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Iron Falcons - Griffin Dropship

33K views 47 replies 29 participants last post by  Cypher871 
#1 · (Edited)
The 40K universe derives a lot of idea's from War and Science Fiction books, films and TV series. Stuff that influenced a lot of us Grey-Beards as youngsters.

I grew up watching Thunderbirds and Space 1999...iconic shows that had a big impact on me at the age of 7. Why am I driveling on about this you may ask? Well, for as long as I have been wanting to make the Hercules Land Raider I have been wanting to make a carrier for it. After all, how else would you get it to a warzone?

Memories of Thunderbird 2 and the Eagles from Space 1999 immediately sprang to mind. Back in 1995 when I first started the concept designs for the Hercules, GW featured a metal Thunderhawk at Games Day - 'how cool would it be to have one of those carrying the Hercules' I thought...little realizing the (original? :nono:) idea FW would come up with years later.

Does this look familiar to anyone? (Heavy Carryall - Battle for Dune 2001)_____________FW Thunderhawk Transporter 2006



Over the years I have toyed with various idea's that ultimately came to nothing. I read Frank Herbert's 'Dune' way back in high school and the Carryall idea has always appealed to me in much the same way as the Eagles from Space 1999 and Thunderbird2 before them...





...and of course the excellent LAATC's from the Clone Wars.




With all these great idea's to draw from, and the recent release of the Storm Raven, I have recently rekindled the idea of producing a carrier for the Hercules. But wait...why just for the Herc? Why not have them as multi-purpose vehicles. My Chapter has a few oddities in it already so I am thinking it won't use Thunderhawk Transporters for ferrying heavy equipment. In truth, I don't think such a heavy lift vehicle fits with the way Marines would deploy...much more likely would be this kind of 'combat drop' or the one seen in Aliens from the Marines Dropship in that film.





Fluff
My idea will be to have a fleet of these Drop-Ships capable of carrying directly into battle, any of the Chapters Tanks or Dreadnoughts. I also have half an idea about them being able to transport armoured bunkers for quickly setting up 'forward operating bases' or deploying squads. Hmmm, possibilities abound :laugh:


Anyway...enough of the theory...you probably want to see what madness I have been getting up to...so without further ado, I give you...


The Griffin Dropship

Despite the Storm Raven being the ugliest model I have seen for a while (with maybe the exception of the Grey Knight Dreadknight :sarcastichand:), the kit does have some merit for conversions.

Whilst I have roughed out some basic concept sketches (which I cannot show cos my scanner is bust) the final design, much like the Hercules, is going to evolve rather than strictly adhere to any fixed plans. I like this kind of approach to my creations and it allows me to try different approaches. As I am just getting started on this project this plog will allow you, my fellow Heretics, to chuck in any idea's you might have that I will shamelessly steal if I like them enough. :secret: :grin:


Ok, the first thing I knew I wanted was a double cockpit in the style of the Apache AH64 Helicopter. This basically involved me bastardising a perfectly good model...no going back now! :shok:





Having cut the cockpit away I also needed to ensure the canopy was cut correctly as it would not be housing the guns or sensors from the original model.







Using a nail file and my scalpel handle as a firm surface I carefully filed the lower canopy lip to an angle that would sit flush against the hull (parallel with the bottom of the cockpit). One thing that irritates me with the Storm Raven is that there is no entrance/exit to the cockpit. I am rectifying that with my model and will have hinges on the upper edges of each canopy to give the impression they can be lifted for ingress/egress in much the same way as a modern fighter jet does.





The next task was to remove all the extra plastic from the outside of the cockpit so that I would essentially have an oblong with some cockpit detailing.





Now I had to make a decision as to exactly where I wanted the cockpit in relation to the original one. Basically it would be sitting where the current turret mount is located. With trusty saw in hand, I set about chopping into the second good hull!





I cleaned up the tool marks using some wet'n'dry fine grit paper.





Next I measured the cockpit and transfered those markings to the upper hull ready for cutting out. I carefully cleaned up the chop marks, working closer and closer to the tolerence, test fitting the cockpit after each bit of filing till I got a nice snug fit.







Unfortunately, one of the dangers of working late into the night is you become prone to making mistakes. I fracked it up! I had measured the length of the top plate for some bizarre reason so now I had a gap at the back of the cockpit, Grrr. :mad: Not an insurmountable problem but irritating nonetheless.





I positioned the cockpit where I wanted it and glued in place.





Ok, that's where I am at photo-wise. I have actually done a bit more work since then but not had time to pull the photo's of the camera yet. Will post up some more soon.

Cheers.

Cypher
 
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#7 ·
When I read the title for the thread I immediately felt a growing sense of anticipation. Anthor fantastic Cypher creation. Love the concept and fluff, and your progress so far makes me want to see more. Good work buddy!
 
#14 · (Edited)
I've never been into Halo but I took a look as you suggested...that's kinda freaky, it's similar to what I have in mind for the Griffin though not as rounded. :shok:

Cheers.



Ok, here's a quick update...I have not done much more with the model and I am a bit despondent at the moment. As the healing process continues from my operation I find it really uncomfortable to sit and do any modeling so I am confined to reading and typing for the time being.

This is all stuff I did before my op but didn't have time to put up the photo's.

With the cockpits at a stage I was happy with I moved onto the primary hull. I knew it was far too skinny, as it stood, to look like it would have the 'grunt' to lift a Land Raider so widening it was the only real option.

As the basic shape was already ok (I do want the model to have some recognisable similarities to a Thunderhawk) I saw little benefit in re-inventing the wheel and set about measuring a Land Raider.

When one of these things hits the atmosphere it's gonna heat up. Land Raiders are not designed to withstand that kind of friction so the Griffin has to be wide enough to take the brunt of those kinds of forces. Actually, despite making the hull at least as wide as a Raider I still screwed up as I didn't take into account the damned sponsons so I will have to address that at some point...:ireful2:

Anyway, measurements of the Raider and the existing Raven hull complete I set about chopping up the rear hull plates to make one big one.





Because of the angles of the hull sides I decided it would be easier to glue in place the correct hull floor and use plasticard strips to fill in the gaps so I cut the floor into 3 sections. What I found was that the other hull floor then quite neatly sat inside the two outer strips and would just need a little filling with my plastic filler method and maybe some plastic half-rod.





The most annoying bit of this project so far was getting the angles right on the plasticard I used to extend the upper hull. Trial and error won out in the end though.





And this is what it looks like at the moment. I am itching to get back to it...I will just have to be patient for the time being.

 
#18 ·
Hey Cypher, one more well wish for you and the drop ship!

Kreuger
 
#22 ·
Cheers Rev. :grin:


Today I have been giving a bit of thought to how the Dropship will operate in atmosphere and space. You can completely suspend belief with Alien tech or advanced human tech such as anti-grav...it's completely made up so anything goes. However, looking at the design of flyers created by GW and FW for the Imperium's armies (both Guard and Astartes) they are based on current flying machines, which in turn obey certain physical laws.

If you are going to do this kind of thing you should have the fluff to explain how it works, so here is my interpretation of how I think my flyer will operate.

I am going to build the main wings from the two kits I have butchered, however, I intend to fill in the flaps on the trailing edges and remove the big silly hinges :)laugh: wonder which muppet thought up that design faux-pas...screw jacks are used to motor flaps and slats in and out, not hinges :laugh:).

I intend to mount independently moving 'Canards' on the main hull...these will provide the pitch and roll allowing the ship to manoeuvre in atmosphere whilst the main engines will also utilise vectoring to give enhanced stability. The thrust nozzles will allow for the VTOL aspect of putting the cargo down quickly.

I also thought about how the engines will work. All the Imperium's flyers seem to have engines with intake fans which would suggest that they use oxygen or other gases to mix with a fuel component (whatever they use in the 41st Millennium) in exactly the same way a current jet engine works.

This got me thinking. How the hell does a Thunderhawk or a Storm Raven keep the engines running when they exit a planets atmosphere?

Well, here is my design.





Each Griffin has large storage tanks (located in the aft hull) that contain highly compressed liquid gas for mixing with the fuel. Whilst in space the main intake and compressors are locked. The highly pressurised gas is squirted directly into the combustion chamber with the fuel to provide the required thrust.

Once in the atmosphere of a planet the intake fan and compressors are unlocked and natural airflow does the rest. The incoming air is laser scrubbed for impurities to prevent fouling of the compressors and the gas storage tanks will self top-up. Rough, I know, but at least half-plausible I think. :laugh: I would imagine that the fuel's of the 41st Millennium would be useable with a large spread of gases, not just oxygen. Naturally the tanks would provide enough compressed gas for extended operations on moons and planets with no atmospheres.
 
#25 ·
totally epic project dude, really eager top see how this one turns out. i like the logic on the engine, i basically reached the same comclusion as you on the engines, the only lopgical mean to make a turbine work in a void is to use your own source of expandable gasses. also, remember that you dont need anywhere near as much air in the void to maintain speeds as your not working against friction so you could plausably only use the turbine its self for short bursts without suffering from any loss in speed, so its more plausable than you might at first think as you wouldnt need to carry a massive volume of liuquid o2 etc to maintain a solid speed. you have any other big projects like this? id love to check them out.. i like the attention to detail nice stuff :D
 
#27 ·
Thanks for the comments everyone.

I have been playing around with a few basic concepts but have narrowed the loose designs down to two formats. I am leaning much more to the revamped MKII version with the cockpits mounted at the rear of Dropship.

The engine configurations are not set in stone and I will go with what I think looks best when I come to do it for real. Instead of having the engines open I am thinking about making some intakes to give it a little bit of a sleeker design.

I still like the original design but it 's good to have options. What do you guys think?



 
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