Plastic Thunderhawk Gunship

[Brother Christopher]

Okay, so I'm sort of back with this project and here are some initial photos of the painted interior:

 

 

 

 

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

This entire project has been fantastic, and just keeps getting better as you paint it.

[Jolemai]

Wow 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks great to me!  

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for popping a comment, mates! I hope to keep you updated and, hopefully, entertained!

 

Some quick photos of the more or less finished cockpit. I think it's good enough in the sense that it's not perfect, but looks pretty well for something that won't be visible most of the time ;) While I intend to magnetise the 'roof' to access this part of the model (after all, most of the built here reaches 10 years back so even thought I got better over time, I wanted to 'preserve' what I did at the beginning of my plasticard journey), I didn't feel like spending too much time on this section of the model. Quite surprisingly, I managed to to this in 3 days (probably around 4-5 hours in total), so super-fast by my standards.

 

 

 

Admittedly, I'm not a fan of how I rushed the screen in the back (I unnecessarily applied a layer of wash). Having said that, I don't feel like fixing them.

 

 

 

 

I'm also not a fan of this particular bare head for the pilot. I decided to go with it because it (or a very similar head) was in most of the photos I've seen of the original old resin Thunderhawk. I felt like it's the right thing to do - to pay homage to the the model behind this harebrained project.

 

For the co-pilot, I decided to go a bit more crazy with the paint scheme, very much in-line with my general philosophy for my army: every single marine is a veteran soldier with years or decades of experience. As such, they deserve to have customised armours and a degree of personalisation. This chap is a bit closer to Mars, yet he is a Templar at heart; thus the red-black pattern of his armour.

 

While I regret doing this much customisation for my army (right now, I think I'd go with a per-squad paint schemes), what's done is done: I shall finish the rest of my army in the vain I've started it.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks great to me!  

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I was wondering why they wouldn't have any screens in front of them, and now I know.  Looking great.

[Naryn]

Every update is more jaw-dropping than the last. Amazing work, the painted cockpit is a thing of beauty.

[Armchair Warlord]

My man! I can but applaud, commend and respect the dedication and painstaking work you've put into this so far. 

 

I've no doubt it can be taxing at times!... But in those times - remind yourself, your gonna have a thunderhawk that's gonna be a hell of a lot lighter and easier to put on a flying base!!!

 

Keep at it brother!

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you, Brothers! I'm glad that I can offer a bit of entertainment.

 

On 10/10/2023 at 2:29 PM, Armchair Warlord said:

My man! I can but applaud, commend and respect the dedication and painstaking work you've put into this so far. 

 

I've no doubt it can be taxing at times!... But in those times - remind yourself, your gonna have a thunderhawk that's gonna be a hell of a lot lighter and easier to put on a flying base!!!

 

Keep at it brother!

 

Thanks! It has taken a couple of years (hah, over a decade) but it was/is kind of worth it. This is the ultimate hobby experience.

 

Regarding the weight, most definitely! I'm also planning to make a flying base with a small diorama in the future! I can't imaging processing a resin model that's this large.

 

On 10/7/2023 at 4:25 AM, Naryn said:

Every update is more jaw-dropping than the last. Amazing work, the painted cockpit is a thing of beauty.

 

Thanks! I hope to take better pictures when it's all put together. I most definitely cut some corners, especially with the displays, but I'm most certain that it doesn't matter that much. I put slightly more effort into the sections that will be visible through the canopy, though.

 

On 10/6/2023 at 11:35 PM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

I was wondering why they wouldn't have any screens in front of them, and now I know.  Looking great.

 

I am aware that these WIP photos may be quite confusing at times. I must admit, as the creator of this thing, that at times when I'm reviewing photos of the different stages of assembly, I struggle to remember what's what. That is why I also have some notes to help me out and make sure that I don't forget anything when it comes to the final assembly. That's probably a benefit of working on a model this long - one learns things and one of the most important lessons is that memory isn't perfect!

 

***

So, there's more progress. I started work on the external plating. And I'm quite anxious about getting the colour scheme right. I was considering many things but, I think, I'll settle for a 'safe' option and go with a paint scheme that I'd like to think is simple and elegant.

 

I thought about going freehand-heavy on the model or about adding more coloured panels but... while these ideas may appear fun, I found myself regretting doing similar things on other models. Since I'm particularly proud of how the details turned out, I think that accentuating them with edge highlight could be a better approach than a fancy freehand or many coloured panels - things that I usually treat as a means of distraction when I have something to hide (e.g. mistakes) or to add details to large flat surfaces.

 

I'm thinking of this as the base paint scheme:

 

But, obviously, with a black base colour and a grey stripe:

 

Regarding the colour, I feel that the mid-tone grey is quite okay. I feel that red is too vibrant, while bone/white are too light. I might add red or yellow to the weapons' housings, though.

 

The same colour, whatever it will eventually be, will also be on the wings or perhaps the s-foils.

 

Also, I think it's reasonable to the vehicle to have a less ornate paint scheme. After all, I feel that Thunderhawks are more utilitarian than, say, Land Raiders, Dreadnoughts, command vehicles or relic tanks from HH. While I would probably say that this particular Thunderhawk is going to be the most special model in my army, considering the time and effort put into it, I must remember that it just one of many similar crafts for my Crusade. After all, forgive the exaggeration, Thunderhawks are... glorified flying Rhinos/Razorbacks (especially in the olden days when Storm Ravens/Eagles were not yet retconed into the setting) - their primary role is to deploy ground forces and offer air support. As such, I always imagined that they are rather fast-moving, heavy hitting vehicles. They may be inspiring to combatants but not in the same way as a banner, Land Raider or Dreadnought. Also, with a zooming flyer, there isn't too much time for appreciating its ornate fuselage, I thing.

 

I'm probably overthinking this. In a nerdy way, I want to convince myself that the simpler paint scheme that is supposed to accentuate the work I put into the model is the right way to go.

 

I'm really looking forward to hearing your feedback and am open to any and all advice/suggestions.

[Brother Christopher]

Some minor updates: I'm still working on the upper part of the nose section of the craft.

 

 

 

 

These parts are more or less done. I'll be redoing them once I put the thing together. Since these panels go on top of some parts that I built 12-odd years ago, I don't trust myself: I'm certain that something will go wrong and will require adjusting. I vaguely remember that some parts are slightly misaligned (most of the problems result from a messed up base 'shape' of the decks, then again - these were my first plasticard attempt) - I just hope that the issues won't add up to something significant.

 

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll put most of the cockpit (bar the font armour) together and will be able to move on to painting the sides.

 

After that, there's a bit more of scratchuilding to be done: I need to adjust and finish the front ramp and attach the HB sponsons to the sides.

[Firedrake Cordova]

It's really coming along now - can't wait to see it completed

[StratoKhan]

I think you’re definitely on the money staying with a simpler scheme, the stripe looks good, and as you reasoned, it’s a landing craft and would not be overly embellished. Excellent work as usual.

[Brother Christopher]

So, all that could've gone wrong went wrong. Even though I calculated the potential risks and prepared measures, I didn't expect that assembling the cockpit (i.e. interior + roof + side panels) would go this bad. Sacrifices had to be made (so, the roof will not be detachable) but this section of the vehicle is assembled and is as good as can be. I struggled with the cursed thing for 1.5 hours but eventually, everything is appears to be straight and structurally sound (i.e., sturdy).

 

I wanted to keep the roof detachable, I even integrated magnets in critical places; however, after assembling the sides, I realised that working on top of parts (like the 'floor') which were some of my first attempts at scratch building created more problems. Dry-fitting did not suggest that the little imperfections will add up like they did. After the first assembly, the sides were skewed (did not create a 90° angles) and that the top panel (the one that was supposed to be magnetised) did not align with the sides. It probably was a 1mm misalignment in the worst section but I found that to be unacceptable because of the way the removable part was supposed to fit with the angled 'nose' section (i.e., the large panel between the ramp and canopy).

 

All these issues meant that I had to disassemble and adjust the pieces. I decided to glue to top panel in place and use it to guide and align the rest. In the process, damage to the paintjob was made, but that was taken in to account before: I knew that things will go wrong.

 

I think that most of the difficulties connected to assembly should be behind me, though. I know, and somewhat dread, the work I'll need to do around the nose/ramp, though.

 

I most certainly hope that the mid and rear parts of the fuselage, made when I was more skilled and conscientious, will go together more smoothly.

[Brother Christopher]

So, yeah... ehm. I messed the canopy up. I am so angry with myself but that's my privilege as the creator. Long story short: I was too excited about putting the canopy together that I kind of approached it at the wrong time, while being tired and with a strict time limit (damned be professional life!). One thing led to the other and the result isn't as perfect as I hoped. Having said that, it's not bad per se. It's just that I'm disappointed with the execution.

 

Paradoxically, by investing a lot more time I managed to fix a couple of issues but, unfortunately, there's somewhat permanent damage to the transparent panes caused by ape-like handling (I figured I'll save time by not putting gloves on) and assembly issues (frosting from superglue).

 

First things first: the assembled top section of the nose/front of the Thunderhawk:

 

And here's the newly-assembled part on top of the bare cargo bay, together with the canopy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problems with the canopy include the aforementioned frosting, scratches and a stain left by polystyrene cement. These defects are not that apparent; they're barely visible in the photos. But the worst part is that I know they are there and it kind of hurts me since I also know that they could have been avoided. It's just that this filigree part was my darling and I let myself down.

...

Having said that: time heals all wounds :D Even though I'm feeling a bit down now, I know that in a couple of days/weeks, I'll forget about these problems. I know that I did so in the past on numerous occasions: these kinds of things are usually visible only afer a detailed inspection, at certain angles and, thus, when they are fresh in memory.

 

I also think that I can count these defects as 'weathering:' albeit unintended, the scratches, crack and frosting may be just that on the 'actual' vehicle: minor damage to the panes and condensation in the corners of the windows.

 

All in all, this was a good effort. It is what it is, I give it a 7/10 ;) It's just a shame that I haven't had much experience with handling the whatever-it-is transparent plastic in the past - it might have prevented me from doing some of the stupid things I did.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Well, it looks good to me

 

Interestingly, the frosting effect from the superglue looks a bit like temperature-related condensation (i.e. water vapour freezing on the inside of the glass), and is kinda a cool effect (you can imagine the insides maybe get cold when in space, because Space Marines don't need interior heating much?)  

[TheArtilleryman]

Wow. Dude you are a plasticard Jedi…

[Brother Christopher]

22 hours ago, TheArtilleryman said:

Wow. Dude you are a plasticard Jedi…

 

Haha, thank you! And thanks for digging this thread up - it's probably been too long since I last worked on this models. I think that after I'm done with my current batch of models, I'll get back to this.

[TheArtilleryman]

Haha hadn’t realised how old it was - I found it from your signature. Hope to see it eventually finished!

[Brother Christopher]

So yeah, it has been some time, ay?

 

After a long hiatus from this project, I found myself having some some time on my hands... Because of the floods in southern Poland. While, luckily, I personally haven't been affected yet (the worst is supposed to come in a couple of days), I had to drastically change my plans for September. After having helped with the situation in my home town, I'm now back in Wrocław and have afternoons off. Probably the only good thing about this is that I wanted to do something 40k-related but didn't feel like starting anything new. That is why I braved this. I am happy to report that I did good progress on the painting front. Right now, I'm in the process of assembling the front fuselage: a part of the final assembly I'm very apprehensive of. If anything goes wrong with the assembly, it's this because the transport bay was assembled when I first started the project. While later on I tried to account for the age of the built, I'm worried that things won't fit as neatly as I'd like. Also, there's a concern about the strength of the parts since there are no reinforcements of the hollow interior.

 

I'm doing my best to reinforce the thing with putty, however. I'll post a photo update later this week, unless I'll be busy with trying to help when the flood hits.

[WAR]

Have I mentioned how much I love your attention to detail and how amazing this project is? 

 

cause every time I see it..... 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Good luck and hope the floods miss you!  

[Brother Christopher]

@WAR I'll just say this: Thanks! And I'm stoked you like it!

 

@Firedrake Cordova Thank you, it seems that things shouldn't be as bad as the initial forecasts suggested. The next couple of days are crucial but I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

And here are some promised photos of the panels that I managed to paint:

 

 

The bottom of the front fuselage, including the landing hear pistons:

 

 

The white stripe on the side panels is left intentionally. At the moment, this is bare plastic.

 

 

The panels in the top left and right corners are parts of the roof of the transport bay:

 

Overall, I'm very happy with how these turned out. The large surfaces of black aren't great but I'm fairly confident that a coat of varnish will help smoothen the problems.

 

Now... I need to find a way to reliably assemble the front. I know that's going to be a lot of work to account for the many mistakes of the past, particulayly boiling down to not accounting for the difference resulting from the thickness of plasticard, compared to paper (as a reminder, the template I used was a papercraft model that I modified to add more detail and definition with painting in mind).

[Firedrake Cordova]

 

Thank you, it seems that things shouldn't be as bad as the initial forecasts suggested. The next couple of days are crucial but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Ah, that's very good news  

 

 

The large surfaces of black aren't great but I'm fairly confident that a coat of varnish will help smoothen the problems

I suppose if that doesn't work, add some streaks and dings?  

[Chaplain Killmer]

It has a classic Star Wars Empire wibe :)