Fire Falcons Project Log -Scratchbuilt Sicaran, now updated!

[Brother Morgan]

Impressive conversion Brother Dvorn. I may have a go at making one myself in the future!

 

Keep up the good work. You didn't perhaps make copies/templates of all the plasticard parts to assist future builds?

 

Regards, Brother Morgan.

[Tangamarine]

Sorry for the lack of updates, the wheather here has been horrible leaving it difficult to get good shots. Just finished the finishing touches today, so I now have some photos of the whole thing put together

@Brother Morgan: Unfortunately I was too excited to build the thing to make templates, in hindsight that probably would have been a good idea, but I was only every intending to make one I regret not making the option to remove the front piece, for the option to turn it into a venator (or yet unreleased variant) at a later stage.

To start off with, I'll provide a pic of the unpainted ammo drums. I choose to do a bit less detail than the original model, as I didn't really like the asthetics of that piece, and have simplified it in an attempt to make it a little more modern (With all the advanced peices hidden beneath panells etc) (I did model them, you just can't see them )

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/P1000245_zps39dc79f2.jpg

No onto the finished model (I may plan weathering at a later stage, but the rest of my force is pristine, so I want them to match)

I have included a few images here, but I have taken quite a few so if you want to see more, take a browse through my album

http://s1206.photobucket.com/user/Brother_Dvorn/library/Modern%20sicaran

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/Modern%20sicaran/P1000274_zps64ccf268.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/Modern%20sicaran/P1000317_zpsc0749794.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/Modern%20sicaran/P1000311_zpse1747d03.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/Modern%20sicaran/P1000293_zpsf7fc042f.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/Modern%20sicaran/P1000275_zps8d92da71.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/Modern%20sicaran/P1000285_zps905638fd.jpg

[Doghouse]

That is superb, fantastic creation and I am jealous of your plasticard skills. Really nice job. :tu:

[Firepower]

Plasticard scratch building and orange?  You have my attention :) 

[Son of Carnelian]

Dang. That's absolutely incredible. Great work!

[Brother-Librarian Haegl]

Firstly, I want to sincerely and thoroughly confirm the statements above. This is a stunning display of plasticard- and conversion skill. Also a nice orange. 

 

Secondly... the large, blank space in front of the side sponsons looks extremely bland (IMHO, mind you!). I suggest a large freehand/marking/piece of battledamage to break up the blank surface, again, as a constructive suggestion, no insult intended.

[Olis]

Very nicely done, brother. Loving the colour scheme.

[Kurgan the Lurker]

One more for the cult of Orange!

[Jolemai]

Oh my

[spla5hmummy]

Sorry for the slight threadromancy, but I have to say how gobsmacked I am at this. I enjoy scratch building myself but this is at another level, very inspiring. Well done sir.

[ElectricPaladin]

I have to admit that personally, I like the sense of contrast you get when the old relic technology looks different from the modern tech... but that's just taste. I love what you've done here - it's incredible and inspiring.

[Xenith]

Great conversion and paint!

 

I personally would try and add a bit of detail to the sides, though. Theyre a bit too slabby and plain for my taste!

[Tangamarine]

Yeah I have been thinking about that blank space, If I did anything it would probably be a giant chapter symbol in black, either raised or painted on. However I haven't actually set in stone a symbol yet (all my tactical squads etc are missing their chapter badge lol) so that will have to wait until I finally get round too it.

 

Too busy contemplating a modern equivilent of the scimitar jetbike, taking design elements from the master of the ravenwing's jetbike, landspeeder and stormtalon vector engines :P

Wll, that and building/rebuilding some more modern thunderfire cannons and salvaging centurions.

 

I sense a theme here... lol

[ThroneWarden]

Excellent. The orange scheme with the white is nicely done.

[Slips]

This is pretty much 100% spot on, great work!

[Jønke]

You, good sir, are nuts!  

 

Love it!

[marvmoogy]

WOW!  Do I prefer that to a FW Sicaran.....maybe, in the same way I prefer 40k Rhinos to Demios pattern ones!

 

PUT A COPYRIGHT ON IT AND SELL IT TO FW!!!!

[Brother Paen]

Thanks so much for posting this. It inspired me to do one too. Its no where near as nice as yours  but  I'm almost done and pretty happy with it. Again , thanks for the inspiration.

[Sheesh Mode]

Hey man, I'm aiming to do this myself within two weeks. Would you please tell me how you put together this model? Did you use any papercraft diagrams as a guide? What tools did you use to cut the model,and what kinds of plasticard. 

 

Really looking forward to your post. 

[AndrewChristlieb]

Heck ya, this looks better then the original version. Really good work here.

[Tangamarine]

So, with the tournament season almost over, its time for the forges to begin anew. The chapter has recently aquired some working gravitic impellors and other suitible components to bring back space marine jetbikes to the 41st millennium.

Here is the concept the techmarines have draughted:

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/Jetbikes/11065419_628301040638718_1969478130_o_zpsve8pcx4r.jpg

I have tried to base on aspects of the corvus (namely the double engine system and cool mechanicus cog which now I found I didn't even draw in :( ) while retaining most of the body shape of the scimitar, with a few features from landspeeders (namely grilled intake)

Angles pretty much replace all the curves that the scimitar had, and it took quite a while to trial the concepts for the nose to get a brutal silhouette, while retaining large portions of flat armour (I have kind of a fetish for large panels it seems :s )

Planing on making 8 of these to start off, but going to make one first to assess the design and allow for any problems that arise to be fixed on the next iteration, I am going to try to keep plans for this lot, unlike the sicaran (which I now regret, would making building them in the future a bit quicker when it inventably happens).

I am going to use storm talon vector engines (2 per model) to act as the base for the turbines (3d printing was going to cost $100 to make the whole engine myself - no thanks! ) and I bought 2 sets of black knights to act as the base (gonna need some stripping because I painted them in a rush for a tournament - why do I make this so hard for myself!)

Hopefully gonna update this tomorrow with pics of the engine mounting (unfortunately unable to retrieve the photos off my camera at this stage)

Comments and criticisms welcome :)

[Tangamarine]

Finally managed to get the picture uploaded :)

 

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/Jetbikes/P1000741_zpse7itlrrt.jpg

 

I have started work on one of the side panels, and will test fit as time permits. I got distracted putting some paint on a librarian I bought not too long ago. Unfortunately I just deleted all the pictures of him prior to painting a few days ago. Still needs a bit of work on erros not corresponding to the blue armour, and I haven't yet decided on what colour the gems should be (that were painstakenly filed down from the blood drops - good practice for when I finally get round to tackling all those space hulk terminators). The axe colour is also a bit up in the air, not sure if I want to have the same orange colour as the shoulderpads (in fact, I am considering moving from 1 to 2 stage highlighting, and I might trial that out on this mini too).

 

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Brother_Dvorn/Fire%20Falcons%20Misc/P1000737_zpsal3k6dg4.jpg

[Razblood]

Very nice work overall, love the Sicaran!

I'd say go for a dark green as far as the gems & axe go, it'll add a strong contrast and make the whole model pop more

[TheHaplessHeretic]

Incredible....

[Tangamarine]

A year and a half on, and I totally hadn't forgotten about this project log

Last year was devoted to attending as many tournaments as I could here in NZ, and that coupled with uni saw little progress on the Chapter apart from the whole bit here and there. I managed to burn myself out on the tournament scene, but that has had the added benefit that I have had the time to do a few more bits here and there.\

Unfortunately I haven't found the drive to progress any further on the jetbikes (having actually gone back a step by building up the parts as standard bikes to use in a tournament list ). I have also made the decision to ditch the overhead on my collection with a number of models I never got round to using being sold off, which allows me to refine my focus a bit. I have also started the slow process of stripping some older models in my collection for touch ups and repainting.

However I do still have a few things to show, that I am currently working on​:

Vindicator Laser Destroyer:

Again like the Sicaran, I found myself wanting one of these awesome models, but couldn't justify the price tag on a student budget or tolerate the change in design methodologies used in the forgeworld kit. After a few experiments with a single attached extension to the vindicator using a piece of plasticard tubing and one of the engines I intended for the jetbikes:

This didn't sit right in my head though, since the laser destroyer is meant to be a twin linked weapon. Therefore I decided that I needed quad lascannons like the original model (and a few others I have seen after a quick google). After managing to score some spare land raider lascannons, and further scavenging from the predator I destroyed during the making of the sicarans turret, I came up with this:

The reactor/generator sections were created using the laser power packs from the predator, plasticard, the dome from a admech dunecrawler, and greenstuff filling of the turbines coupled with a custom stamp made from a plasticard tube and a few offcuts.

Predator Destroyer Turret:

Since I have no intention of using the plasma cannons on the stormraven I bought, I thought a executioner plasma destroyer would be the perfect use for it (although thinking things like this has backfired badly in the past )

I do have future plans to make a heavy conversion beamer, but haven't fully worked out how to do that yet (as am wanting to scale up a conversion beamer I have previously made for a techmarine on jetbike, or redo them both). At some point a power plant is in order too, since both my lascannon and plasma destroyer are using the autocannon back piece ).

Work has also started on repair the aforementioned predator turret as well:

Think I will be covering the gaps with plasticard on this one, and pop on a power unit fitting for a plasma based weapon.

Another major project I am working on, with progress on slightly above the glacial speed at which the jetbikes are being worked on, is the stormraven/eagle.

I, like many others it seems, was quite disappointed on how the stormraven turned out, and after finally biting the bullet and getting the stormraven as a birthday present from the girlfriend, I will be putting my own unique spin on it.

Having the dreadnought swing off the cable has always looked a bit weird to me, so one of the first things I wanted to achieve (after lengthening the hull of course) was to fit the dreadnought into the nose. Overall the design I had in mind was something akin to the storm eagle of forgeworld.

The wing structure around the engines also had to change to strengthen the hull and be a little more aesthetically pleasing:

After assembling the basic body (which had to be entirely rebuilt due to the increased width), I couldn't quite decide on the final wing configuration (so any comments thoughts to that regards would be most welcome) Here are a few that I have kicking round in my head at the moment:

The turret is also a point of contention, but not sure how to mount the weapons otherwise, while maintaining similar lines of sight arcs etc. (I had wanted to just side bolt them in thunderhawk esque style)

I also have been working on a few deathwatch (some of which are taking a bath in simple green as we speak):

And Grey Knights:

Halberds have been replaced using Dark Angel Ravenwing Command Squad arms and Grey Knight Terminator falchions I managed to score years ago off a friend.

Magnetised and did some minimal reposing work on some centurions as well, but that can wait for another day

Thanks for your time, and good luck on your own hobby projects

As always comments and criticisms most welcome.

Brother Dvorn