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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
-Tommi/Garoth