Another storm talon variant

[de Selby]

A few people have suggested replacing the rather blocky weapons on the talon with the ones from the ravenwing sprue. Unlike many I quite like the basic gunship design but I think the slightly finer assault cannons and missile pods look better.

The assembly isn't done yet, I need to do some work to marry the missile supports to the fuselage. Currently blu-tacked. One thing I only realised while putting it together is that the tail fin actually has a little extending bit to land on, which I rather like.

Rather than putting the 'feet' on a rotating turret I think I could now put them on the missile pod 'arms' as these are fixed in place and much sturdier.

What do you think?

[Wicksy]

I tell you what, if you modeled a top rotor and rear fin rotor that would look like a pucker 40k Apache Longbow! Looks good man, great conversion!

[DaHedd]

Lovely stuff. Much more realistic cannon and missile pods. Reminds me ever so slightly of the Aliens Cheyane (sp?) drop ship. As a whole the kit perhaps needs a slightly longer tail, bit more like a chopper.

[Sinisterfence]

I seem to be one of the few who like the weapon pods as they are, but I absolutely love how you've done yours! If I got one I was considering lascannons to target pesky Fire Prisms, but those missile pods look so awesome I think I may reconsider!

[Clang]

Looks great, but yes, definitely needs landing gear of some kind, even if positioned 'up' for flying. Definitely check out real-world combat heli pics for inspiration

[Sauragnmon]

I gotta say the finer weapons look real nice on it. I still don't really like the turret section, and if/when I get one, I'll be merging things into the lower fuselage, since let's face it, when it's shooting, it'll be shooting everything at the same target, so a turret is kinda moot.

[MistaGav]

Like what you've got so far. Me personally I would have made small wings using plasticard where those missile launchers are and put the weapons underneath but that's just my take on it.

[de Selby]

Thanks for feedback guys. I wracked my brains trying to find a better way to place the skids, but ended up making little feet on the bottom of the pods. At least they are a rigid support.

Now looks like this:

[ilikebmxbikes]

your conversion looks much better. the width of the rocket pods really squares out nicely with the jet engines. with a lengthened tail and wings the model would really be improved.

[de Selby]

The basic problem is that the cockpit (and the weapons, but they are easy to change) is a bit too big for all the rest of the model (wings, body, tail, engines...). It reminds me of GW's heroic scale 28mm figs with their giant heads and hands. Unfortunately it can't be made any smaller and still have a marine pilot, and I preume the sculptor was only given two sprues to work with, so we have to like it or lump it. Personally I like it, even so.