AIRWOLF 40K

Captain MAGpie's 80's 40K!
The AIRWOLF tribute
A Games Workshop StormTalon Conversion

Well, no army is complete without air-support, and when building an army of legends, only the very best will make the cut.

So here we go again, not technically a tutorial, but I will share how I made it.

The basic idea for this conversion (and the future 80's related ones I have planned) was to convert an existing Games Workshop model into something that would be instantly recognised as a representation of an 80's movie vehicle. And today, we are doing Airwolf from a StormTalon kit. Of course you can convert the model into anything similar. Don't HAVE to be the wolf.

The build

This wasn't the simplest of conversions. The tail was a bit of a pain to say the least. I did not make any templates for it as it was a "build-on-site" out of the hip kinda thing. Just measured and fitted as I went along. Loads of cutting existing parts as well and re-purposing a lot of them. However, only one kit was used in this build, which makes it quite nice on the pocket and bitz-box.

Ok, lets get going.

Step 1 - Get the StormTalon

Quite a few cuts to be made, so lets get cracking. First thing is the existing tail. That needs to go. We need the fins though, so cut those off as well.

Remove the tail fins. Be careful, we need those.

And cut the tail off. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt. And the model needs it.

Step 2 - Assemble the main body

Go ahead and assemble the main body. We need that done to fit the tail.

I used the StormHawn wings here. You could use the StormTalon engines as well, but I wanted to go for the smooth look of the Wolf. To get that sorted out, I cut the wings.

Cut reasonably carefully here. Don't worry tooooo much if you nick something. You will sand it down once its on the model to get the smooth effect.

Saucer section separation complete.... Oh wait, my geek is showing again.

Once separated, just glue into place as if assembling the StormHawk. Any small doing and cutting bobos can now be puttied and filled smooth.

Wing assembly attached.

Not exactly sure why I took this picture. Figured its important so I left it in.

Now go ahead and assemble the rest of the body.

Cockpit assembly complete. 

Rear is pretty much as-is. I made no changes on it.

Step 3 - Some more prep-work

At this point, I assembled the roof plate and fins. This was in order to file the fins smooth where they were cut, and drill a hole into the roof for the main rotor, which I wanted to be able to rotate. 

Step 4 - De-Tail

Now I built the tail. Again, I did not make templates for this, as I just winged it. I can make some measurements and make a few sketches if there is interest. Was not difficult as-per-se. Just somewhat annoying because of the angles.

Anyhow, the tail was next. Unfortunately, I also got too involved (a nice word for frustrated with the damn tail) to take pictures. ANYHOW! I did remember to take pics again while finishing the tail details.

Use the wings that sits on the model tail and cut them at the angle of the tail. I eyeballed it, really, but it was easy to do. The vertical fins I cut from card (pictured above)

Tail assembled. The rocket pods are attached already here. I slightly off-set them with a 3mm spacer between the body and the pods. (pictured below)

Pod-spacers. Nothing fancy. Just square pieces of thick card.

Step 5 - Guns

Again, just used the same parts of the Hawk, and just modified them for the Wolf.

Rotor

The rotor was simple, basically just a long styrene strip that I cut in half to create the blade look, and attached it to a shaft assembly. The top one rotates, the tail rotor doesn't though. I got lazy. But that pretty much it.

Primed

I present to you, The Airwolf!

Hope you enjoyed it!

Captain MAGpie,

Styrene Addict