Plastic Thunderhawk Gunship

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you, Brother - for the Emperor, indeed! I will not waste this time.

 

At the moment, I suppose that I need roughly a month to do my other things and intend to restart the project in mid-June, after I get married. I'm expecting the time before and after the wedding to be quite busy so that I won't have time for scratch building ;) And I wouldn't like to antagonise my wife-to-be.

[Custom Hero]

Congrats on the impending marriage brother! We’ll still be here when you return. Enjoy your hiatus, family is a dear thing!

[Brother Carpenter]

Congrats on the wedding to be.

And be adviced after a wedding offspring usually follows. That means storing your models safely (hand mouth researvh with kids is not ok with mini's. Don't ask ne how I know. Fortunately most that goes in at the top eventually exits at the botton

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you, Brothers! I appreciate your words.

 

 

Congrats on the wedding to be.
And be adviced after a wedding offspring usually follows. That means storing your models safely (hand mouth researvh with kids is not ok with mini's. Don't ask ne how I know. Fortunately most that goes in at the top eventually exits at the botton )
But wise to switch projects if you're getting bogfed down in one.
I'm looking foreward to seeing some painted marines from your hand. I quite like your painting style.

That is precious advice ;) Being a Black Templar, you know where to find me - I do hope not to disappoint with my Crusade-related stuff this year, regardless of real-life changes.

[Skidman]

Congrats brother!! I can’t wait for you to get back after it but take the time you need. May your family continue to grow in health and happiness for years and years to come

[Brother Christopher]

So, it's almost two years, ey?

 

These two years have been quite busy and I focused my hobby endeavours on other projects, primarily sorting out my hoard of models and pressing on to actually paint my proper miniatures. Right now, I feel like getting back to some scratch building and what's better than the project that started my plasticard journey in the first place?

 

While I haven't done anything specific yet, I inspected the model and tried to figure out where I left it. I also spent a considerable amount of time in an attempt to find a folder with printouts of the original blueprints and remaining pieces. In the meanwhile, I renovated my apartment and, in the process, I must have misplaced that folder; luckily after doing some digging, I managed to find it almost exactly where it should have been, obscured from my eyes by a stack of other hobby-related boxes.

 

I remembered distinctly that I started working on the landing gear. That is correct; I even left the WIP pieces neatly organised in string bags together with some notes where to proceed... Funny what time does with your memory. I must confess that I can't make out what the next step was specifically supposed to be. The mystery is where the dozen-or-so tiny bits were intended to go :D I'm sure that they are a part of the pistons, i.e. the entire hydraulics holding the 'feet' of the landing gear in place. I'll need to look at some of the files on my computer and compare my last WIP steps with photos of an actual Thunderhawk. I hope that this process kickstarts my memory, as well as the project.

 

I sure hope that 2023 will be the year of the Thunderhawk!

 

[Nostromo]

Now that's funny... with the two of us returning at almost the same time after quite some time of absense!

So... that kind of disqualifies me for giving you a "welcome back".

Good to see that you are still on it, though.

 

I hope to gain some pace again as well (after real life consumed pretty much of all my time and a non-40k-but-still-tabletop-terrain-project soaked up the rest)

[Brother Carpenter]

Yay.

Vow it as a plodding along vow in the twelve months hobby challenge to keep you motivated.

 

It surely failed for me with bayards revenge

[Brother Christopher]

On 2/9/2023 at 11:51 AM, Nostromo said:

Now that's funny... with the two of us returning at almost the same time after quite some time of absense!

So... that kind of disqualifies me for giving you a "welcome back".

Good to see that you are still on it, though.

 

I hope to gain some pace again as well (after real life consumed pretty much of all my time and a non-40k-but-still-tabletop-terrain-project soaked up the rest)

 

Funny, indeed! I've seen your updates but haven't had the time to look into them in more detail. Still, it is a really nice coincidence... Or is it? Truth be told, seeing you restart your project might have affected by decision to take a break from painting ;)

 

On 2/10/2023 at 7:55 PM, Brother Carpenter said:

Yay.

Vow it as a plodding along vow in the twelve months hobby challenge to keep you motivated.

 

It surely failed for me with bayards revenge

 

Oh, that is an idea... I just might do that after my short holiday/absence later this week.

 

***

 

I'm quite busy with real-life stuff, as it usually is the case before going on a holiday trip. It's also quite late now but I'm quite impatient and want to share some photos of the work I've done.

 

I'm working on the rear landing gear. The bits from the pieces below are intended to be painted separately and then placed in the fuselage, just to make painting things easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to cut some corners here. Firstly, I think that the amount of details in the recesses should be enough, considering that they won't be visible. They should have enough texture to make the paintjob pop and didn't take much time to make. Secondly, I simplified the design of the pistons. The original model, has two side pistons for each major piston thingy (sorry, I probably should've googled how pieces of an aircraft's landing gear are called). Here's a photos I've downloaded from the Internet some time ago (apologies, no credit for the author!).

 

 

And this is what I'll have:

 

 

 

 

I still need to do finish things up with some green stuff but, I'd say, it's 98% done. I decided to simplify the design for two reasons: firstly, the blueprints for the papercraft model are quite incompatible with the two auxiliary pistons design; i.e. the side pistons would catch up on the edge of the recesses. Secondly... I kinda couldn't bother to add more detail to a relatively insignificant part of the model. The landing gear I ended up with should bear the weight of the model (that was my priority) and I hope that you'll agree that the number of gubbins and pistons is enough from a 40k model's standpoint. Take the landing gear on a Storm Eagle or Storm Raven - their design is more rudimentary. I figured that it could work well enough for my T-Hawk, too... it's just bigger and sturdier.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks like you're making some solid progress!  Although I shudder to think at the amount of work that's needed for the whole thing 

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks mate! The amount of work and the hours spent are quite irresponsible. However, as it turned out, this project is a labour of love. I don't really care at this point :) Unlike many other 40k-related things that I found annoying at times, I don't recall being annoyed with this project. Sometimes disappointed, when I messed something up, like the wings, but never annoyed (Or it's just the optimist in me speaking... and I don't remember the frustrations.).

 

I also weirdly appreciate the time it has been taking me to do this. I suppose the project has been going on for around 10 years. This was the first attempt at plasticard - back then I finished the cargo bay and left the project for years thinking that I don't need a T-Hawk for gaming purposes. There were phases in my hobby that I wanted to focus on reasonable things that can easily translate to gaming or the prospect of gaming. A super-heavy flyer wasn't one of those things!

 

Luckily, as time went by, I learnt to better work with plasticard and learnt to introduce changes to official 40k designs. Thanks to these two combined things, I will eventually end up with a great centrepiece for my army: a unique design with a level of detail that I wouldn't have achieved if I had finished the project when I first started it.

 

Also, in terms of progress, the project is at an extremely advanced stage. In terms of major structural bits, I only need to finish the front and rear landing gear. Apart from that, I'm left with auxiliary systems and cosmetics: I need to add detail to the front ramp; finish the cockpit; add secondary weapon systems (heavy bolters and rockets) and put the thing together.

[Brother Christopher]

I find it difficult to acknowledge but it seems that this project is really coming to an end. Over the years, I only once thought to abandon it but apart from that short incident I never really doubted that I'll pull through. However, considering the time span for the built, I've grown to accept that I'll have the finished Thunderhawk "one day" but that day was a thing of myth, something almost ethereal - a paradoxical mixture of a tangible dream.

 

I made a list of things to do and it's not long. Over the last month, I managed to sort the interior of the cockpit out and moved on to some other annoying fixes. I redid the way the s-foils are attached to the fuselage. I sorted out the wing-mounted heavy bolters. I prepared some green stuff casts of lights and other what-nots. I also designed, from scratch, the missiles and missile pylons.

 

The to-do list includes the front undercarriage, details on the landing feet, a redo of the front ramp, front heavy bolter sponons, missiles, as well as some minor details (e.g. magnetised canopy, masking potential gaps, etc.)... and that's it! I think that I should be able to do that over the next month.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Sounds like you're right near the finish line!  

[Mr. Oddity]

I still remember stumbling on to this project years back when I was first getting into the expanded parts of the hobby. It's been awesome seeing all the progress you've made over the years. I can't wait to see you check off the last bits of work left!

[Brother Christopher]

On 3/24/2023 at 1:22 PM, Firedrake Cordova said:

Sounds like you're right near the finish line!  

 

Sure sounds that way, doesn't it? And this time I'm quite determined to finish the model, together with the rest of my army. The most important thing is that I seemed to find the right mindset to deal with my hobby!

 

On 3/24/2023 at 2:45 PM, Mr. Oddity said:

I still remember stumbling on to this project years back when I was first getting into the expanded parts of the hobby. It's been awesome seeing all the progress you've made over the years. I can't wait to see you check off the last bits of work left!

 

Cheers for dropping a comment. I'm a bit embarrassed that this takes so long but, to be frank, for many years Warhammer has been a tertiary hobby and basically a passion project -- a model of a large gunship that finds no use in the actual game -- wasn't at the top of my to-do list. I do hope not disappoint, however, and take this to a successful conclusion.

 

On top of that, I really appreciate that it has taken so long - now, with the immense experience from other projects, I feel that I can be really proud of the thing.

 

***

Here are some photo updates of the new builds, i.e. the details in the recess for the front landing gear together with the landing leg and pistons, as well as the rear landing pads/feet.

 

 

 

 

Since the papercraft schematics were a bit too simplistic and the amount of details of the original kit(s) was too overwhelming, I decided to go for a simpler, improvised look with an amount of detail that should look good when painted, is in the spirit of the original design but didn't drive me mad. I also did a similar thing with the flight deck.

[Naryn]

Every update is so inspirational. I'm in awe.

[Brother Christopher]

I'm cutting some corners here, but progress is being made. In light of the fact that I slightly messed up the wings' proportions, I decided to arm my Thunderhawk with 4 missiles rather than 6. The issue of the gunship's armaments was open for a long, long time. I have had many ideas/doubts about the heavy bolters and missiles. The matter of heavy bolters was fixed by me buying simply 4 sets of TL heavy bolters; the matter of missiles was fixed yesterday by me designing and building them. The process was... EXTREMELY FUN AND SATISFYING, for a change. I have been worrying myself how to go about doing them for years (haha) but ended up with a mixed-media thing. I hope that you'll agree that the level of detail is good enough. The tips of the missiles are repurposed old pens. I wanted to go with a more proper tip (green stuff casts from Whirlwind's rockets) but I think the added detail of my pen tips should be fine, too.

 

 

The other parts in the photo are missile pylons while the two bits on the left are mounts for the s-foils to rest on top of the main wings.

 

And here's a photo of dry-fitted wing-mounted secondary weapon systems:

 

 

And here's the front landing foot:

 

 

The plan is to start priming and assembling the model sometime next week. As it is, I think that the sub-assemblies are 95% done. The only things left to do are: the hinges and details of the front ramp (something I'll do later, once I assemble the front/nose/flight deck to make sure that the ramp fits in nicely and actually works), some details in the rear landing gear recesses, as well as a bunch of green stuff vents and rivets.

 

[Brother Christopher]

Progress is steady and the to-do list grows ever shorter. I must confess that I feel that I finished the sub-assemblies. I added green stuff bits and finished the last of the details. The next stages are: adding rivets, priming and assembling larger sections of the vehicle. The only work connected with actually creating new bits is with some finishing touches, particularly in the nose section. However, as noted before, I first need to 1. make sure that other pieces fit together nicely (the canopy or the front loading ramp) and 2. see how, if at all, I need to account for the differences in plasticard thickness that may have crept into the project (unaccounted for) due to the years'-long breaks between the individual stages of the project.

 

With the pre-Easter heavy workload and preparations, I doubt whether I'll be able to do anything hobby-related. Having said that, I hope to be able to spare some time to take photos of all the finished sub-assemblies.

[Brother Christopher]

It is with great joy that I can FINALLY share this set of photos with you. You can't imagine how long I've been wanting to have some truly childish fun and arrange all the bits and pieces on the floor and take one last photo (well, actually a set of photos) to document the raw state of my work before I move on to priming and painting the model.

 

This project was an amazing hobby experience. With all the ups and downs, periods of zealous scratch-building followed by months of idleness I feel like I reached the finish line... only to - hopefully immediately - start another leg of the journey.

 

While it feels weird to pronounce this publicly, I am very proud of myself. I think that I've managed to achieve something next-level in terms of doing hobby things. The project has been monumental. However, the best thing is that I haven't been in a hurry and treated this as a true labour of love: a hobby endeavour that I see as the very essence of the old-school, student-budget Warhammer hobby. At the same time, I highly discourage anyone from embarking on a similar journey. While fun, it's just not worth it!

 

The funny thing is that in terms of money spent, I think all the materials cost me an equivalent of a Storm Raven (1/3 of the budget being the 4 sets of TL Heavy Bolters). However, the time invested has been... well, let's say I'd prefer not to think about this. Needless to say, it would be more efficient to actually get a proper, resin FW model. To start this was a naive, harebrained notion. In retrospect, overall, I personally don't really regret doing this. You've gotta waste your life somehow, right?

 

Speaking of wasting my life, as many of you may know, I'm not a fan of GW and the state of 40K. Because of that my interest in the hobby wanes and I decided not to start any new scratch-building projects. It has been fun while it lasted, but I really feel I want to move on to other things. Having said that, with my very loose attitude towards my army and collection, I still have some scratch-build and plasticard conversions to do. You can call me many things but I'm not a quitter! I just need decades to finish 40k-related projects ;)

 

In terms of things that I regret... boy, the wings on the thing! The bloody wings! I trusted the dimensions of the papercraft schematics and ended up with wings that are too bulky. All the detailing is fine and all but their profile is too thick, but I realised that too late to do anything about it. I've been considering making them longer, to visually slim them out a bit, but decided to leave them as-is.

 

Furthermore, let me reiterate this: thanks for your ongoing support! Special thanks to @Nostromo, @StratoKhan, @Naryn, @NightHunters, @Brother Carpenter and MetalMammoth (who appears to have disappeared from here)! I really appreciate you sticking with me and all of your feedback.

 

 

Some close-ups of the final details I did over the last 2-3 weeks:

Rear landing gear housing details and GS thrusters:

 

 

 

Heavy Bolters and a GS lamp:

More random close-ups of all the parts:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More updates to come! Now I need to decide on a paint scheme. I think I'll go with something more conservative than I initially thought but we'll see! Any and all suggestions are welcome: do you think I should go 'crazy' and try some extensive freehands or paint the thing black and add an elegant white/bone/red stripe/panel here and there?

 

Happy Easter!

[Firedrake Cordova]

That looks like an immense amount of work, @Brother Christopher - you should definitely feel proud of it!

 

Can't wait to see it all put together!  

 

++EDIT: I missed the question about painting ... personally, I'd go with something "clean" (maybe with a small amount of impact chips). I think going with a lot of freehands may make you go a bit barmy given the size of it!

Edited April 9, 2023 by Firedrake Cordova

[Brother Carpenter]

OMG @Brother Christopher what a sight to see. 

You can be proud of yourself for seeing it through to this point. 

I hope all parts fit together with minimal fuss.

 

painting wise:

Black with nice white panels

or

Black and a stunning graphic freehand of the emperah defeating horus, masterfully painted all over the fuselage 

 

Good luck finishing up this beast.

[Naryn]

Absolutely breathtaking work!

[Pearson73]

Truly phenomenal work, you absolutley should be proud!

 

As for painting, I think you're right with the cleaner scheme with the odd detailed panel, let all those details that you've worked so hard on shine and speak for themselves!

[Brother Christopher]

Apologies for the late response - I've been away for the Easter break and had a particularly tough week!

 

Many thanks for the feedback and all the kind words, I can't stress it enough how much I value it. I'm also honoured to be able to share my work with you and truly appreciate the fact that you seem to enjoy it as well.

 

Also, thank you for the advice on the paint scheme! With your feedback in mind, I think I'll that I'll just go with a stripe (white or beige) along the length of the entire fuselage. Maybe I'll do something more fancy for the wings but I want to see how it all comes together.

 

I'm thinking about a livery like this, obviously in black ;) It seems quite... elegant? I must admit, I'm a bit anxious about not getting it right.

 

 

Next week, I'll start painting the model. Today, I managed to make the rivets for the most of the bits in the front of the craft. I'll start with the canopy - to be honest, I'm properly childishly giddy about finishing this particular bit. Because of how filigree the canopy is, I'm particularly proud of it and can't wait to see it fitted with the transparent panes.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think that'll look great!