Blackadder's Scratchbuilt Thunderhawk Redux

[zathros]

Damn, where have I been? Did you enter a time warp, or did I go into a time bubble?

I never thought I would write these words, but what an incredible set of balls!! The Aluminum rub is outstanding. You have really made something here that a lot of people would love to have. You could probably pay a large parts of your sons college tuition bills with this!! Really superb. Do you think you could post large pictures suitable for a Desktop background? I have Dual 24" Monitors, for a reference.

 

[Blackadder]

Thought I'd jump ahead to the present and show a picture of my T'hawk as she is right now.

The images posted earlier in this thread are from the work in progress threads I posted on other forums over the course of six years. Reply #99 are images I took last weekend because, well because the work came out much better than I expected and wanted to share them on this forum.

Over the past six months I have put a lot of effort into completing the model and I shall be resuming the step by step stages I went through to bring the model to it's current state with none of the important fabrications left out. I'll resume the building log tomorrow.

What size in pixels are you looking for and what is the meaning of dual monitors; are they side by side? how do you eliminate the screens bezels?

Oh and BTW glad you liked the model.

 

[zathros]

I use two 24" Acer monitors, side by side. You can drag and drop anything from either monitor. The primary monitor has 9 Desktops you access by clicking a number on the task bar. I have been using dual monitors for 8 years now. I build my own computers. My Present Radeon R9 has only 2G's of V ideo Ram, but it could handle 4 monitors. My other computer has an AMD 8 Core CPU, 4.7 G's per core, water cooled, and a Radeon Card with 4G's of Video Ram, both use XFX cards, that one has a single 24 inch free sync monitor with a 1 ms response time. I let my son do gaming on that. I will be teaching him code on that one. Both computers have 16 G's of Ram.

 

[Famous Dave]

All I can say is Wow. Just WOW. The detail that you have put into this project amazes me. I am sure your son will be very proud to own this fabulous work of art.
Thank you so much for letting us watch this come together. Can't wait to see the final product.
Dave

 

[Blackadder]

Cargo Door Take Two:

In the video above the convoluted door opening procedure is a amazing tour de force but infinitely impractical plus the mechanism prevents large pieces of equipment from egress or ingress. My solution employs the brutal beauty of this door in comparison to the rather bland FW door/ramp but offers a more practical solution without the incredible monkey motion plus I can still release the Rhino........


It necessitated cutting back the locking detents and modifying the upper locks.



The opening is actually larger which will faciltate the embarking and debarking of the larger equipment from the cAverness cargo bay.

 

[Blackadder]

That's what I'm Talk'n 'bout:

Yeah this looks a lot better to me. Granted it departs from the classic T'hawk look but considering the newest additions to the transport navy fleet it's about time for a T'hawk face lift.



The old locking mechanism is still in play so it doesn't change the internal configuration and now I have space for the fold away cargo ramps for tracked and wheeled vehicles, the dentations should house the hinges nicely. A problem I could not resolve with the old style door.



Of course with the one step forward resolved there is also a one step back. The forward door and nose cowl should act as an ablative heat shield for atmospheric entry, so how to justify the decorative cut outs on either side of the door. surely all those surface angles and pockets would serve to hold and intensify the heat of re-entry causing great strain on the door mechanism. Just saying so you know I am aware of the quandary.



H*ll, I just build the D*mned things; I haven't the vaguest what makes 'em go.

 

[Blackadder]

Shades of Past Work:

Last year in April I decided I wanted operating retractable landing gear on this beastie, the problem was Forge World did not allow room in their model for the gear in the stowed position; especially the nose gear which as designed by FW would have taken up a significant percentage of the forward cargo bay. My dilemma was compounded by the mechanically impossible retract cylinder mechanism represented on the FW model.

BTW I totally discounted the 3D rendering gear altogether. Besides being mechanically unsound the gear pads were way too small.

Below is the nose landing gear removed from the gear well shown in the completely collapsed condition. The shock strut (oleo strut) is completely compressed so it will fit into the well. I am in the process of adding the gear well detail at the moment. Where does the time go.............



Here we see all the nose gear components including the foot pad and gear well reinforcement panels on the left. The lock pin forward of the foot pad, the gear well itself at the right rear. Forward of that is the shock strut and retract cylinder with their associate trunnion pins.



Here is the assembled nose gear showing the shock strut in collapsed position and the exterior of the well showing the axle sleeves for the trunnion pins that lock the gear trunions in place but allow them to swivel.




Front view of the nose gear assembled with the shock strut in full extension and the retract cylinder in full extension and foot pad attached.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

I GREATLY ENJOY watching your builds!
I have learned quite a bit about using this material.

 

[Blackadder]

Thanks for the reply; if you have any questions about the tutorial don't hesitate to ask....

Mounting the Landing Gear:

The heretofore unmounted landing gears have been held on back burner until today. I have many pieces including the forward cargo bay interior that are ready to install so much of the work to be done is done just not installed.



I have made so many modifications since the inception of this project it would have been prohibitive to disassemble and modify prematurely mounted parts.



I shall continue to only tack some parts into place so the model can be disassembled for painting.

Looks like I'll be able to sling a LandRaider under the belly after all; that and a Rhino in the cargo bay will make this a formidable addition an army.....

G*D I cannot believe I am actually considering painting this finally.

 

[zathros]

I believe I have used every word of praise I know at least a few times in this thread. I like your front door better, it makes more sense!!

 

[Blackadder]

The Nose Gear Continues:

The following chronicles the manufacture of the nose gear:

I barely had room for the light module bitz on the foot pad although everything else fitted with room to spare. still have so detailing to do on th top surface of the landing pad and the tread on the underside. but I am winding down for today and considered it time for an update.

Thanks for the reply BTW..........



Still can't make up my mind whether to cant the gear forward or make it vertical.



The detail inside the gear well is pretty much complete but I still need rivets etc on the reinforcing framework.

 

[Blackadder]

She's Got Leggs:

Okay the landing gear is installed, the nose gear at this time can retract but not the main gear. There seems no problem that even un-reinforced the spindly struts can support the massive weight of the model, 3 kilo of styrene.



Now that I have length of the struts established I can go ahead and beef up the main struts and make them retractable. I also need to design torque links so the pads do not swivel.



The front landing pad has a spring loaded strut extension which facilitates stowing so the pad can lock in when retracted.



Here we see the ground clearance allows for a belly hung LandRaider even though I have been apprised T'hawk transports do not carry LandRaiders.



The ramp angle is a bit too extreme which will have to be remedied with fold-able ramp extension tracks.



My contention is that necessity and innovation is rampant in front line conditions When I was in the military we did a lot of things not officially sanctioned and as long as it got the job done nobody complained. Of course things might be different now with equipment costing millions of dollars but I doubt it.

My version is capable of slinging a LandRaider and the design of the underside of the hull seems perfect to receive the large rhomboid shaped tank Its just that the FW version T'hawk is too undersized to take advantage that capability. My model dwarfs the LandRaider enough to make this possible. Whether I will actually hang a 'Raider underneath remains to be seen.

 

[Blackadder]

Slimming Facets?

One of the features that really did it for me on the 3D model was the beveled edges of the forward fuselage. Somehow it relieved the boxlike appearance of the FW prototype and particularly on my over-sized model lent a slimming appearance to the overall model.

Not so with the rounding front heat shield; I still have to work on that.................



I took a few of the same shot to show the relief of the facets of which I believe came out rather satisfactory.



I just have to dress these curves............



Egad! Curves on a T'hawk?

Blasphemy!

 

[Blackadder]

Thanksgiving Week:

Well I've received orders from the 'Top' aka Ms BA that I have to clean up my mess because company's coming and my room, "My Room!" looks a mess and she'll be ashamed if any one is brought in there Yada, yada, yada......... Of course I'll be bringing people in to look at my pastime pursuits so I'm complying.

First order is to get all the models in one piece because, I know what it looks like when in pieces but hardly anyone else would so I gathered all the Thunderhawk pieces from the various corners of the room and assembled them and waddaya know I think its time start painting.

First off sorry about the flash in the first image because it the only one that shows the ball turrets.




The high level front view shows the various ages of the styrene because this model has taken an inordinate amount of time to produce and the older styrene has yellowed.

Note in the foreground the interior walls that when wired will finally be glued into place. I built those walls over four years ago; Gad!



Still to be done is to beef up the main landing gear struts but that shouldn't affect painting. also note the various shades of greasy hand yellowing chronicling the various stages of building over the years.




This calls for another martini; Skoal!

 

[zathros]

I was at a Hobby Shop in New Milford, Ct. today, and they have sh*tloads of WarHammer40K stuff, but nothing came even close to this.

 

[Blackadder]

Volcano Cannon Elevation Boot

It's the little things you forget that bite you on the arse every time.

I built the Volcano Cannon and the housing quite some time ago and beefed up the trunnion yesterday, slipped the ole cannon onto the shaft and "Lo!" there's a ruddy great gap behind the cannon that has to be filled or the install will look like crap.



Well I started making the cover/boot and glued it on and then thought, I should share this with my readers because it's a common enough problem and at least this will be my solution for what it's worth.

So I affixed a sheet of thin styrene to the breach of the cannon...............



And slid the barrel onto the elevating plug.............



So now when the cannon is raised the thin sheet of styrene disappears into the turret housing without an unsightly cloth boot.



Now all needs be done is decorate the sheet and install slide tracks and curved races for the sheet to run on.

 

[Blackadder]

Boots and Struts

Not bad for a days work, thankfully it was too hot to work outside; no Spring this year.

Anyway the boot is roughed in just some rivet detail and some bits and panels for under the cannon to add.



cannon in the stowed position shows the spine detail of the boot.

 

[Blackadder]

before I start applying paint for this beasty so it can be seen the finishing details and yes I cheated and sprung for a few etched Aquilas. Of course I can make Aquilas but making this many, this size, and all the same size was just beyond even my patience; God I want this painted and out of the queue so badly, I'm so sick of this Thunderhawk project; damn near 6 years on the process.


Thunderhawk Exploded View:

I was advised gently by a reader that the rear of the vehicle seemed lacking in detail so I poured over the images again and found easily over a hundred rivet and bits I had previously overlooked so it has held up the painting process until today..........

Bottom view of basic hull and components:

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

This is a GORGEOUS piece of work! The amount of detail, time effort, and energy that you have put into this project is really showing through!

 

[Blackadder]

Thanks for the replies,

In Her Prime:

After six years in the making the Thunderhawk is finally in her prime. The end cap tensioners for the flying Laser struts are still drying and I hope the Cadmium pigment arrives tomorrow so with any luck I'll begin colouring her this week



It's been a long painstaking process to reach this point but the ship has finally grown on me and I perceive a certain charm to the ugly brute after all.



The gun turrets still need a bit of work before painting and I may rebuild them; I haven't decided.



And finally the rear view which is often neglected during my picture taking.......