My first go at a project log, urban assualt themed elysians

[MrKlipp]

I\'ve started a new project for a client using the great forgeworld resin drop troopers and I\'m going to try to keep a running log of the project, let\'s see how it goes.

First, some basics about the army and the models. The army will be a highly mobile elite strike force, consisting of several squads of drop troopers supported by drop sentinels, a vulture gunship, and two valkyries carrying storm troopers.

The basic theme will be an elite modern look, with black armor against gray cloth, with custom force designation markings, unit insignia, kill markings and the like, with everything mounted on urban bases.

After much adventure and delay, the models finally arrived on Tuesday. After some painstaking cleaning and counting, I find that each imperial issue drop trooper is made up of no less than 12 tiny fragile resin bits.

After much careful trimming and cleaning we have:

Which with the careful application of glue turns into:

The first test model is still in progress, the pictures are pretty rough, and some of the colors will be changed a bit, but here is where I am so far:

 

[No Such Agency]

The red piping kind of killed the \"elite modern\" look, but I can see wanting some colour in your squad. Nice work so far.

 

[bayrodney]

Nice Work.
Much the same as what NSA said

 

[MrKlipp]

Originally posted by No Such Agency
The red piping kind of killed the \"elite modern\" look, but I can see wanting some colour in your squad.

I wanted just a touch of an Arbite feel to them, I think it still keeps a nice strong modern them to it even if the red piping doesn\'t strictly fit.

I suppose I\'m going for more of an elite modern look with just a bit of gothic flare here and there.

 

[MrKlipp]

The term \"model kit\" gets thrown around a lot, and while GW model kits consisting of a single piece model and a slotabase aren\'t uncommon, forgeworld kits are something else all together, something that someone unfamiliar with their kits might not know
from looking at the finished models.

Just to give you an idea of what is in one of these kits, here are the pictures before assembly begins:

Fuselage and support struts:

Wings and and fins:

Engines and doors:

Weapon pods and mounts:

Door gunners:

Landing gear, pilots and seating array:

But wait, this is ~150$ model kit, surely they included a canopy. Fear not, I unfolded the instruction sheet and lo and behold:

 

[DrEvilmonki]

One of the guys at my local GW shop just got one of those kits. No instructions! He is sure to end up with extra bitslol

 

[MrKlipp]

Originally posted by DrEvilmonki
One of the guys at my local GW shop just got one of those kits. No instructions! He is sure to end up with extra bitslol

Yeah, their idea of instructions for these kits is minimalist to the extreme, the Valkyrie came with one page printed one side with little more than pictures of a completed model and a closeup or two with labels pointing to some parts. Of course, since there are no pictures showing which part a label is refering to, you really just have to look at everything and puzzle out where things go.

Some of the odder shaped obscure bits I\'m not yet sure of myself.

 

[Tony Manero]

in italy we have free instruction made by the local store i can ask for one

 

[supervike]

I like them quite a bit. Actually the color scheme vaguely reminds me of Judge Dredd...Very cool!!

 

[freakinacage]

very cool. i especially like the base and the visor

 

[MrKlipp]

I\'ve been working on preparing the Vulture, the design of the two kits is very similar, it seemed to make sense to build the less complicated of the two first.

After a couple of hours of sawing off casting lugs, trimming flash, and filling, fitting, and filling again, we have this:

The wings, tail assembly, landing skids and weapons layout:

Cockpit, main body, wing and tail support struts:

To anyone putting one of these kits together for the first time, double check before you trim anything off. At least twice I found myself seeing that what at first appeared to be a mold line was actually a thin ridge for a connection.

More pictures to come as the sections come together.

 

[MrKlipp]

There really isn\'t much in the way of instructions with the kit, a single two sided page showing a parts list on one side, and a few pictures of various angles and parts of the model with labeled arrows pointing at some of the parts on the other. Mostly, it\'s pretty straightforward which bit connects where, but there are a few parts of similar design that would be easy to glue in reversed and not notice until things didn\'t line up later.

First, I attached the main body section to the support struts, and attached the first three parts of the tail. The wings have had the las cannons attached, while the missile racks have been assembled but left to be attached after painting.

Something to look out for here if you are using missile mounts, the mounts are slightly sloped, test fit them on each side to make sure they are aligned correctly with the slope taken into account.

Next, I complete the tail assembly and add the fuselage fins:

Then the wings are added and the cockpit is attached, and we see the nearly complete model::

The landing skids, missile assemblies, front mounted heavy bolter under turret, cockpit and canopy have all been left off and will be attached after painting.

With the warm up out of the way, the first Valkyrie is up next.

 

[MrKlipp]

Ok, here\'s the big one.

Much of this model will be attached after painting, most notably, the central body itself must remain in two parts until the interior is painted. No reason to let that hold up the rest of the assembly though.

First, I attached the support struts and the engines.

Then, the wings and fuselage top. Because of the need to keep the body in two parts to paint the interior, the top is glued to only one side of the plane.

The gap you can see in these pictures isn\'t quite as bad when the model is held together, but with larger resin parts you should expect to do some not insignificant gap filling.

Next, the tail assembly. As with the top, the center section is only glued to one side.

The cockpit is fitted with it\'s front sensor array, landing skid, and test fit with the crew. For ease of painting, these aren\'t glued in.

Here is one of the missle pods, assembled but left off for now:

Then the cockpit assembly is attached to one side of the main body.

Next go on the sensor package and the multilaser:

Here you can see the interior showing an optional gunner manning a heavy bolter.

And again from the business end.

Here is the gunner removed for painting and the passenger seating assembly.

Finally, here are a few pictures of the mostly finished model. The landing gear will be attached after the body halves are attached, and the side doors will be added after painting, but this is mostly how it will turn out.