Project Thunderhawk

[Newtype]

Your scratch built Thunderhawk is well done indeed. And will definitely be an imposing presence on the table with the lights and engines blazing away. In regards to the wiring, are you soldering the connections? Or just twisting them together? That could make a difference, as a twisted connection may come apart.

 

A site that has helped me in using LED's is this one: LED Circuit Wizard Try it out.

Good luck with the lighting. It'll be worth the headaches in the end for sure. :)

[maverike_prime]

So I'm working on the next phase in my Thunderhawk project, however this part of the project will be focused on a model that is deep enough into the gray section of what is allowed and isn't allowed on this forum that I do not feel comfortable posting the progress and information on it here. I will however tell you that I'll be covering the progress of it over on my blog and highly encourage you to check it out. To wet your appetite, I'll post this:

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xr5g1ji4RQM/UKHUdN0h4hI/AAAAAAAAAbw/IUW4tvYWOhE/s1600/DSCN5381.JPG

[Life Guard of Justice]

Nice bird bro! I tried doing one myself and could drive myself to do it. (I was gonna put a marine in the cockpit and count it as a storm guppy) got about a 5th of the way through cutting the plasticard and gave up. Lovin the lights as well.

 

Keep up the good work,

the lifeguard

[Grotsmasha]

Just had a quick read through your blog, very nice, but the only thing in there that would be "melta'd" by the mods is naming the author of the templates, everything else is safe.

 

Cheers,

Jono

[maverike_prime]

Just had a quick read through your blog, very nice, but the only thing in there that would be "melta'd" by the mods is naming the author of the templates, everything else is safe.

 

Cheers,

Jono

 

well that and the lack of power armored material in this particular section of my project.

[maverike_prime]

okay got a bit of an update that I can probably get away with posting here right now. Was working on the front section of the Thunderbolt and I think I've got a winner for one of the parts:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/IMAG0233.jpg

 

The ammo hoppers! Some application of plasticard and use of glue in the proper form and sizes have come together to make what I think is a reasonable bit for an ammo hopper. I'm going to cast a mold of the part so I can cast copies of it in resin. That way I can work on my molding and casting skills. *shrugs* who knows. Maybe I'll sell 'em too. what do you say? 2 hoppers for $5? Good for vehicles and the like. Whatever. I'm jumping ahead of myself. First thing's first: Getting the part finished for my model.

[Firebird71]

Wow! Kudos for taking that much time on the prototype alone. I probably should have done more planning on mine but the whole changing things as you go can be quite a good learning experience too. Not sure where exactly you stand with the wiring part but maybe looking over mine will be good for ideas of what to and what not to do. Here's a link: Thunderhawk Transport. Just my personal opinion but your best bet for placing the wiring inside models like this is solder and protecting the exposed wire with shrink tubing afterwards. Oh, and silicone molds with clear casting resin is your friend, especially for things like instrument panels with backlights! For your thunderhawk cannon maybe rigging up a capacitor with the LED would be an interesting idea to try. Rather than just an on/off with a momentary switch you could have it turn on then slowly fade to off. Just my 2 cents, hope it helps.

[maverike_prime]

Okay so I'm returing to this project. Next on my list of challenges to over come: The Twin-linked Heavy bolter turrets!

 

The Thunderhawk mounts 4 of these. I've seen other conversions that take the Razorback turret and just turn it upside down. While this is functional... I think it looks weird and improvised as opposed to built. So I'm trying to figure out how to build a Twin-linked heavy bolter turret, that is suspended and capable of aiming downward, as a ground attack weapons that can't point downward being mounted on an aircraft is somewhat useless. So with some experimentation I found that if you turn the mounting arm from the Razorback so that it's base is facing up relative to the Heavy bolter, you can build the turret the same way. But... now I've got the ammo feeds just sort of hanging there. So I need to address that, I want to attach ammo boxes to the bottom of the bolters, but I'm not sure which parts to use to accomplish this.

 

Here are the four options I have:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/DSCN0081_zpsa3afe2cc.jpg

 

Option 1: Predator Autocannon ammo hopper

Option 2: Baal predator ammo hopper

Option 3: Assault Cannon Ammo drum

Option 4: Devastator ammo bit.

 

So any thoughts?

[Best of British]

number 1 i believe is the las cannon batteries fro the predator, though i maybe wrong.

 

id go with number two, lots of ammo, you can never have too much ammo :D especially with a massive machine gun like a heavy bolter.

 

Great work look forward to more updates

[maverike_prime]

I'm sure some of you are wondering where this post went. Well, to be short it went away. I was informed that the information I had posted violated copyrights held by GW and as such put online forums such as Bolter And Chainsword at risk. Rather then rely on the Mods to police the threads and pick them apart to avoid potentially damaging retribution, I have elected to simply remove the entirety of the post from the forum. The information can still be found on my blog but for the security of Bolter and Chainsword it will not be posted here.

 

Maverike Prime

[AJB2K3]

Nice tip with the rocks (seen that on plaster casting aswell)

Some thing I once read (need to order mould making kit myself) Some one on the web was found that if he run channels to the lowest part of the models and filled from that end (and letting the resin rise) often reduced the bubbling.

Whats the best plasticine/clay to use when betting part to make the first half of a mould?

[maverike_prime]

Nice tip with the rocks (seen that on plaster casting aswell)

Some thing I once read (need to order mould making kit myself) Some one on the web was found that if he run channels to the lowest part of the models and filled from that end (and letting the resin rise) often reduced the bubbling.

Whats the best plasticine/clay to use when betting part to make the first half of a mould?

 

Yeah I've been finding that filling from the bottom seemed to work better. In order to make that a viable option I think I'll need to recast my molds for a lot of the smaller parts.

As for the clay question. I've tried 4 types of clay, and so far the best option I've found is the blue synthetic clay from Alumilite.

[Studio Silvernale]

http://www.harborfreight.com/2-1-2-half-gallon-pressure-paint-tank-66839.html

 

You should get one of these if you plan to do casting. I got one and it makes a world of difference.

[maverike_prime]

http://www.harborfre...tank-66839.html

 

You should get one of these if you plan to do casting. I got one and it makes a world of difference.

 

I'm assuming you are suggesting that I pressurize the resin to degause it of any bubbles, right? If so, I don't think that will work with the resin I'm using.The stuff has a pot life of 90 seconds. at 1:30 it's gummy and at 5 minutes it's rigid.

[maverike_prime]

double post. Please ignore.

[Studio Silvernale]

http://www.harborfre...tank-66839.html

 

You should get one of these if you plan to do casting. I got one and it makes a world of difference.

 

I'm assuming you are suggesting that I pressurize the resin to degause it of any bubbles, right? If so, I don't think that will work with the resin I'm using.The stuff has a pot life of 90 seconds. at 1:30 it's gummy and at 5 minutes it's rigid.

 

Try Mold Star 30 silicone with Smooth Cast 321.

[maverike_prime]

So my progress on the Thunderbolt continues, but is somewhat halted. I need to order more molding compound. I didn't like how the first mold of the engine came out so I tried to make a better mold. While I managed to do that, I used more mold compound then I had previously planned on. So I need to order more. Otherwise I can't make the mold for the left wing and lets face it, a one-winged Thunderbolt is going to fly a whole lot worse then a two-winged version. However, I'm doubly delayed on that front because I just had to drop about $700 on a bit of a health problem. End result is nothing serious but I'm lucky I caught it when I did otherwise the doctors were concerned I'd be risking blindness in my right eye. No telling how much being blind in one eye would have slowed down my hobbying. So it will be a couple weeks till I can order more mold compound.

 

But that doesn't stop me from working with what I already have on hand. As previously stated I intend to use magnets in my final build to allow me to drop bombs, remove hell fire missiles and swap out fuel pods as I see fit. Well I managed to cast up one wing with magnets in it.

.

 

Right now it's using a single bar magnet in each pylon. The bar is magnetixed through the long axis. meaning if you look at the bar like this:

Magnet bar ===> =============

Then the poles of the magnet are on the ends of the bar, like so:

Magnet bar ===> =============

 

While this works it feels a bit flimsy and I think will put too strain on my efforts to build an alignment system into the missiles and pods. Also any alignment system I do build will be based on absolute placement of the magnets in both pieces, meaning if the magnet in the pylon is placed exactly 5.4mm from the back side of the pylon then accompanying magnet in the pylon, missile and fuel pod must also be exactly5.4mm from the back edge of the alignment system. An exacting measurement that is extremely difficult to accomplish. So what am I going to do about this? Well I think I'm going to get bar magnets that are magnetized along the long side rather then on the ends. That way it will be largely self aligning.

[maverike_prime]

Hey all. Been a while since I posted anything on this project. Life has been life. Also been looking into how to address certain issues with the casting I've been working on so far. It's a learning experience all around that's for sure.

 

But due to the scope of the project I'm also able to switch gears here and there and look into other particulars as I see fit. One of those particulars is the application of LED lighting effects. I'm making progress with the LEDs and have learned more or less how to build a circuit that will blink in a given way. Yeah for me! Next challenge: Building a circuit that producing a build up charge for the LED. Basically here's what I'm looking for: When I press a button the LED will just barely turn on. The longer I hold the button the brighter the LED gets until it reaches it's full brightness. I've tried looking for "Progressive brightness" and "Pulsing LED" but I'm coming up with a big fat goose egg as to what to study. Can anyone provide any guidance in this area? A project log or tutorial to actually build a circuit would be ideal.

[maverike_prime]

Hey all. Guess what I'm back to working on? Yeah I know, it's been close to 18 months since I posted about it. what can I say, between my Army Builder attention deficit disorder, school, work, family, and medical stuff my brain tends to jump a lot. It's just the way I am. Anyway, with this years apoc game behind me I decided to return to project Thunderhawk at least for the immediate time being. I still have a great many other projects I'm working on, not the least of which is Codex: Chaos.

 

So Project Thunderhawk. Last time I talked about this I was talking about casting the parts for the thunderbolt fighter. A year later I haven't gotten any better with that and with my current financial situation I have not the means to practice at my disposal. So that has annoyingly been put on hold. Which is a bit of an upset because with the plastic thunderbolt I was building and the paper-hammer version I had built previously I was moving closer toward having a full flight of Thunderbolts. Be really fun to be put a flight of 6 Thunderbolts on the table for a future Apoc game. Well, may still happen one day, but not just yet.

Returning to the Thunderhawk I actually started with the upper cannon housing first. This is largely an arbitrary choice because of how the template is setup.You could very easily break the finished model down into 8 seperate parts that you could start on and work on in virtually any order and only need to make extremely minor changes to your project plan to accommodate the changes. The wings, the main body, the forward section, the upper cannon housing, and the forward stabilizers are each separate sections of the template So the upper canon housing seemed like a good enough place to start while still having to work with some of the electronics I had previously talked about doing.

So I constructed the upper cannon housing using .4mm thick sheet styrene over a support structure of 1/4" thick hollow square tubing. here is the end result:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1415-thumb_zpsee0000e1.jpg

Fairly good work here if you don't mind the self congratulations. The only part I'd do differently if I did this again is the vent stack covers. I made them too tall.

Now, there's not much point in building a cannon housing if you don't have a cannon is there? Well I'm working on that too:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1428-thumb_zpse467e74f.jpg

Building the Turbo Laser has been a bit more of a challenge then it first seemed it would be. See money is an issue right now so I'm trying to do as much of this with out buying anything as I can. Basically what I have on hand right now. So while I had the material to the build the mount housing at the base of the cannon, and I had the materials to build the cannon barrel... mating the two parts was a bit more of a challange. Basically I had piping that was 1.8mm  on the inner diameter that I used for the cannon housing, and I had piping that was 1.4mm on the outer diameter which is the cannon barrel basically.  So I had .4mm of space to fill across a depth of 3.5cm. Well I think I got it settled moderately well. Basically I used stacks of .2mm thick styrene to build 3 stacks that I then glued around the base of the cannon barrel and then used those stacks to fill the space between the cannon barrel and the cannon housing.And then I went back in and filling in the forward most space with green stuff. I'll see need to go back and add on a bunch of detail on the cannon and the mount for it. The hydraulics for it, the additional bracing, the bolts, ect.

 

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1430-thumb_zps0570b1c2.jpg

I also worked on the electronics for this part as well. I installed a 1cm yellow LED on the housing where the cannon will mount and then wired in the switch. I installed the monetary switch in the upper housing so that way the cannon will light up as long as I push the button.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1426-thumb_zps62276088.jpg

 

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1424-thumb_zpsf372c9d8.jpg

I had a bit of a happy accident of sorts when I was working on the cannon. See the Cannon has a sort of recoil suppressor or something on the end of the barrel, and I didn't have a section of tube small enough to accommodate this so I used a length of clear pen tube body for it. The happy accident? The suppressor glows yellow when the light is applied to it.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1429-thumb_zpsb85f5c53.jpg

If I had know the pen body collected light like that I would have used a red LED instead of the yellow one. Oh well, next time I guess.

[Squeaky]

Cool, I quite like the yellow almost a white hot glow. Look forward to more updates as and when you can. This should be good :)

[maverike_prime]

Cool, I quite like the yellow almost a white hot glow. Look forward to more updates as and when you can. This should be good

Like I said it was a happy accident. If i had known about it before hand I would have done a few things a little differently, like using a red LED instead of a yellow to make it look like the barrel is getting super hot. But, such is life. now the real challenge of the cannon comes to be. I have to add the rest of the little details to it.

[Squeaky]

Cool, I quite like the yellow almost a white hot glow. Look forward to more updates as and when you can. This should be good

Like I said it was a happy accident. If i had known about it before hand I would have done a few things a little differently, like using a red LED instead of a yellow to make it look like the barrel is getting super hot. But, such is life. now the real challenge of the cannon comes to be. I have to add the rest of the little details to it.

Good luck mate :)

[maverike_prime]

Okay so got some more work done on the Thunderhawk today. Annoyingly for at least the next week or so any progress I do make on the Thunderhawk will be extremly small and mainly limited to small details or perhaps painting a small part and there is a reason for this. I have to wait for several orders of materials and parts to arrive before I can continue working on the large stuff. I don't have enough styrene of the proper thickness to build the body for instance. I decided to use some bitz to make building the consoles on the control deck a bit more reasonable and keep them fighting with the other Space marine Models so I need to wait for those parts to come in. I've decided to use rectangular LEDs for some console displays, rectangular LEDs I had to order so I have to wait for those to come in before I can do much more like wiring in the circuits for them them to be used.

 

But I have been working on the Thunderhawk!

 

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1452thumb_zps2f9e2910.jpg

 

Here you can see the underside of the control deck. I'm sure you're wondering what those two holes are toward the front of the panel. Well Those will be fore red LEDs that I'm going to install in it. Something to give you an idea:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1453thumb_zpsf70f08f1.jpg

I'm gonna try and wire those red LEDs into a blinker circuit that that it'll be like when they open the bay door, there's a red flashing light. Might build a Captain getting ready to jump out of the Thunderhawk, along with an  arrogant little twerp of a 'veteran' marine complaining that such acts are not in keeping with the codex. And then he promptly get's smacked by the Captain with the codex as he tells him that as soon as you start limiting your battles to a pre-written book you may as well surrender.

The green lines are pigment powder I used to mark out the boxes and sections I marked. See the template I'm using builds in a tremendous amount of detail and I'm going to try and use that detail to my advantage with regards to the electronics. See the lights will be... well the lights on the Embarkation deck and control deck will be in the front of the model, while the power supply will be in the back end. So I need to run wire up the body and into those respective sections. Well I'm going to try and hide those wires in plain sight by positioning them to be the cables and conduit that run over head on the embarkation deck and under the control deck.

 

here is an example of one of the extra bits of detail the template makes:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1454thumb_zps377dfb2a.jpg

 

That's not all the details that go on that panel, but it gives an idea of it.

 

Here's the top side view, along with Calgar for Scale:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1451thumb_zpsa0c2e8b5.jpg

 

I am going to build the console stations and piloting stations but like I said I have to wait for the supplies to arrive to do that. To give you an idea of what I'm going to light up in the cockpit I made this using the template:

 

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/cockpit-detail_zps18966ae5.png

The Green glow from the panels is what I'm intending to light up. Actually I've already made one part for the process:
 

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/maverike_prime/Warhammer/Thunderhawk/SAM_1456thumb_zps710885df.jpg

 

So... yeah. Little tiny updates for the next week or so I guess while I wait for materials and parts to come in.

[abraxus]

Brilliant!!  By using boxes from GW models, the whole thing is made of GW parts and is completely tournament legal!

[maverike_prime]

Brilliant!!  By using boxes from GW models, the whole thing is made of GW parts and is completely tournament legal!

.... Huh?