Assembling/converting a Stormtalon part 1

Well, last night was exciting.  Mum had a baby, and I hid in my hobby room and started assembling the Stormtalon I bought a while back.  I was awake until about 3 in the morning doing this, so I'm really tired now but it made a memory, I suppose.

The kit, glue, clippers, an old scalpel and an elephant's toe-nail.  Oh-- and the mess around is also necessary.  It just is.

When making a model that isn't a figure, I feel it's best to break the assembly down into sub-assemblies, I believe they're called-- I learned this from playing with LEGO for just under two decades.  I haven't grown up yet.

Let me see...

Top part/antennae

The fuselage with stabilizer jets

Cockpit, Techmarine pilot is a separate assembly

Main jet housings

The jets themselves

Autocannons

 Not pictured are the sponsons, which I haven't decided what combo to use.

 

When trimming the excess off the parts, you have to go against everything you were taught as a child.  Cut towards yourself for better control, and use your thumb to cushion the knife.  This does result in cut fingers quite often, but if a job's worth doing, it's worth dying for, so what's a bit of blood spilt here and there?

What I was meant to do...

...What I did instead

The antennae looked a bit plain, so I used both the aerials from a Land Speeder Vengeance kit I had sitting around; and for the sake of being different I also used a SM scout sniper rifle barrel.

I'm not saying that GW didn't do a decent enough job with their kits, but I simply cannot make a model the way it was meant to be made.  My first Stormtalon, I put the rear fin on backwards-- but that was a mistake-- WHAT I MEANT was I need to convert my models, even if it is just sticking extra bits on or a head swap.

Another thing I've just started to do is add Otherworld-like wire mesh to my vehicles.  After several futile attempts to stick it on properly, I ended up using Greenstuff.  It's messy from this angle, but it works.

Taking the struts off an Aquila Strongpoint I bought to convert a Thunderhawk if I ever get one, I chopped them up and stuck the grilles to the sides of the Stormtalon's tail.

If you don't use rubber bands, you'll run into big problems later on...

My Chapter have fewer complete sets of Mk VII armour than many other Chapters do, and gauntlets are one of the pieces they have trouble in replicating themselves, so they have to rely on salvaged suits.
For my Techmarine, I found two CSM arms that mimicked the existing pilot arms; one held a boltgun and one came with a heavy bolter.  I chopped the hands off and gave them the pilot's hands.

Here's the pilot.  His body is a Mk III (possibly?) one from the Land Speeder, with the Ravenwing icon taken off.  His head is from the Master of marches, and the tilt shield is Grey Knights.

And that's that, for now.  I dry-fitted everything for the photo.  Note I changed the targeting array also.  I'll assemble and paint it later, and hopefully decide on the sponson weapon.

D