Good day all!
This was a project to mix my passion for aviation and my passion for 40K!
It was about a two month WIP for the build.
The inspiration came from the legendary A-10 Thunderbolt II (AKA warthog) and the German WWII Jet, the Heinkel He-162 Salamander or Volksjager (peoples fighter). Look em up if you don't know em! They're both pretty cool looking!
I started with the engine. Its basically a plasticard box with all the componets attached to it. The nacelle is from two halves of a Harrier Jet intake. The intake is the tip of an old torpedo and the rest are various left over parts from a Dakka jet!
The wings are made of two laminated plasticard sheets (this was from the cover of an old note book I had laying around, hence the colour) this part is just the dry fitting with the flaps, ailerons and the main landing gear.
I then attached the otter wings together with the main wing using a spare burna bomb. I put a bit of dihedral (upward angle) on them for the
look cool effect! I also attached the leading edge which is just a plasticard thick strip sanded round. Here you can see the main gear attached and working!
As for the main gear itself, it made was from Vendetta door gun mounts and covered in ork bits. The wheels are from a FW-190 and the intakes are stolen from a Heinkel 111 engine! The two gear legs had to be heavily pinned after a broke them off about a half dozen times trying to get them to open and close!
The next thing I got done was the gun. The big gun that this thing would be built around! Literally! Exactly like the A-10, this plane was to be built around its ginormous anti-everything gun!
The gun was assembled using a bunch of different kits. It's main parts are an ork truck exhaust, a Valkyrie's missle pod, a battle wagon's zap gun and a lucky pen for that extra length! (this gun has no rules for it yet, that's for future posts) For now its a counts as Supa Shoota! The ork is simply there for scale purposes and is not included!
The fuselage was the next part to be worked on. I started with a simple frame of two long strips of plasticard. I built small sections at a time then glued them to the main frame. I use balsa wood throughout this project. It's very light, easy to carve, and pretty cheap! Its a easy way to build small boxes by gluing the sheet plastic to the outside edges.
The cockpit is the rear gunner from a blitza/burna bomber. I wanted to have a grot pilot for my all grot list!
On this side you can see the complexities of having retractable gear! It was a challenge to fit it in, but I did it by off setting it to the left. The front landing gear is made from an old sentinel leg and the wheel is from an Apache helicopter.
From the bottom you can see the offset.
I attached the fuselage frame to the wings. I busted out the balsa wood again to carve the upper back part of the fuselage, and the tail section. I covered the wood with a layer of plasticard and sanded smooth the edges.
This is the tail section assembled and the fin beginning to be put on.
The tail was built the same as the wings; two laminated plasticard pieces cut out, and old space marine rhino doors for the hinges. I glued them off center to provide some realism and movement.
Then I worked on the stand. It was magnetized and when attached, blends into the airplane. But was overly complex because it was an after thought. The whole bottom of the plane is "exposed" to remove the gun. But I made it work using three 1/4 inch magnets; one on the bottom and two on the sides. (
Little Magnetizing tip: mark one end of the magnet with a permanent marker, so you don't glue it the wrong way!)
Finally the detail stage was here! My favorite for modeling and painting!
I started by cutting a very thin piece of plasticard in the shape of the wing. I drew a small and random design on each side and cut it out. I took about a millimeter cut everywhere to make t look like recesses, or panel lines. The fuel filler caps here are from the wheel of a Leman Russ tank. (the tail is off again in this pic. I busted it off many times and decided I needed to redesign the mount for it!)
Here is the tail fix I put on much later. I mounted struts to keep them from falling off every time you looked at it wrong! I drilled holes in them for cosmetic reasons only!
I made my own rivets using green stuff. I rolled it into long very thin strands and let dry for a couple days. Then I sliced it into very small pieces and collected the little rivets into a small container. I used a toothpick to apply the glue where I wanted the rivets and a exacto knife to poke and grab the rivets to put them in place. (I recommend only doing 2-4 at a time so the glue doesn't dry if you have a temperamental rivet that takes a while!) In some areas I wanted to have an inset rivets. For this I simply took my hand drill and the smallest drill bit I could find and drilled very shallow holes. (you can see some in the pic just above)
I the worked on all the rest of the weapons. I wanted it to be convertible between all three flyers in the Ork codex, so I magnetized every thing other than the basic loadout guns. I inset magnets on the hard points or pylons on the underside of the wing. And then magnetized all the weapons: rokkits, extra guns, burna bombs, blitza bombs, you name it!
After the weapons it was time to finish all the other little details. I finally completed the gear door and was quite happy with the result. I used some bits from a battlewagon I think as the door. The hinge was made by carefully drilling out the door and the side of the plane and inserting a metal pin through it. For the nose gear, once the skin was on it was very difficult to get it down. So I put a small wheel on the outside to turn it.
Here is the main gear and nose gear in operation!
The tail gun is magnetized to be both a shoota and a twin linked shoota for both the bombers.
I finished the windscreen by using the window for the original rear gunner. But because it was opened in the back(in this case the front) I had to cut a clear piece and glue it in the front.
And finally, here is the finished product! It compares very well in size to the regular dakka jet as you can see!
And here the hero shot with all the potential weapons layed out! Love this pic!
This was my original drawing on paint, I think it turned out pretty close! It will be painted in Bad Moons colours!
Now to decide on a name for it! These are my two ideas: The Sturmav'ork (after the Russian WWII IL-2 Sturmavik) or the Thunderb'ork.... lemme know what you think, or if you have any other suggestions!
I hope you all enjoyed the thread! Please feel free to ask any questions as I know I didn't go over everything in detail!
Cheers,
Andre