Epic Scale Stormraven Conversion Tutorial

By Tommi Ojala (Garoth)

Introduction & Planning

The idea for this conversion originates from the comments on the first pictures of the 40K scale Stormraven (as seen on the right) when those came out. There were lots of comments on how it looked like the front section of a Thunderhawk with wings and engines added on. People also wondered if it would be possible to convert a Thunderhawk form Stormraven by stretching it up. While the shape and detail of the Stormraven front section is quite good for such conversion, the scale will be off by some degree. You can get a craft that looks like Thunderhawk, but it will be about 2/3 of the size it should be. Luckily that 2/3 scale factor was not a problem for this project, as Epic scale Thunderhawks are readily available in two different scales. The resin model from Forgeworld Aeronautica Imperialis range is 95 mm long, where as the metal model from GW Epic Armageddon range is (pictured left) 60 mm long. So roughly, the GW one is 2/3 the size of the FW one. The natural question seemed to be: Could I start from a GW EpicA Thunderhawk and cut it down to Stormraven shape? The idea seemed plausible. The idea was to make this conversion simple. There would little or no scratch built parts and as little green stuff work involved as possible. The overall silhouette of the craft would be quite close to what it should be, but I decided not to worry about details that much. Therefore I decided early on that front section of the GW Thunderhawk would stay as it was. That meant that placement of doors and guns would not match to the original model and the front heavy bolters would have to suffice for hurricane bolters and so on. I also decided to limit myself for the parts that you get in the GW Thunderhawk blister, so the people could replicate this conversion without need for any additional bitz.

Step 1: The Main Hull

The first step is quite straight forward: Take a modeling saw (I used the current GW one) and cut the top part of the Thunderhawk main hull away, and then split the hull as shown in the image.

The rear part of the hull will not be used for this model, but the top part will be needed.

The next step is the file off some of the details on the top of the hull. Those are in the way of the future top turret of the model.

Also some detail need to be filed off from the bottom. These might come in the way of your magnet (depending on the size you use). Also the model will stand better while you are working on it if these details are removed.

Step 2: Top Part of the Hull & Top Turret

Next part is a bit tricky. You will need a piece of plastic sprue to act as a filler piece. It does not have to be an exact fit, some green stuff will be added later on, but the better it is, less GS will be needed. The aim is to get a piece that makes the top of the model to be on the same level from the filed down roof to the end of the piece. At first I cut a slightly longer piece of plastic sprue than what would be needed. Then I cut/shaved away some of the top side of the sprue (the narrower side), as the sprue was too thick. The filler piece would glued on so that the flat (and the widest) side would on the top, so keeping that in mind, and cut one end of the filler piece to have matching angle to the rear part of the main hull. As a final step, after some dry fitting, I cut the filler piece to proper length.

On the left there is a picture of the filler piece before it was attached for a better view.

Next take the top part of the main hull and cut the main cannon away as shown on the left.

The cannon will not be needed. The other parts cutting point is filed flat and

 and it is glued on top of the main hull so that the parts match on the rear.

Next step is to add some guns for the top turret. The original model comes with a choice of three: Assault cannons, plasma cannons or lascannons. Sadly, the Epic Thunderhawk model does not come with any of those. Deciding to stick on the rule of use only the parts that come with the model I used the wing heavy bolters instead.

I cut the backside of the heavy bolters flat to fit the turret and glued them on.

Step 3: Tail Section Part 1

The tail section is made from the fins that would normally go on top of the engines. The tail will be quite different from the original model, but this one is easy to make and only components from the original model are used.

I simply glued them at the back of the main hull part. Some kind of supporting structure (like parts of plastic sprue) could be added, but I managed to glue this together without one quite easily, Green Stuff will be added in the next step anyways for support, so I thought that there was no need for it in this step.

Next some green stuff was added to fill the hole from the previous step. Also some GS was used to hide the plastic filler piece that is under the top piece of the hull, and the partial eagles of the sides were disguised as panels of some sort.

After the GS had cured I filed all GS areas to ensure that they were as flat as possible.

Step 4: Wings Part 1

Although next logical step would be finishing the tail section, I moved on to the wings instead so I could attach one of them on before finishing the tail. That way I could see the postion of the engines and match the postion of the tail accordinly.

The first step for the wings was the file off the top sides of the wings flat.

As there would no weapons on the end of wings, the weapon mounts had to go from both sides.

On the bottom side there was also lots of detail that I filed off (marked red on the picture). There is no need to file off the centermost details of the landing gear slots, when the wings will be cut off, those will on the side of the center part that will not be needed for the model.

On top of removing the details mentioned above I also kept on filing to get a flatter finish. The wings would be turned over so that the original bottom side would end up being the top side, and I needed room to paint the chapter symbol on the wings, so I made sure that there was enough of flat are to do so.

Then I cut the wings free from the middle section and cleaned the cut are by filing.

Step 5: Tail Section Part 2

One of the wings prepared in the previous step was glued on. You can see the positioning from the image on the left. After some dry fitting you should be able to find a spot where the details of the engine meet the details on the hull quite naturally.

Next: Cutting the tail to fit the model. The rear section of the model is not actually horizontal, so it means that the tail must also be cut in an angle as shown in the images.

Then the tail is glued on its place. From the following images it can seen how I chose to position the tail compared to the engines. In this step I chose deviate once more from the original model as the Thunderhawk engines are quite a bit longer than they should for a Stormraven. But keep this conversion simpler I chose not reduce the length of the engines, therefore the model ended up having the engines to be so long that tail entirely between then (in the original model that tail is longer than the engines). The overall look of the craft is still Stormraven enough for me.

After the tail was attached to the right position I removed the wing, as it would be in the way of applying greenstuff and filing. At this point I also attached a large neodymium magnet at the bottom of the plane. Normally I drill a hole for the magnet but these ones were so big that did not have a drill of suitable size. The smaller magnets that I normally use for my AI planes were not strong enough for a metal model of this size. The landing gear will disguise the magnet to some degree. Then it was time for another round of greentuffing to make tail fit seamlessly. I also filled the partially visible landing gear hole under the magnet. At this point I also noticed that the left side of the tail section was not originally glued on quite right so I used some greenstuff to fill that area for smoother transition. After the GS was cured I once again filed off any excess for smoother finish.

Step 6: Landing Gear

Then on to the landing gear. As the rear landing gears were glued on to the sides of the main hull the sides of the landing gear needed to filed flat. I filed the area marked with the red. Remember file off the same area from the opposing side from the other landing gear.

The excess part above the widest part was cut away

and filed nice and smooth.

Once again, after some dry fitting you should be able to find a spot where the landing gear fits between details on the hull quite naturally. Note that they are glued on backwards to fit the look on the Stormraven.

For the front landing gear it is best to trim it down a little by little, and dry fit in between. It is far easier to cut out a bit more than come up with an extension piece after too much has been cut away.

As a next step the front landing gear was glued on and it was tested that the model would stand correctly on a flat surface. This required some minor twisting and regluing, but after couple rounds everything was on the same level. I also added the front fins at this point. It is another deviation from the original model but I felt that there was missing something without them. There was too much empty space between the details on the sides, and the fins took care of that problem.

Step 7: The Base

I chose to make the base ready before finishing the wings as this allowed me to place the model on its flying stand, and inspect it more easily from different angles when attaching the wings. The magnets that I was using had a hole in the middle so I used that to attach it to the flying stand. The peg was slightly too wide so I trimmed it a bit with a knife. After that the magnet was glued on, and the excess part of the peg was cut away. I originally left it on as the other magnet had a hole in it where it would fit, but that made the connection too strong. Removing the stand was too difficult when magnets needed to be pulled directly away from each other. I do not glue the stands on the AI bases so that they can be removed for transportation.

Step 8: The Wings Part 2

As a final step the wings were prepared by creating the engine casing for them. The wings are quite a bit thicker than they should be, and therefore the engine casings would either be smaller, or would require extensive amount of work. I chose the former option.

After some dry fitting you should decide the slope of wings you are going to use. That gives you the top side of the engines, where work need to be done. Slope that I chose can be seen from the rear part of engine. The area that is marked with red on picture that needs to be filed flat.

After some filing I had the both wings ready. I filled some gaps and dents with GS and kept on filing after the GS had cured. I also filed away some of wing top that was next to the to the engine casing to make the casing look slightly more prominent. After a whole lot of filing the wings were ready to be attached to the model. Like before, after some dry fitting I found a good position for the wings where they were supported slightly by the details of the hull. It took some time to ensure that both wings were on the same position and at the same angle, but it was worth the trouble. The model is ready to receive some paint on it!

Here are some pics of the finished model:

-Tommi/Garoth