Doom Fists WIP Blog - Take 2

[Marius Perdo]

Well, my eyesight is nearly restored so I have started bimbling again.

However this is a take 2 blog as my first was eaten by the dog. Oaky, it was accidentally deleted.

Typically I can't actually post anything due to the scrapcode attack on B&C

However my old LPC vow thread is still intact here. So anyone new to my project, or who wants reminding (Emperor knows why), they can take a gander at that.

This month I will mostly be kit-bashing termies and covering them in bonding studs and bling.

[Lachdannan]

Glad to see this back, and shame about the old blog gone. Though it does explain why I couldn't find it when I was looking for some inspiration. Looking forward to the updates!

[Biohazard]

Agreed, good to see you back mate. Looking forward to the Termies

[Marius Perdo]

Well, the termies are being done as Knights of the Lion but I have kept 10 of each squad type aside for when a 6th edition codex appears.

 

I have been pondering scratch building something special for some time though, given my Chapter are a fleet based nomad predation fleet that don't waste materials on drop pods and use lots of vehicles.

 

Whilst I own a Forge World Thunderhawk and a Thunderhawk Transporter the most efficient way of landing a lot of vehicles and marines at once is a Landing Craft (from Epic Armageddon) so I dug out mine from a dusty box and placed it on some vehicles for a sense of scale. Time to draw some scale drawings and work out how to build it I guess.

 

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/DSCF0002_zps0fe80612.jpg

 

Apparently they can carry 6 rhino chassis or 4 land raider chassis vehicles. And 12 stands of marines, which is 60, but Epic says a Thunderhawk can carry 40 (and Apoc states 30) so I'll aim for it to look like it can carry 50 marines.

 

A long term project obviously. Something for me to do when I want to get the drawing board out.

 

Note I am scaling it from the Epic vehicles as I don't think the Epic Thunderhawk will scale correctly. It does mean I'll be magnetising all my Doom Fists vehicles under their hulls so they can clip on to it if I ever get it done.

[Ch@oZ]

 

It does mean I'll be magnetising all my Doom Fists vehicles under their hulls so they can clip on to it if I ever get it done.

As much as i'd like to see that, i'm pretty sure it would require magnets of massive size. I sincerely hope you'll manage to find a way around it.

[Biohazard]

Ok this is going to be awesome. I love seeing these massive scratch built vehicles and I'm sure you will do this justice.

[The_Chaplain]

Oh boy oh boy, I'm positively giddy to see this scratchbuilt behemoth!  Your terminators are off to a lovely start as well!

[NightHunters]

Oh Hell yeah!

 

Just one thing, please please please add another set of turbines toward the front!? I always thought the epic model would have no problems with a sharp, nose first, descent but may struggle with pulling into a 3 point landing........

[Marius Perdo]

@NightHunters: Good idea. I'll add some front wings with engines to the "cabin", similar to those on the Forge World Thunderhawk Transporter. I'll probably make them swing wing so it will be sort of VTOL to add upward thrust on take off. That'll mean some downward facing thrusters at the rear underneath where the wings meet the fuselage too.

I did some measurements for scaling, which to be honest weren't that helpful. Assuming 40k is 1/48 and Epic is 1/285 to 1/300 scale the ratio is about 6:1. When measuring 40k land raiders and rhinos to epic ones it came out about 5:1 (slightly less).

However the landing craft measure 115mm x 79mm x 35mm. So when scaled up by 5 it would be 575mm or about 23" long, which seems a little short at just under 2 foot. When scaled up by 6 it would be 690 mm or about 27 10/16" which seems better.

So based on a scale of 6:1 it'll end up 27 10/16" x 19" x 8 6/16", or about 2 1/3 feet long by just over 1 1/2 feet wide by 2/3 of a foot tall. This is at long points of course, so it includes wing tip to wing tip and to the top of the tail from the "ground", assuming landing struts are down.

Horribly rough so I need to do a scale drawing and scan it so I can scale on a compuer to my hearts content. Then print the plans out 40k life size when I am happy.

I'll get a UPVC square tube from a builders yard at a thickness that means it can be a good, strong starting point for the "spine" of the craft.

As an aside I have raided my plethora of vehicle accessory and razorback/land raider sprues and set aside two twin-linked lascannon turrets for the wings (as I think predator turrets look daft), three heavy bolter turrets for the wings and on the cabin, three static storm bolters for along the top of the spine, and a hatch for on top of the cabin. With about 20 vehicle accessory spreues, and a half dozen Foreg World land raider variants that don't use the twin-linked heavy bolters this hasn't been as wasteful or destructive to other kits as it sounds

Not much but at least it feels like I have done something. The positive I am takling away from this it is so blocky and square, or large (in the case of the turbines) that finding plastic building materials (such as sqaure or round tubing) to get together a base frame shouldn't be too hard. Fabricating detail of course, so it doesn't look bland, will be another matter entirely.

[NightHunters]

The above all sounds pretty spot on.

 

Size sounds about right, swing wing sounds like the obvious solution (oversized storm talon esque?) only thing that bugs me on the original are the vehicle grapples, any plans on those?

[Lorenzen]

Welcome back man, :)

 

I expect good things as always and you can expect me to push you if you slack off.

[Marius Perdo]

@NightHunters: Model railway/rail road kits are an excellent source of gantries and metal yard arms and all sorts. And very cheap too. So that'll be a starting point. And Storm Talon style wings would be a very good starting point. However at the moment my blood is up and all I see is chainaxes, blood, and skulls.

 

*looks wistfully back at his desk and the spiky mad murder men that are rampaging all over it*

 

@Lorenzen: Yep, eyes all better (or as near as dammit) and a brain bursting with crazy ideas. At the moment that is mostly Khornate though.

 

A note on 6th and the Space Marine Codex

 

Some may ask why am I waiting for the new dex? Am I a min-maxer?

 

Hardly :) For those that know me I rarely have an army ready for playing let alone any inclination to play anymore. However when 5th came out it was all those weapon options that where available as theoretical choices that interested me. As in GW did not make them yet (and in some cases never did). That excited me. Things like twin-linked heavy flamers on dreadnoughts, heavy flamers for sternguard, land speeder tornadoes with two multi-meltas, twin-linked heavy flamers on razorbacks, sternguard festooned with good looking combi-flamers etc. Things that burnt things.

 

So until there is a 6th edition codex we just won't know for sure what might be changed. And I want new options that they don't make models for so i can convert them...again :)

 

However I did open my Doom Fists army boxes the other day to steal a Korvydae head and they shouted heretic at me and shot at me so I may do something for them soonish. I think actually doing the twin-linked heavy flamer dreadnougt for the Hall of Honor thread with dreadnoughts in it would make sense. He was there almost from the start after all. I did actually field him in every 5th edition battle I played (all 15...woot), he only ever lost one arm and he smeared/torched more orks than I can remember (and stomped on 6 warbosses). Another thing that burns. Kills too. And maims...ooops.