Blood Angels Army Project (pic carpet bombing)

[Meph]

Alrighty, I did some testing on a piece of paper, including some highlighting with a purer red, but I think that the solution I came up with is the best compromise between speed and desired look. I highlighted with Vallejo's Bright Bronze mixed with some GW Mithril Silver, drybrushing the rough bits and normal highlighting the smooth bits. I then airbrushed blood red heavily thinned with water, and after that a layer of black ink mixed with a little bit of red shade, also thinned with water.

It's not entire the effect that I first envisioned but I'm ,liking it nonetheless. The deep red copper tint looks more muted than a pure red, and the reddish hue on the black armour gives it a look of dark, dried blood. Which is appropriate for, well, 'Blood' Angels. And I'm also quite confident that once the other detail colours are on that it will tie the unit in decently with the look of the rest of the army. The brass/bronze, some green, the parchments, some metal detailing. There's even one Marine that has a loincloth that I will do in that khaki colour.

What say you?

[marcus]

Looking good there Meph, starting to beat the Metallic red into submission

[Meph]

Cheers mate! Yup, I got to a point where I'm happy with it. Yay!

[Meph]

Wehey! Something arrived in the post today!
A pre-order of this: [URL="http://www.chapterhousestudios.com/webshop/news"]Chapterhouse's Stormraven body kit[/URL]
The pre-orders were actually sold out, but the generosity of Whalemusic360 over at DakkaDakka knew no bounds! He offered to send me one of his 4 sets he just got at normal retail price plus shipping. Was sent last Friday, arrived today. That kit really will save me a lot of time and headaches. It's easily over a decade and a half since I handled some plasticard for vehicle conversions and this is just exactly what I had in mind to extend the hull. I'll still need some extra construction material together with the extra parts I ordered off of Ebay to get where I want.

So the master plan is:
-Extend the hull using the kit.
-Integrate two tail booms with the engine housing and cut/relocate upwards the vertical tail to create large vertical rudders, much like a Sukhoi Su-35s (look up pics in Google, most beautiful airplane I've seen).
-add a center boom with no vertical tail, to hold the Dreadnought clamp.
-Ditch the silly top intake
-Position the cockpit section forward well over the front hatch so I can make an attack helicopter-like turret to replace the silly top turret.

Yup, that's right, another project that's crammed into an already full pipeline. Surely Sisyphus's a sissy!

Everything arrived intact and I must say that the quality of this Chapterhouse cast is of good quality. They even have adequate interior detailing.

The details and lines are crisp, little to no warping, just a slight bend in the larger parts but they're actually as good as straight. The only bits that will require some serious attention are the two side panels. They have quite a large resin 'bar' on the top edge that's 2-3mm thick and 10cm long. That's going to require careful but persistent sanding.

[MarneusCalgar]

Lucky you hehehehe!!

Hope to see it soon!!!

[bloodangel 83]

DC is looking great there Meph. keep up the great work.

[Meph]

Thanks guys!

After a while of tinkering...
I decided to stick everything together temporarily to see how it actually looks like as I didn't exactly drew any plans or sketches. I'm just winging it basically.
Everything's pretty much in place. I just need to build the 'chin' under the cockpit and figure out what I want to do for chin turret. A razorback turret is a bit too clunky and the original turret is out of the question. I want to make a simple design that holds up using a magnet and have the turret design simple enough so I can magnetize the weapons as well. Any suggestions are always welcome in terms of bits I could use and such.
And the only other thing to do is to close up the sides, install some canards, and close up the 'neck' behind the cockpit.

[MarneusCalgar]

Nice conversion!!!

Hope to see more works soon

[Tynskel]

I like your conversion ideas.

However, I dont get where people get the idea that the Stormraven cannot carry 12 marines. the passenger compartment is larger than a rhino, which can hold 10 marines.

[Meph]

Thanks fellas! Ah well, it's not that the actual Rhino model could actually hold 10 marines, unless unarmoured and sardined together...

I'm back from the mad professor shed:
Ze gun turret. First design is meant to have the entire gun assembly swivel up and down on the strut. The whole thing is held together by the gun magnets in combination with the central strut, which also has a little magnet in it. Mechanically it works but the whole thing can't stay perfectly straight. the interaction of the gun magnets with the strut magnet results in the strut wanting to rest just a tiny bit crooked.

The last two pictures is to show what direction I'll go for I think. It's a more solid design which will be better to handle. the up-down motion would be just for the guns then, with the central assembly being rigid. the whole will be mounted to a, well, mount, that will go under the chin and takes care of the left-right rotation. (This would also have been the case with the first design) I'll have to cut up another defiler leg to geth the exact piece I want for the vertical strut, but hey, that's why I bought 'm off of Ebay for.

Whaddayathink?