Monday, June 10, 2013

revamping the StormTater... er StormTalon

Okay so I've been experimenting with the Storm Talon in my army lately. I still hate the model but it's performance has been really good, too good to ignore so I'm going to build a squadron of three of these birdies. But I hate the model. So what am I going to do? What any sensible converter would do: Re-make it!

Here's why I'm posting. Feed back and suggestions for where and how to go about accomplishing this. I'm leaning toward something more like a cross between the Apache helocopter and the Banshee Bomber from StarCraft II.

Visual references for those who do not know what I am talking about:
AH-64D Apache Attack Chopper

Banshee Bomber from StarCraft 2
Banshee Bomber from StarCraft 2
So, those are the two craft I like parts and pieces of and want to draw from to craft a new version of the Storm Talon. So I went into Photoshop and started working on it. I began with the Banshee, thinking I could take the paper-craft models I've seen around the net and modify them as needed.
Version 1 for a revamps Storm Talon based on the Banshee from StarCraft 2
Version 1 for a revamped Storm Talon



So I extended the tail rotor, and added the Talon's engines. It's an OK start but I feel like I'm loosing too much of the Space Marine in this approach.

So I started working with the Talon itself:
Version 2 for a revamped StormTalon based on the actual StormTalon model from Games Workshop
Version 2 for a revamped Storm Talon
 And did the first obvious thing: Extended the tail. Okay that helps a fair amount, but there's still more to accomplish with it. So I continued working and came up with what I'm calling Version 2.1:
version 2.1 for a revamped Storm Talon model this one with a different Assault cannon style
Version 2.1
 I like the smaller assault cannon and pairing it with some sort of scanner array, I think I can get away with calling it Twin-linked. But this didn't work for me. So I went to the Apache for reference and started looking at a couple things.
version 2.2 of a revamped model for the StormTalon this time with a tail roter and gimble mounted assault cannon.
Version 2.2

Which gives rise to Version 2.2. Still keeping the smaller assault cannon but and mounting it more or less where the huge clucky Twin-linked one was. I'm going to build a better mount for it, one that will allow the entire weapon to rotate and elevate more like what's on the Apache. I want to build the nose so it has the 2-axis rotational sensor array in it like the apache but I wasn't sure how to accomplish that with the drawings. Definitely getting closer to that "attack chopper" feet with it but still not there so I went back to Photoshop and continued working on it.

version 2.3 for a revamped Storm Talon now with a re-designed nose, sensor array, and landing skids.
Version 2.3
I fixed the tail so it wasn't so massively huge and re-designed the nose to accommodate a different style of sensor array. I added the landing skids but I'm not sold on them. I could also just have the skids in a retracted fashion, like the mounting arms retract up into the main body when the Talon's in flight.

But that's roughly where I am now with my design work on it. Thoughts? Post 'em in the comment.

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