Is it a brick? Is it a Plane? CAW CAW HERITIC!

Captain MAGpie's "Big Burd" Stormraven Heavy

A Games Workshop Stormraven Conversion

+ With the link to the 3D print files +

CAW! CAW! Message for you sir.

The flying brick is a pretty cool model in itself, but a lot of people don't like how stocky it appears. As I have said before, in terms of the game itself I can see why GW designed it the way it is. Its just easier to move and transport. But, whats 2 inches between friends, right? Probably not enough personal space... >.<

That being said, I also, fall into the side of folk who did not quite agree with the length and so I  wanted a slightly longer look for my Raven.

And out came the plasticard a Stormraven Conversion was eminent.


I did 2 ravens using the same basic template which I have refined over time. The first was pretty much cut, fit, cut, throw away, cut, fit, cut, fit... etc until I have a semblance of what I wanted. It came out ok, to be fair, but it did teach me quite a few things. Things I then applied to the second model and one that came out just right.

This conversion is not hard to build once everything is cut. Cutting it however is a whole new story. This took a lot of time and it still required quite a bit of putty work to fill in those tine gaps where I goofed. I think, if I do it again, it should be a heck of a lot better, but there we go... Thank the emperor for things like Milliput, Green Stuff and Tamiya Polymer Putty.

So, lets get into the build.

The tutorial

1) What you will need for: the template

• The Template (Provided below)
• Cardboard
• Printer (Or a ruler and a lot of time)
• Fine-Point marker

 

STC - "Big Burd" Stormraven Heavy (Large size!)

I recommend printing the template on cardboard, scaling it so that the white reference block is 25mm (1 inch) when printed out, then cutting the shapes out with a pair of scissors and transferring the shapes to your plasticard with a fine-point marker.

Additionally, cut the template out of paper first and make a paper-craft fit first just to test for scaling. There is a lot of cutting in this build, so making a fitting or printer scaling mistake will be frustrating.

What you will need for: Big Burd

• 1 x Stormraven kit from Games Workshop (It is a Stormraven Conversion after all...)
• 1mm flat Styrene Plasticard sheet
• Putty such as Green Stuff or Milliput (Optional, but I advise using this. So much easier)
• A VERY sharp hobby knife
• A fine-point marker
• Metal Ruler
• Glue (I'll level with you. Use an extra thin solvent type glue here. It just makes life so much simpler. I use Tamiya Extra Thin, and believe me, you will have a hard time convincing me to use anything else. I almost feel that I should be wearing welding goggles when I use this stuff with ABS/Styrene.)
• Sharp Cutters
• Files and sanding paper (Fine)
• Patience and a first aid kit

Step 1 - Template

Print the template onto cardboard and cut it out with scissors or a knife.

Step 2 - Transfer and cut

Transfer the shapes to your plasticard using a fine-point marker, and cut them out using a knife. This is probably the hardest part of this build, and requires the most attention. Only one small "difficult" part remains after this, the rest is just gluing, filling gaps and sanding.

Step 3 - Build the sides

Loads of "cosmetic" parts in the template. Go ahead and make those to taste. The only important parts here are the 4 side section. The 2 inner-upper walls (Part 1), and the 2 lower-outer walls (Part 2).

Build the sides.

And as the instructions above say: 

1. Glue part 2 on top of part 1 with the overlap (as shown by red dashed line). Make sure you do it opposite sides for the Port and Starboard sides of the craft.
2. Allow to cure properly.
3. Putty all them holes, file and sand smooth.
4. Glue the cosmetic parts as you wish. They are designed to disguise some of the seams that could occur as a result of imperfect cuts.

Step 4 - Glue the hull sides to the model

Just what is says. Glue the hull-sides you just built to the actual model. You can have it built by now, or still in pieces if you plan to do the interior. Either way is fine. When you are done, you will have an extended hull. which is the point.

Here, you need to make sure of the flush line-up on the outside. Don't worry about the inside. You wont see it and you can hide imperfections behind chairs, display panels, and conduit pipes. Or just glue it shut. Up to you.

Any small gaps at this point you can fill with putty and sand smooth when cured.

Step 5 - Build the conduit... thing 

This is the second "hard" bit. And this is where a lot of the putty work comes in. If you don't get these angles perfectly, you will have gaps. As you can see bellow, I aint perfect. That's fine, that why we have putty and sanding paper.
This part takes a lot of filing and patience to fit. But to help with all the gaps you will notice that the “cosmetic” pieces helps hide them in addition to strengthening the walls.

Gap was due to me cutting the angle to sharp.
What I should have done was file it down and test fit
till it was right.
What I DID do, was not test fit it -_-

 

1. Glue 3, 4 and 5 to look like the part to the right to the hull sides. Note that Part 3 and 4 are glued at a right angle and 5 is glued to 4 at a roughly 30 degree angle. It helps with the line-up if you file the angles into the parts.
2. Test fit the part.This part extends the area the engines rest on to the rear. You will likely need to do some work here as it is unlikely to fit perfectly first time. (See circled area in the pick above)
3. Fill the hole in the back. I did not make a template for it and just used putty that I textured to look like vents. You can have it flat, put rockets in, go wild.

Step 6 - Start assembling the model

At this point you are ready to assemble the model. You will want to finish up with that interior now.

I had fun with this. Cant see any of it, but had fun.

Step 7 - Build the body

Once happy with the interior, have rubber bands ready, and start building, gluing the roof and floor into place as well.

You may want to have finished up the interior by now.
(Not glued in the picture.
Just held together with my man-ape hands.)

 Step 8 - Roof assembly

Once the body is pretty much assembled you can fit the roof “triangle” shape to link the tail and body. The reason to hold off till now is that depending on you glue and thickness of the plasticard you are using, the measurements for height of parts 7 may be off, and you may have to trim them to get the roof-triangle flush with the tail and body. Again, the cosmetic parts help hide errors and you can customise this as you please.

Make sure the big triangle lines up with the tail, then just add the cosmetics to taste.

Hard to see, as I over-exposed the camera, but all together. Note the roof was
cut slightly to wide. Cutter and file, all fixed.

GOOFED: Here I noticed an oversight in my design. When I fitted the engines, I saw that the roof got in the way. I solved this by making small notches in the roof where the thrusters sit next to the body. Was an easy fix, so no big deal, but I will measure it up and fix it with the next revision of the template.
(You can see what I am talking about on the top-down pick below. You will see its quiet a simple fix, but yeah... Captain Magpie gone goofed.)

Step 9 Final touched

The belly of the beast was simply too flat, so I cut a few (5 to be exact) pieced of spruce and glued it to her belly, and my Stormraven Conversion was complete!

Under the skirt.

3D Print Files by cornivius 

If you have access to a 3D printer or do not quite feel up to the task of cutting the card, cornivius took this project on and created 3D printable files and has kindly provided them for free use on his Thinksverse page. They can be found at: 

3D Print Files by Myself

They can be found at: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4432351

Snow Crows Airborne Cavalry approaching the LZ!

 

Hope you enjoyed it. And as always, I would LOVE to see you take on the template. Post up picks or links to your Stormraven Conversion.

Captain MAGpie,
Styrene Addict