WIP - Stormraven modification

[Bloodhowl]

I have been thinking of your question...
do you think the cardboard is a bad choice?
I was going to use the same materials but with a better workmanship
Here's a picture of the 2nd test (same size:2,5cm of wingspan).

View attachment 11769


(the pictures are not very good... the aquila is much better than it looks)
Opinions are very welcome!
=D

I think whatever material you are comfortable working with (and have on hand!) is the one you go with. The cardboard looks fantastic. I've been reading Blackadder's scratchbuilt titan thread and a lot of sculpting threads, so my mind automatically thought of plasticard or green stuff. :smile:

 

[Meph]

That eagle looks very good indeed. Personally I'd opt for plasticard or greenstuff, but with the rights hard and smooth cardboard it might look good as well.

 

[sagh]

1) Hinge at the front
2) Only the clear portion opens (any way)
3) The Canopy assembly slides forward on rails
4) The turret automatically slews to a position to allow rear opening

Thank you for the ideas, this will need a lot of thinking!

I think whatever material you are comfortable working with (and have on hand!) is the one you go with. The cardboard looks fantastic. I've been reading Blackadder's scratchbuilt titan thread and a lot of sculpting threads, so my mind automatically thought of plasticard or green stuff.

I had to search in the internet for plasticard :embarrassed: ... common name for Styrene sheet... I could use that. I used 2mm acrylic to make the main body.

That eagle looks very good indeed. Personally I'd opt for plasticard or greenstuff, but with the rights hard and smooth cardboard it might look good as well.

I have just started... and I still don't have green stuff (neither other colored stuff)... I'll probably need to buy that!
I used the cardboard because the pieces are laser cutted and the plasticard is not very easy to cut without melting because of the size of the pieces.
I could hand made it...that would be ok if there was only one wing... but the problem of making 2 is that they have to look exactly the same!

 

[Meph]

Oh, I missed the laser-cutting bit... In that case, use titanium! The metal of champions! :-O

 

[Arden Fell]

I initially thought of a forward opening canopy too, but the panel joins neet with the gun/sensor housing at the front. This will stop the piece sliding or hingeing without tweaking the piece to indicate a seperation.

Honestly I think that the canopy would hinge along the top edge infront of that litle vent panel detail, ala X-Wing. But once again there is the issue that there is no obvious panel joint to the front pod so that cowling would be lifted too.

GW have really made it hard to work out how to open it. For the sake of a single join line this would be a lot easier.

 

[sagh]

In that case, use titanium! The metal of champions! :-O

That would be great...
but I guess that for the first experience, I'll stick to the plasticard and cardboard.
But I'll make sure that if this project goes OK... next one will have titanium in it.
=P

Arden Fell, that's my problem, knowing were to "make the cut" so that it will look natural.
But that's something I'll try to figure out when I get the parts home.

 

[sagh]

Just a small update.
The parts I bought on E-bay have arrived.
Spent 12 hours cleaning moulding lines and taking the bits of plastic that connected the pieces to the grid.
It's a lot of time...
(when I was a kid I would probably assemble everything in one hour or less )
but I believe I should take the time necessary to do something well and do not rush things.

There are still some cleaning to do...
but I already glued the two parts that make the wings...
they are looking good (in my opinion).

For what I have seen, the aquilla will need to be a little bit smaller then the tests I made...
that means that the tiny tiny tiny pieces of the feathers will need to be even smaller.
But no problem there.

Since I am going to completely build the engines, another thing that worried me since the beginning is the skull insignias on them.
This is my first project so I am experimenting everything.
I took the shoulder armour from the pilot (that have that same insignia) and putted in modelling paste.
I will let it dry for more 2 or 3 days...
then I'll melt some BB gun pellets and pour it to the mould I made.
Let's see what happens and if it ends up nicely.
Here's a picture of the mould experience.
View attachment 11871

 

[sagh]

Due to the answers I've got since my last post, you must all be thinking:
"Wow well this guy is crazy, it's better to leave him alone!"

But I needed to ask your opinion on something.
I will need to put some new rivets in the panels I'm going to add to the ship.
But I will not be able to make them exactly the same as the ones of origin.
I'm thinking of scraping off the the original ones and make new rivets for the entire ship.
This way they will all look the same!

What do you think?

 

[Bloodhowl]

Due to the answers I've got since my last post, you must all be thinking:
"Wow well this guy is crazy, it's better to leave him alone!"

But I needed to ask your opinion on something.
I will need to put some new rivets in the panels I'm going to add to the ship.
But I will not be able to make them exactly the same as the ones of origin.
I'm thinking of scraping off the the original ones and make new rivets for the entire ship.
This way they will all look the same!

What do you think?

Sounds like a lot of extra work to me. Could you make a press mold of the rivets you need and then cast new ones from putty?

Alternatively, check Grandt Line Products and see if they have anything you can use:

http://www.grandtline.com/model_railroad/augmentables_pages.htm

They specialize in model railroad stuff and their nuts/bolts/rivets packs have been used by scale armor/aircraft modellers for years.

 

[Alexandra]

I'm thinking of scraping off the the original ones and make new rivets for the entire ship.
This way they will all look the same!/QUOTE]

Could you make a press mold of the rivets you need and then cast new ones from putty?

If I may, an easy and cheap way to do it is to cast the rivets in silicone ( you can by the cheap one at a general store so long you use a release agent ) and then cast it with a liquid material like polyester resin, epoxy or even super glue. You can find the first two in auto shops and the last two in bricolage centers. Just an idea

 

[sagh]

I could do that, cast new rivets...
but they are really small and don't have a "special" form...
it's just a circular little piece of plastic.
If I replaced them I would use a styrene strip with a circular or hexagonal section and cut little pieces to replace the old rivets.

What do you think?

 

[Alexandra]

I could do that, cast new rivets...
but they are really small and don't have a "special" form...
it's just a circular little piece of plastic.
If I replaced them I would use a styrene strip with a circular or hexagonal section and cut little pieces to replace the old rivets.

What do you think?

By "special form" do you mean a original to cast from or something to hold the silicon?
For the original, you van use computer parts... I think you migth find small ones to fit the scale you need.
For the silicon, I use lego pieces to hold the silicon
It's less tiresome that cutting piece by piece, but you have to see what works best for you

 

[sagh]

The rivets are on the "to do list"... but are now on hold!
I have been working on the canopy and the engines.

First let take a look in the canopy:
This was the first experience in cardboard so that I could see how it would look like and to be able to take some measurements so that I could then build it in plasticard.
View attachment 12100
View attachment 12102
After taking the canopy apart and measuring all the pieces ,I started the work with the plasticard.
(forgot to take more pictures of this part of the work, this is the only picture

)
View attachment 12103
A look of the canopy with the aquilla.
View attachment 12104
Now...
prepare for it...
(sound of drums)
the one and only...
CANOPY OPENING SYSTEM
The hinge is still just fixed with tape...
but this was just a test...
it works and it opens nicely.
(I will make new pieces for the hinge, it will be more tight fitted than it appears in the pictures)
View attachment 12105
View attachment 12106
View attachment 12107
The hinge will be covered in the top by a panel (like in the original) and in the inside...
well...
in the inside I'm still thinking in what to do.
But I will probably keep it simple.
Still a lot of "green stuff work" to do, and all the panels and rivets have to be done...
but I think it is looking good so far.
And that's it for the canopy!

Hope you like it and all comments are welcome!

 

[Bloodhowl]

Very nicely done! :claply:

 

[Slybarbeau]

Looks very good so far...Keep up the good work...

 

[sagh]

Update #2
Now for the engines.
(It took me around 15 hours of work to get the engines to this point.)
Until now I have been using "garbage" to build the engines.
That's it...
no fancy materials have been used to build them.

I've started with 2 caps of my nephews vitamin bottle caps... ...and some bits of styrene strips.
All styrene strips had to be slightly bent to match the curvature of the bottle cap.
View attachment 12108
One ready...
View attachment 12109
View attachment 12110
two ready...
View attachment 12111
then it was time for opening the holes in the caps.
View attachment 12112
After this I needed to make the vents:
View attachment 12113
I used two different thicknesses of plasticard...
the smaller "pizza slices" are thinner.
View attachment 12114
With all the pieces glued, I opened the hole in the middle.
(and if you are guessing what that is... that's it... it's a glue cap!)
View attachment 12115
View attachment 12116
And here is a look of the vents where they will spend the rest of their life
View attachment 12117
(The main body of the engine is just a normal plastic tube)
I had a little problem with the styrene strips...
they insisted in not staying glued to the caps.
I use chloroform to glue styrene, acrylic, polyethylene and a lot of other "plastics"...
the chloroform melts the plastic very quickly and also dries very quickly.
The two pieces become one... and sometimes it is easier to break the pieces than separating them in the junction area.
Although the pieces of styrene melt very well, the caps didn't.
I had to glue every single piece of styrene more than 3 or 4 times...
I was going crazy...
but every time I glued the pieces...
they melted a little more getting the shape of the cap.
I ended up by taking them all apart and they looked like this:
View attachment 12118
I then super glued them to place.
I had the front of the engine ready (still needs some green stuff and lots of sanding)

I came up with another problem...
the back of the engines...
how am I going to make it?
My girlfriend was kind to give me one thingy of her make up set that she doesn't like, doesn't use or wants to buy another (didn't quite understand the deal... but she was very nice).
And here it is:
View attachment 12119
The bottle and the cap have the same shape...
so I had material for the two engines.
I had to saw the bottle and take all the viscosity from inside.
I had now two parts:
View attachment 12120
This is how it looks in the engine:
View attachment 12121
I then drilled a hole in the pieces and built a ring piece using part of the bottleneck of a water bottle.
View attachment 12122
View attachment 12123
View attachment 12124

Well...
I'm going to extend the hull of the ship...
I thought:
Bigger ship...bigger engines... but I forgot that they needed to fit in the hollow place in the wings.
And guess what...
theydon't fit!
View attachment 12125
I will have to saw the wings and add a little bit of plasticard so that I can fit the engines.

And that's it!
This is all that I have been able to do so far.
Next weekend I'll be able to work a little more on it and hopefully end the back part of the engine.

Once more, all comments are welcome.
Thank you for watching!

 

[Alexandra]

Wow, that a labour of love!!
I think I would freak out the second time the pieces didn't stayed glued and tossed it all through the window

Now, seriously: it looks great! I'm not that big fan of vehicles but I'm loving to see you build one. Very interesting set by set diary.

Oh, another thing: you know that the girlfriend gift will cost you a dinner or something like it, don't you?

 

[Meph]

Good stuff man, those engines look great.

 

[cassar]

just had a flash back to my youth watching blue peter lol great job on the fans i tried that for the assault marine jet pack must admit i couldnt get it to work so hats off to you well done.

 

[sagh]

Oh, another thing: you know that the girlfriend gift will cost you a dinner or something like it, don't you?

She didn't mentioned it... yet.
But that's OK... I also get to eat!
eh eh

i tried that for the assault marine jet pack must admit i couldn't get it to work

My first attempt with the fans didn't ended up nicely.
I got a fantastic spiral staircase.
I had to make the entire staircase/mistake to see that I couldn't overlay the pieces...
I needed to make them elevated in one side using a little bit of a styrene strip of the same thickness of the plasticard and then glued the pieces together using all the 8 "slices of pizza".
Then I used thinner plasticard (half the thickness) to make another circumference (same diameter) and divided it in 16 parts.
Then I glued the smaller pieces on the top of the bigger pieces leaning them against the higher part of the big pieces.
Doing it this way, it looks like all the pieces in the vent are of the same size and you wont have problems with overlaying.