating troubles (even though we've got troubling times on our hands!).

 

I'm making progress, but this project consumes more than all of my hobby time; I'm even not visiting the forum as often as I used to; however, I hope that this will change soon and I'll catch up on other people's project too. I've been offline these couple of days, but I've managed to do some work on the Thunderhawk, too! I also have to get myself up to speed on the announcements regarding rules for the 9th edition, as well as take a look at the new models; I've just briefly seen that Primaris are getting an ATV. Yikes. The good thing is that it could actually push me to making a buggy based on a Land Speeder that I thought of some time ago.

 

My resolve with regard to building the Thunderhawk... let's just say that it's not what it used to be and I'm pretty low on zeal. Reason dictates that I press on; though. Otherwise, the project might get frozen for another couple of years. And it would be a shame to waste this covid-fueled drive I've had for the last two months. To be completely frank, because of GW's previews I'm considering doing sometime for my count-as Primaris or simply paint some models... But then again, I'm wary - getting started on other, more practical and down-to-earth things might kill the Thunderhawk. I. Will. Not. Get. Distracted. These other things have been waiting for years; they can do with another couple of months!

[WAR]

So amazing. Been following your thread in the WIP section

[Brother Christopher]

In a week I managed to get from this (the wings are "bare"):

 

 

to this (most of the plating is in place):

 

 

Basically, I've added some details and external armour panels. It took me too much time to do the sections of armour around the air inlets and nozzles; I've messed up badly and had to basically waste 2 hours fixing what could have been done correctly outright in 10 minutes. That was a huge bummer, but I pressed on.

 

 

 

Now a bunch of photos which show the parts from different angles and focus on different bits and details: