Dark Angels Thunderhawk

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

Hello, B&C!

 

I have recently purchased what I believe to be the last classic FW Thunderhawk (#2003) and after a few weeks of modelling (a lot) and converting (minimal) I'm at the point where I can slap some paint on it (with more or less skill; I'll let you be the judges). I'm calling it the Beast as a working title.

 

Since I have started painting, I thought, I might make the progress available here in a centralised location for this particular project.

If you're interested in a general log of my other projects, or a log of the building process, please click the link in my signature.

 

A few words before I start with the pictures:

• I am very bad at photographing. Please excuse my failures in this field. Should you be interested in clarifying pictures, just post the request here, and I'll try to fulfill it with another crappy photo
• I am a "traditional" painter; i.e. no fancy NMM shenanigans, no wet palette and I've never painted such a giant model. My biggest model so far is an Imperial Knight (pictures of which: again, signature). For this reason, I've bought an airbrush set and I'm still figuring out the basics, such as pre-shading. I'm getting there. I hope.
• I've also integrated interior lighting in the form of red LEDs, because I'll paint the interior and want to be able to actually see something there
• The upper hull will be removable, which is one main reason for why I'm painting more than the flight deck; the main cannons are magnetized, and I've dark-angel-ized (this is a word now) the Beast with Dark Angels Land Raider doors and a Rhino front plate from FW. It will be mounted on a themed base on a 2cm diameter acrylic rod. This base is not yet constructed, as well as the engine room, but I'll come to that once the main model is built and painted.
• I'm of the firm conviction that such expensive models should be treated with the utmost of respect and attention. This being said, I've had to develop new skill sets (working with epoxy, soldering, and airbrushing) to tackle this project. I'll give it the best of my abilities, but it may not be enough sometimes.

Okay, enough babbling, here are the pictures. 

 

First, we have a frontal view of a dry fit. You can already see the painted pilots inside (if you squint hard enough)

 

Here's a shot of the lowered assault ramp, with interior lighting running. It seems very bright in the darkness, but I mainly took this picture to see if the light shines through thin parts of the resin. Which it does and is now fixed with a plasticard bracing inside. Still unpainted, though, just for kicks.

 

 

Here's the painting process of the pilots. I've dremeled out one of the heads to replace it with a DA Techmarine head, and the shoulder pads are from FW.

Flight deck still unpainted, dry fitting.

 

 

 

Now some (terribly blurry) pictures of the finished pilots:

 

 

 

 

Since then, I've started priming and basecoating the interior. Which you can't really make out since this picture was taken in natural sunlight. But here it is anyways, in bone white. Take my word for it.

 

 

The inner part of the assault ramp is almost done already. It will get a good sponging for more weathering, and then it'll be ready for permanent mounting on the nose.

 

 

Speaking of the nose.

This part is still not glued to the lower hull, for two reasons: First, it would be very awkward to paint the lower deck with it in place; second the flight deck needs to be mounted to really be able to glue the nose in place. And to mount the flight deck, everything inside must be painted, and the LED cables need to be connected. This is going to be fiddly work.

 

Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoy the project as much as I do!

Edited August 8, 2017 by Cpt. Bannockburn

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Looks promising.

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

While I'm busy painting the interior (it looks very rough and not at all presentable right now), I decided to use the battle cannon to do a color test with the VMA green I've got.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really come close to Caliban Green, so I'm forced to find another solution. It'll probably be great for my planned IG tanks, though, I think.

 

Here you can see the difference to Caliban Green:

 

[BlueBelly1863]

Love everything I've seen so far! You are definitely giving this model the time and attention it requires. I look forward to more progress! It always impresses me when people rig up the LEDs within their vehicles... how did you manage it?

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

Solder and patience, mostly.
It was the first time soldering LEDs, but there are plenty of good instructions to be had online, e.g. this one.

 

As for the actual logistics, I've constructed a number of cable ducts from 5mm inside diameter square plasticard tubes.

You can see them on the left side here.

 

Here are some closeups:

 

 

 

And a construction picture of the LED panel that goes under the flight deck. I'll try to take a picture of how it looks now, the next time the deck is presentable.

 

 

I hope it helps

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

I've just airbrushed a bunch of Primaris Marines and changed the color composition of my test parts.

 

Here's he result. I'm pretty happy with it and can see myself seriously starting once the interior is done.

 

I also started painting exterior details, starting with the landing gear and the wing HB turret mountings.

 

Speaking of the interior, I've also had some little progress here. The flight deck needs detailing, and the lower and rear compartment haven't been started, but from what I did to the nose interior and the flight deck, I think I've managed to pin down the techniques I want to use.

 

Another exterior detail, the air brake compartments look like this now:

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

Hi! This thread is not dead. It just has been on hold until I've finished my DW army. Now that this is done (if you want to see pictures, follow the link to my other WiP thread in my signature )

I took a few pictures of some of my progress this morning, but I'm sorry for them being washed out. My phone cam isn't the best and the weather this morning was grey.
Besides the interior I've started a test wash of one of the attack wings and basecoated the turbo laser. Pictures of these steps later.

For now, I've concentrated on the interior, because finishing this means that I can do the final assembly of the lower hull, close the whole thing up and start priming the exterior.
 
First, the almost finished flight deck. As usual, when I took the picture, I noticed a few spots that still need to be detailed. Also, gloss varnish for the multitude of screens (which look much better in person than on this picture). Weathering is light, and basically just a wash followed by drybrush. Sure, I want the interior painted to show it off, but most of the time, the upper fuselage will be closed. So ... meh. 
 

 
Next, we have the lower deck. It's finished, and I decided to go light on details and weathering. This part will be hardly visible, even with the LEDs installed.
 

 
And finally, I worked a bit more on the interior of the assault ramp, since I wasn't content with the grating. Now it looks better I think. This part is heavily weathered, because I figure it would see the most use. It's a bit lighter IRL, but you get the gist, I think.
 


Some more work on the nose cone is necessary before I can glue that on. My plan for the weekend is to install the LEDs and glue down the flight deck at least. Maybe I'll get the nose done as well. Afterwards, all the green parts will be primed black. Looking forward to that, because this means I can install the landing gear, which will most of the work easier.

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

Here's an update!

 

Please excuse the poor lighting once more, it's evening. Also, the LEDs are ... pretty bright. Didn't expect them to be that bright!

Anyways. The interior is done, and now the nose cone is attached and the epoxy needs to dry. This basically means that the next step is priming the exterior! Will keep you posted, but my next week is pretty busy. We'll see what I can do.

 

 

[Theradrussian]

Very impressed with your work, approach, and dedication to seeing it through! I have a knight titan half assembled as I feel it's too daunting, but if you can take on a project like this and learn a ton of new techniques as you work on it, I feel like I should follow your lead!

 

Keep us updated- I want to see the beast fly!

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

Thanks for the praise!

With my own knight I had so much fun building it, that it got done in about 2 weeks flat.

The hawk is a different beast, though, although I'm planning to power through the remaining work now.

 

 

What's this? Another update? Yep.

 

Beast's primed now. All is coming together prettily.

 

 

 

Next steps: A bit of pre-shading (pre-highlighting?) in white, then a basecoat in green, then the belly gets some detailing done, then the landing gear will be attached permanently.

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

Probably the last update for the Beast this week, and its a bad picture.

 

But it's green now. So there's that. You can't see it, but the pre-highlighting worked out pretty well, with a subtle effect. I'm pleased, but the main body of work starts now.

 

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

Here's a picture of my work on friday:

 

The front landing gear has since been finished, and I've started on the rear landing gear, as well as picking out a few details on the steel colored thruster in a spot colour.

I had to take it apart again, because it's impossible to handle for painting. But that's why I've made it modular

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job so far.

[Bob Hunk]

Very cool! B)

[Lord Commander Eidolon]

I've acquired myself one of these old skool bad boys, so I am watching this with interest! Love what you've done with the lighting! Keep up the great work!

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

I had a big project at work and not a lot of time for hobby stuff in the recent months, so there's been a lot of delay, but now I'm starting back up.

 

Here's a finished assault ramp!

 

 

More to come soon(-ish).

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

More to come soon(-ish).

 

So, that was a lie, apparently. 

Almost three years later, I didn't get much done, but I did manage to pick this up again, and am powering through quite a bit of these huge surfaces. I finished the lower hull (apart from a few detailing and highlighting steps) and colour matched the upper hull. 

 

 

The next steps will be painting the details on the upper hull, finishing the highlight steps and then going for the interior of the airbrakes compartments.

After that, the wings and turbo laser.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Cpt. Bannockburn

[WAR]

It looks great so far

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

And this is today's progress

 

 

I glued on the aerial, and painted the details on the upper hull. Next, I will glue in the air brakes (finished, but not shown), and then I'll tackle the gun.

[Brother Christopher]

Someone sharing work on the now OOP Thunderhawk in 2021 - well, well... this is definitely an experience and something to keep an eye on. Congratulations on your purchase of the better model and on your progress so far.

 

Taking a look at the date of the initial post, I see that you're taking your time with this one ;) My only regret is that I haven't stumbled upon your thread sooner; it might've saved me some hassle with my scratchbuild project, provided that you'd be so kind as to send some photos.

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

Well, what kind of photos do you need? 

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for asking, that's awfully nice of you! Right now, I don't need anything - my scratch building project is on hold. However, I'll remember that you're around and should I need something (like the landing gear) and take the liberty to PM you, should I need assistance.

Edited July 9, 2021 by Brother Cristopher

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

The problem is that most of the parts are already glued in now, so if you don't act soon, the photos would be less usable :)

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

I've attached the front heavy bolter sponsons and the air brakes, as well as finishing up the turbo laser. I also primed the rest of the components so I'm ready to tackle the last parts. 

 

 

Only the wings  and attack wings are left now. You can see where I was a bit sloppy with the greenstuff, but I'll be damned if I strip that again to file it down properly. It'll just gonna be a bad weld job on a sub par repair facility during some mission or other.

 

20 parts left to paint, and 6 of those are already basecoated. An ending is in sight.

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

And we're close to finished. The wings are done.

 

 

And with mocked up attack wings, which I'll probably paint tomorrow, at which I call this project preliminarily done (barring a coat of varnish), before I'll pick it up later for heavy weathering.