Scratch Build Thunder bolt

A few days ago I met up with a friend and we started talking 30k. If I were to play 30k, I will finally have a chance to use my scratch built Thunderbolts.  Using the Solar Auxilia list, the Thunderbolts will fit nicely in the fast attack slot. Building the Solar Auxilia will be a whole different story but for now, let’s go down memory lane on how I made these fellas.

Now I built these flyers a few years back and I have only used them 4 times. Fortunately I did take some pictures when I was building them and they were mainly built like my Hell Talons Flyers - out of card board.

I used a template I found in the net but did some off my own modification. I wanted some uniqueness to the flyers so instead of following the usually wing shape, I change them to the classic v shape to mimic the forgeworld mk1 lighting flyer (yeah they don’t sell that model anymore)

I did not go for the bending straws this time for the engine bit (the inter cooler system), but instead  I decided to use reticulation sprinkler heads which kinda pimped the engine a little. It reminds me off an injector system on a V8 motor car. Nice!

The thunderbolt primarily uses twin linked autocannons as its main weapon, so instead of using the imperial guard heavy weapons spru, I opted for the autocannon from the chaos defiler kit which looks nice with the gun-belt look, feeding from the ship. The turbines are from the space marine drop pods (yeah it was hard to source these parts as I went ebay for some)

After basecoating the miniature in chaos black, it finally looks like a decent flyer. I hastily painted the entire ship in codex grey and behold, a scratch built thunderbolt. And yes, I made two at the same time.

Here is a comparison between the real Macoy and the scratch built Thunderbolt which I will dub the MKXT Thunderbolt, which is probably a forgeworld planet prototype of somekind…lol.

Steel Legion Bomber - Imperial Hell Talon

Just came across the Spikey bits website contest called “Holiday Shopping Spree Conversion Contest.” You can check out their facebook photo album here for all the entries. Not sure if I will make it, but I thought I would give it a go!

http://blog.spikeybits.com/2012/11/win-one-of-five-holiday-shopping-sprees.html

Anyway the contest is looking for something original in a form of a 40k vehicle. Sweet! I have just the thing! I have decided to enter my scratch built Imperial Hell Talon which I made a couple of years ago for an apocalypse tournament in a local gaming club.

At that time my team mates and I decided that air superiority is essential to our battle plans (this is before GW released the plastic valkyries ), so I went about looking for options to build some flyers. Flipping through the Forgeworld armour books I came across the Chaos Hell Talons flyer. I have always wondered why the Imperial Navy never have something of a medium fighter plane. So my answer; build an imperial mid fighter.
Maybe it’s an experimental flyer originally developed in a certain forgeworld planet captured by chaos forces and then reversed engineered and became the Chaos Hell Talons as they are today in the world of 40k? Who knows…

The Design: Ever since watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, I grew a certain fondness to the experimental Luftwaffe “flying wing” in the movie. Though fictional of course, I realized later the “flying wing” design is probably based on a real “flying wing” called the Horten V developed by the Luftwaffe in WW2. And since my forces are already looking like the WW2 german army, it’s a no brain-er for me to adopt this type of aesthetics to compliment my steel legion force.

Using the Horten V as my inspiration, I build a larger then usual Imperial Navy Thunderbolt hull and then designed large wings on both sides by hand until I get the shape that I am happy with. If you must know, the main hull and wings of the project is built from cardboard (cereal box and foam board)

I then glue some turbines from the space marine drop pods to the front to act as air intakes and trusters to the rear from the space marine landspeeder which are glued to some reticulation bits from the garden. The engines pipes were made from cutting bending straws (Those are always cool for scratch built projects, as it gives you that industrial look). Finally, I added the weapons from the imperial guard heavy weapons spru, base coat in chaos black and it's ready for paint. 

During the duration of the project I actually built 3 in tandem and came up with an apocalypse formation datasheet. Here is a shot from the tournament of the flyers in action.

As always, good luck in your scratch building
Capt. Stainguard