Rise from your grave...

Well, its been over a year since i last made any progress with this, but i'm picking it up again. Since last post the Valkyrie got some panel detail, I was waiting to get some more plasticard sections to start the engines and then various distractions happened.

I've become inspired again recently though, reading about Counter-insurgency aircraft. Through this i've drawn up plans for a multi-role support aircraft i can use as a Lightning figher, Landspeeder Storm (using The Great Crusade forums' Pre-Heresy rules), or even a Tempest or Typhoon.
I've also decided to aim to work towards a full Airborne army in time for my local games clubs 40k tourney in September. I had originally planned to do this for last years tourney, but a year late is better than never :P

The list i'm working towards at the moment is as follows, using the Elysian Drop troops list from Imperial Armour 8:

Company HQ -
Powerfist, 2x Aux. Grenade launchers, Plasmagun, 2x Bodyguards, Vox
Transport: Valkyrie w. Lascannon

Long Range Ground Scanner -
2 Crewmen

Platoon A -
Command - Powerfist, Meltagun, Lascutter, Vox
1st Squad - Meltagun, Vox
2nd squad - Aux. grenade launcher, flamer, Demopack, Vox
3rd squad - Aux. grenade launcher, flamer, Demopack, Vox
Sentinel - Multimelta, Hunter-killer Missile, Smoke Launchers

Platoon B -
Command - Power Weapon, Homing Beacon, Plasmagun, Lascutter, Vox
Transport: Valkyrie w. Lascannon
1st squad - Aux. grenade launcher, flamer, Demopack, Vox
Transport: Valkyrie w. Rocketpods
2nd squad - Aux. grenade launcher, flamer, Demopack, Vox
Transport: Valkyrie w. H. Bolters

Vulture - T/L Lascannon, 6x Hunter-killer Missiles

2x Tauros -
1x Homing Beacon, 2x Smoke Launchers, 1x Hunter-killer Missile, 2x Tauros Grenade Launchers

2x Tauros Venator -
2x T/L Lascannons, 2x Smoke Launchers

Total - 1750pts

Still not totally sure on it, would appreciate any feedback. The current idea is for the Venators, Vulture and lascannon Valkyries to provide anti-armour support and to clear landing zones for the larger platoon to deep-strike into, using either the other platoons' HQ or the Tauros squadrons' Homing Beacons to avoid scattering too much. I'm thinking that more infantry might be a good idea, especially more anti-infantry firepower, but not sure what to take out in order to fit them in and i'd prefer to avoid using veteran squads if possible

Before I start work on the aircraft again I still need to get more plasticard sections and shapes to make the engines and details, but i intend to pick these up over the next weekend. In the meantime, i've started work on the infantry, as i've been hoarding suitable bits for ages :)
The first platoon is almost ready for painting, only the webbing and a few more greenstuff additions to go


This is what they look like so far, with another 5 rifleman not pictured. The greenstuff sleeves could be a lot better, but i'll have a lot of practice yet.


Also been working on a commander for some time, off and on. Again, still got some work to do, but i'm pleased with the pose. Was unsure as to whether he'd be better suited for a Commissar or a Commander, and i'm still not totally sure. I like how the beret came out, but i keep thinking the coat isn't suitable for an airborne commander(but just the kind of extravagance you'd expect from a Commissar :) ).
Once I finalise an army list i'll probably make a decision, but for now he just looks cool.


I've had bodyguards in pretty much every guard list i've taken since the latest codex came out, so it was natural i'd take them in this list. Really pleased with the general pose of this one, it came together pretty much exactly as i pictured it, and i've wanted to use this head on a guardsman for ages.


'Look out, sir!'

Doing more work tonight, hoping to get this first batch finished by monday and then work at finishing another squad by the end of next week

More progress, thoughts in future builds

Made a fair bit of progress since last post, nearly finished the fuselage now.

Detailed the interior to an extent i'm happy with, attempted to add folding seats to the side walls but these didn't turn out too well


Have added a sheet of textured deckplating to the floor since these photos were taken too.

managed to construct the nose shape and figured out how best to make the sloping wingtips. Also sorted out some crewmen in the cockpit. Wasn't really planning this originaly but there was some clear plasticard included in a mixed pack i ordered so i thought it'd be a good excuse to experiment in making proper windows



I was hoping to leave the floor removeable until i'd painted the interior but while making the nose it became clear it'd be too unstable to properly make the side panels (the ones still missing) unless the floor and the underbelly plates attatched to them were in place and providing support.

I've learned a lot making this first Valkyrie, and i've figured out a few more alterations i'm going to have to implement in future:

- I need to make shaper plates for the nose. Didn't really think about this in too much detail before, and i think that was a side-product of designing in 3D - plates just butted together and everything went without internal support, and this doesn't happen in the real world. I made one plate for the front of the nose on the fly, but it could really use 2 to give more stability, and i'll need to sort some out for the sides too
- No open cockpit! definitely going to seal this up and paint windows on next time, its just not worth the hassle. It was an afterthought this time and it really shows, and the fact i didn't know how best to go about it didn't help
- The fuselage to wing join needs 2 sets of magnets, one set just isn't going to cut it. I was worried to start with, and now the fuselage is almost complete i think i was right to be. It holds, but shake it a bit and it falls off. I've stil got filler and more plasticard to add yet, so this will only get worse.
I'm thinking if it does then it'd be best to use this wing set for the Vulture, as that fuselage won't be nearly as complex or heavy
- Seal the passenger bay up. This was a very sensible suggestion offered over on the Work In Progress forums that i hadn't actually thought of before. I may try again with an open one in future and limit the details, but sealing it will make construction much simpler, the model much lighter and it would still look fine. Other than visually removing the heavy bolters, i can't see that it would impact gameplay either.

Structurally, i'm nearly done with this one. Since i'm going to need to order more plasticard sections before i can properly start detailing im thinking about starting on building the next one already. I might fill the gaps first as i'm eager to properly try out the filler that i bought, but for now i've got an entry to do for my clubs painting competition to get out of the way.

More stuff soon.

Progress?

Right, first progress pictures.

I had set myself a shedule to finish the first two valkyries by the end of february, but the supplies i ordered didn't turn up in time and the usual pub-shaped distractions messed up plans somewhat. So far i think i've been able to put in around 15ish hours work on the first (the prototype really) but i'm pleased with whats been done.
Looking at how progress is going so far it looks like it'll take longer to build them that i thought, so i'm now aiming to have finished the first pair by the end of March.

The wing and engine section was made first and came together really easily:


Still need to make the wingtips and the vertical tail sections and then i can start to fill the gaps in preparation for laying panels and detailing. The outer wings are removeable and come off at the engine to help with storage.

Over the last few days i've been able to start work on the fuselage:



Since the pictures were taken i've added pipework along the roof, and I want to add more detailing on the interior before closing it up, but i'm not sure exactly what. Probably a door to the pilots cabin on the back wall and some seating down the sides, but other than that i'm not sure. Any suggestions?

I've magnetised the Fuselage to the wings too, really happy as i was worried this wouldn't work, but its worked almost perfectly


Still kinda worried it'll prove too weak a join once i finish sticking everything to the fuselage, but i'll have to see how it goes

Hoping to get more done by the end of the week, i'll try and get more shots up if i do.

Fluff and the Design process.......

I hate starting new blogs, never know quite what to put. Anyway, i'm a bit late in starting this, as i've already started building, but the intention is to document and record the process of building my current project, a Warhammer 40k Airborne Imperial Guard army. For starters, a bit of background nonsense:

I've played a normal infantry based Imperial Guard army for some time, but I a few christmasses ago while spending time at my parents I decided i wanted to try something different. I'd decided before the project really started that i wanted to use the Elysian Drop Troops lists from forgeworld, mainly for the sheer silliness of an entirely air-mobile army. But as the current Imperial Guard codex has since come out and opened the option for Valkyries in normal games i'm trying to make the army compatible for use with that too.

The Valkyrie design came about from me musing over creating a stand-in of similar proportions to the GW model that i could easilly make from plasticard sheets, with as few curves or overly detailed sections as possible (such as the engines - i didn't want to have to go superdetailing anything if possible).In trying out designs and ideas and thinking about similar looking planes i remembered the Disney cartoon Talespin - i loved this cartoon as a kid (still do :D) and remembered the transport seaplane used by the main characters. A few google searches later and i had my inspiration.
I knew the angles on the fuselage would prove tricky but i was confident i could construct something similar. Thinking of how the FW Vulture uses some components of the Valkyrie, i thought i could use the same idea with mine and could use an interchangeable fuselage to convert between the two. Given the wing shape i already had, the obvious choice for inspiration was the p-38 Lightning, one of my favourite ww2 fighters.

The project lay dormant for a year as other, more feasible projects got in the way. When looking at it again i made the decision to use magnets to attatch the interchangeable fuselages and also to allow weapon fits to be swapped out. I also found i had trouble envisaging the shape of some of the fuselage plates on paper and couldn't figue out the dimensions i'd need to cut out. Realising i'd be better off working in 3D, i enlisted my brothers aid in finding something that was simple enough that i could use, that would give me measurements to work from and also that was free :) Finding Google Sketchup i took my first bumbling steps into 3D design, and i'm quite pleased with the results:



The Valkyrie design



The Vulture design

I've made designs for a retro-looking drop sentinel sort of based of the vehicles in an old ps2 game called Ring of Red, but thats for a later date.

I'd looked into writing up some fluff to go with the force as a point of interest, and also to explain what i'm doing using seaplanes as Valkyries. Basically I thought of a regiment hailing from a planet where most of the population centres are out to sea or on peninsulas, occupying the few comfortably habitable and fertile parts of a planet where most of the land masses are rocky deserts. Mining goes on in these deserts, and various ork invasions in the sector have left areas still infested with feral ork tribes. Efforts to exterminate them have been unsuccesful, but raids on occupied areas are infrequent and are easily kept in check.
Raids on mining settlements are more troublesome however, and require the local regiments to be adept at rapid response deployments. The lack of available space for proper airfields near civilised areas means that the ability to take off and land at sea is preferred, thus amphibious troop transports and support craft are used
I'm probably going to tidy this up and expand on it at some point, but its not a massive priority. I mainly want to get stuff built!

I was wanting to continue a seaplane theme throughout the other airpower elements of the force, but as i looked at the different units available this became more and more difficult.
Branching out to Marauder stand-ins and possibly even larger designs was easy, there are plenty of designs to look at as many historical flying boats tend to be transports of similar size.
When looking at stand-ins for the Thunderbolt and Lightning fighters was originally looking at trying to incorporate elements of design from the Schneider trophy racing seaplanes of the 1930s - planes such as the Supermarine S6 and the Macchi MC-72 had a really nice shape to them that i though would translate nicely into model form. However, in working through converting over a design i ran into several glaring problems - First, in a sleek single engined craft designed to be driven by propellor there is no place to put a exhaust when converted to jet propulsion without messing with the lines and fuselage shape; second, floats look really out of place on an interceptor! I knew they'd be a problem from the outset but was hoping to work them a bit closer to the body and pass the off as doubling up as extra long-range fuel tanks, but they'd still be huge and unwieldy-looking even before the 40k 'chunky' aesthetic. I just can't picture and interceptor keeping up with anything with stuff like that strapped to them

In looking into Twin-boom aircraft designs similar to the valkyrie i did stumble across quite a few interesting fighter designs from the ww2-post war period though, and i think some of them could be adapted quite nicely to 40k planes. I especially want to do something with the Vultee XP-54, and since it was quite big and had quite a heavy weapons loadout it might fit nicely as a Thunderbolt.
I'm thinking something similar to the Saab 21-J would look nice as a lightning, as its such a bizzare little plane. I'm not a fan of the wing shape thought, so i'd change that quite a bit if i did. Another option is the Heinkel HE-162 as its small and a nice weird shape.
I also found that german manufacturers Blohm + Voss made a flying boat design during WW2 that is very similar to how my valkyries ended up, but it has 3 engines and is more of a recconisance design. i'm tempted to adapt it but i'll probably wait until i find a better use or FW make a suitable valkyrie variant

If i find enough enthusiasm to actually finish the fluff I'm probably going to keep the Valkyries/vultures and fighters as totally separate organisations and have the fighters either carrier-based or land operating so i can justify not making them float planes. As long as everything looks good and i'm happy with the designs i'm not too fussed though :)

Right, thats more than enough waffle, gonna try and post the progress shots next.

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