Utgardian IG (DIY Halo-style vehicles - Flyer)

[Nostromo]

The wings are done.

And also attached to the hull, same goes for the rear thrusters.

Alas, the magnets turned out to be too weak. I used 1mmx5mm ones glued on the outside.

Since those have not been sufficient, i cut open the hull and dropped 3mmx4mm ones in - which self-attached to the magnets on the outside from the inside and added up to the strength.

THIS was enough.

Still much work on the hull surface... i would say, i have completed about 40% now. And then there is also still the missing cargo / passenger bay hatch.

I also need to make a few adjustments on the angles the wings are attached to the hull.

[Nostromo]

The last photos may have indicated that the end is close...

but i am back to the many, many mising parts on the surface.

Both photos are from the WIP-phase - the first from the middle of bending and glueing, so it looks even messier than the camera with nitpicky tendency to point out the smalles inaccuracies makes it look anyway.

And another WIP of the not yet applied (cut out) parts for the rear-side and the lower rear...wings (?)

[Triszin]

This is bonkers. Nice job so far

[Nostromo]

The parts from the last photo applied.

And the rear hatch.

That almost-random-poligonal pattern looks more and more odd.

But it makes an interesting contrast to the more minimalistic pattern on the upside.

All of a sudden, it feels like the end has just appeared on the horizon.

Only a matter of weeks until painting

[Nostromo]

Update on the rear hatch and adjacent surface details:

The parts from #77 are where they belong... but refused to fit ... so i had to redraw 1/3 of them.

Also applied is the rear landing gear and the first parts for the hull bottom.

Overall, i would say that i have crossed the 95% of building mark.

But this still means many more hours (rather net days) of (planned) building. Then let's see what un-planned things i will come up with.

[Brother Christopher]

I've been away for some time and, wow, you made amazing progress since I last checked your thread. Keep up the good work. The detailing on the fuselage is insane (not very 40k, but that's not the point - I have some idea how much work you had to put into it, especially considering the shape of the vehicle which isn't a box) and will look even better once painted.

[Nostromo]

I've been away for some time and, wow, you made amazing progress since I last checked your thread. Keep up the good work. The detailing on the fuselage is insane (not very 40k, but that's not the point - I have some idea how much work you had to put into it, especially considering the shape of the vehicle which isn't a box) and will look even better once painted.

Since i am so slow (and all-too-often take week-long breaks between almost every step), you do not miss that much if you do not check that often

As for the non-40k-ity of the design...

I realized that the impression develops at the moment disturbingly in a direction that shouts out "TAU" or "Eldar".

So... while this specific model it is not exactly how i wanted it to turn out  (even while the look is still far from bad), it is a potentially working approach for something else.

You may remember that for me building one model is for also practicing or researching solutions for another one. And at some point in the future, this will be usefull when i actually build one or maybe more Eldar tanks.

But it does not change the fact that i let myself being carried away and merged what i thought might work for something later with this. It is even more "Xeno" than the original Pelican

 

But since Mars will be coming for me anyway, that does not really matter any more

[Nostromo]

Now, THAT was about the longest break so far in this project.

One should assume that almost 2 years with quarantines and lockdowns (i managed not to get infected so far) would leave plenty of time to finish any project.

Wrong. Different topic.

 

But I DID make some progress with the flyer and the completely different large-scale project.

(thinking of which... isn't here somewhere also a thread for non-40k GW games...? Hmmm....)

 

Here are a few WIP-shots of the nose and front section. This will take some more attention to the border of those parts (you see the gaps).

I can't believe it - just the three small parts that make up the coverage of the nose (and the housing of the gun that was still missing when i took the photos) took a net of at least 4 hours. Thank the emperor for boring conference calls. And curse him for switching to video conferences

 

I forgot to take photos of progress on the rear section...

Well, this kind of surface details is almost done, only a few square inches left.

Then a few fins, maybe some weapons?

Damn... i forgot magnets under the wings

[Nostromo]

top and bottom of the rear (without thruster nacelles attached)

 

The bottom is getting a few more parts just now.

only 4-5 more square inches to go!

(i did abot 5 square inches since i tokk the photo)

 

And the... see what fancy stuff i want to add prior to painting

 

[grailkeeper]

It looks great. Do you think you might 40k it up by painting on aquilas or skull symbols?

[Nostromo]

i am not entirely sure about this, but considering the fluff for the faction, something similar to an aquila could actually fit in.

I need to think of something that formally definitely is no imperial aquila - but what could at first glance and with some fasttalking pass as one.

 

At least on the flyer and on the wheeled vehicle (bullfrog), which belong to the LF detachment (Mantic GCPS Marines as Infantry) but not on the tanks wich belong to the HV (Dreamforge Eisenkern as Infantry). This does not make sense to you as long as you have not read the fluff.

 

That is in general the next major challenge... find iconography common to all Utgardians.

So far i have concentrated on the differences. Like the 40kishly overdone rivets on the more brutish tanks as opposed to a more elegant aproach on the light vehicles and the flyer.

 

Even the color scheme for the flyer is not yet determined.

Camo at all? If so, only on top. It is not meant to ever be on the ground long enough for an enemy to even point a gun on it, but obfuscation against orbital surveillance while flying low approaching the operation zone might actually justify camo. But instead perhaps a plain navy/airforce color scheme. But... camo on top might tie it in more closely with the bullfrog (that it - fluffwise - is supposed to carry).

 

I thought about adding campaign badges - here one skull or another could make sense as well.

 

Formally, the Utgardians are heretics after all

[Nostromo]

No building progress - but the missing photo of the chin gun

 

Small... but i would say just the right size.

No heroic scale

 

 

and on a side note, i am experimentally scribbling on an eagle.

Less "Reichsadler" than the imperial aquila, not "Bundesadler" and instead more reminiscent of eagles in US iconography.

In the first place that seems to be a matter of the wings pose. For all of the above there are a lot of variants... some even intersecting in what i thought to be key elements...

 

Help...?

[Nostromo]

*sigh* no help then.

 

anyway, i call the building phase complete.

Next comes the traditional CA-soaking and then painting.

 

 

 

 

[Triszin]

It looks phenomenal

[Naryn]

The completed beast is a really impressive accomplishment, great work! I'm not sure I can picture it with an eagle on it, though--unless maybe on the underside?

[Wulf Vengis]

Dude... Beyond cool. Just an amazing bit of design work there.

[Nostromo]

Thanks all!

 

Naryn: i think we are talking about different kinds of "eagle"

I ASSUME you talk about the Romulan-(bird of prey) style decoration quite popular on valkyries and the like - right?

 

I think of something significantly smaller - more in size and style of nationality markings, no larger than an inch in diameter.

 

But since the wings already have a certain bird-wing-vibe, i now have something else to think about...

Perhaps i can achieve a camo pattern that reminds of a bird? Hm, rather not. that would set it apart too much from the bullfrog.

 

I am still undecided about how to paint it.

Color palette as with the tanks - or more "space navy"?

Something in-between, like taking the lightened charcoal from the tank-camo as primary color and the olive as secondary?

Because camo on aircraft is quite common limited to just two colors.

 

And because of the regiment faction-fluff, i want it to be somewhat distinguishable from the tanks.

So at the very least a different camo-pattern (though, still the same color palette then)

[Nostromo]

i knew that liquid CA "crawls" - soaks - through paper. That was intended.

What was NOT intended that it does not stop there and continues to spread in a very thin layer over the canopy. Which left me with an intransparent, frosted canopy and a strong desire to shatter something.

2 treatments with what is available here instead of Future later at least some of the transparency has been restored:

basecoat applied, basecolor on the wings - and now i think about camo.

Either the pattern on german army helicopters (so just green and black), NATO-pattern (same, but with additional brown/khaki - this would be the same colors as on the tanks, but a different pattern)

[Raziel-TX]

Went through your whole thread-amazing work and creativity you have on display here. Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!

[Nostromo]

Interlude:

The Pelican is slowly getting greener and greener.

In the meantime, i have started scribbling together something else.

Who can guess, what it is going to be?

This is a combination of design sketches and the already finished parts. The sketch on the lower half with the red lines helps with context.

And in addition, i will also need 4 of those:

[Brother Christopher]

Wow, I have to say that your flyer turned out great. I'd really like to see it in person. The detailing on the non-angular parts, as well as the front/cockpit area is superb.

 

For the new project, I dunno. It has a bit of a (grav)tank-y vibe... The resolution of the sketches isn't great, so that's a guess based on a first impression and could be a long shot.

[Nostromo]

Good that i did not take more closeups on the cockpit then.
No, seriously - i am thankfull for your support (all of you!).

On the new project:
Actually, it is quite small. The screenshot is from one DIN A4 Sheet
It is another turret-module for the basic tank chassis.
The cylindical part is a little more than 1cm in diameter and about 7cm long.
The sketch with the hard-to-see red lines is a top-down view on the turret (red, just for the dimensions) over the tanks rear section (black).

In total, it is intended to illustrate how i design the parts.
Isometric (sorted differently here just so it fits on one Screenshot) top, side and front view and then copying sketches of individual shapes from the sketch to construct the actual parts.

Methods that i picked up from helping my wife when she was still at university and struggled with technical drawing.

Edited March 25, 2022 by Nostromo

[Nostromo]

Participation on guessing has room for improvement.

So, the part design sketches combined with sketches from the design phase from the basic tank chassis:

The pelican is now about 40% green. It will take a while until i get to more interesting steps...

[Nostromo]

all of a sudden, i realise that i did not take photos of the last stages of pelican-progress. Just as a teaser: Green is done, the camo-pattern is done - but just as subtle as it is on the tanks, but only a 2-color pattern.

I think it needs more contrast before i proceed to weathering.

I also have acquired material for the flying-stand.

 

The side-project above - which will represent a Manticore - is in stasis. Just postponed until i catch up with all other stuff.

 

Like this one:

My little recon-buggy lacked a gun so far, now also completed, so i can also proceed to painting.

 

The lack of progress comes to the largest part from a shift in attention to finally finishing my so far largest long-term project... which, i need to confess, is not related to 40k.

However... who says that i can't use a (really large, 24'' x 24'' model of) Weathertop for 40k games?

 

[Nostromo]

Now, seeing it through the cameras eye, the camo looks even worse.

Yes, i do need to rework the dark areas and repair the damage i inflicted with drybrushing. But in general... the direction is ok.

Edited February 8, 2023 by Nostromo