Xeones tries to fix the Stormraven

[Xeones]

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. Nice to see a lot of new faces since this site went live. It looks like a nice little community is starting to develop here.

The reason I'm posting is that I need some opinions on the project I'm currently working on. But first, a little background:

When the rules for the Stormraven originally came out, I was really excited. I liked the idea of a mini Thunderhawk that would actually be usable in normal games of 40K. I felt it brought marines closer to how I imagined them in the fluff --as shock troops suddenly appearing in T-hawks and Drop Pods, using a small force to achieve victory by localized superiority. But I digress...

Without any artwork or indication of what a Stormraven looked like, I decided to create my own concept. The result of my musings was this:



Then I saw the first leaked image of the actual model and I was, shall we say, less than impressed. In an attempt to create something that looked acceptable to my own design sensibilities, I Photoshopped the leaked image like this:



As you can see, the nose of the Photoshop image is pretty similar in style to my original concept and also retains the canards, turret, and Landspeeder-esque tail as well.

Once I finally saw the kit for myself, I could see that even these adjustments would not be enough in and of themselves so I'm in the process of some much more ambitious modifications.

Fast forward to the present, I'm in the middle of my conversion and I'm about ready to work on the nose, but now I'm doubting my initial idea. I like the sloped sides since it makes it look more like my concept SR, but it doesn't meld as smoothly into the GW design and having it be more flat across the top would help it to appear more closely related to the Thunderhawk.

So my fellow modelers, my question is this:
Of the two images below, which nose style do you prefer? Flat? Or angled?


Thanks for looking. I'll post my actual progress on the model when I get a little further along.

--X

[mangozac]

Hey Xeones! How exciting to see you modelling again! The Storm Raven is indeed a worthy subject for improvement and I do like your "mini Thunderhawk" concept - much better than the silly looking GW model!

Following the existing lines of the hull, the "flat" nose (on the right) seems more correct. It's also however very boring and boxy looking, so I prefer the angled nose on the left. It kind of reminds me of a Lucious Warhound actually (a good thing)!

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses!

[factor40]

I agree, the angled nose is better. Good work there!

[Munkey Joe]

Lets 3rd that then....

I HATE the stormraven model, but yours does have some appeal. Nice work guy!

[Xeones]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I must admit I'm a little surprised that there isn't more support for the flat nose style --though I've already discussed the options with Vaaish and he said he prefers the flat. So that's 3 votes for the angled and 1 vote for the flat. Anyone else feel like weighing in on the issue?

Last night I was able to get a bit further on some other portions of the model. Now the canopy has been armored and it looks pretty good. That means that, really, the only thing left to do in the front is the nose and then a bit of detailing. I'll probably post an image once the nose is done. The back is going to be almost entirely scratch-built though so that's going to take a while to do --especially at the pace at which I typically work!

[Hatemonger]

I think the flat nose better matches the Thunderhawk style.

I think the angled one is more interesting on its own.

Both are good, depending on the type of look you're trying to achieve.

- H8

[mangozac]

[Xeones]

Alright Zac you sly so-and-so. I see what you're up to!
Well, maybe I can manage to take some pictures in a day or two, but no promises. I think I'm going to cut some shapes out of card stock and proxy them out. That'll probably help everyone get a better idea of where things stand and how it looks in conjunction to what I've done so far.

[Xeones]

OK, here we go. Here's the progress on the front so far:


So now it's a matter of figuring out the nose. Not much else to say really. It's pretty self-explanatory. Maybe that helps a bit with the context though?

--X

edit: Oh, obviously I didn't get a chance to do some cut-outs in card stock, but I'll get around to that eventually...

[mangozac]

You know looking at the actual model I think Vaaish might be right. As much as the angled nose would give an interesting (and suitable) shape, after assessing the current styling of the prow the flat style nose is going to best match the lines.

[factor40]

I have to agree, flat seems the better choice when I look at the actual model.

[Xeones]

Oh I see, so now everyone wants to change their answers

OK, so it sounds like you're saying that the flat is maybe not ideal but it's probably a better fit overall. I totally get what you are saying. The angled one is more interesting but doesn't fit as well, and the flat one is less interesting but fits the current model better. So I guess now my question is this: Do you see any way that I can either make the flat nose more interesting (by layering panel detail or whatever) OR is there a way that I can make the angled nose blend better with the rest of the model?

By the way, here's a little more fuel to the fire. This guy did the angled nose based on my Photoshopped image. He really did a pretty good job of working it out from the picture.




Do you suppose it would help if I added some searchlights or sensors to those small triangles that are created when the angled nose is used? Or maybe I should work on adding some sort of visual interest to the flat styled nose instead...

While we debate that point, does anyone have an opinion on what I've done so far?

[SSB]

As I am not inscribed on the website, I can't see the images.
If you can directly post the images...

[Xeones]

Sorry. I didn't realize they weren't viewable by non-members. So here are some images of his conversion. Just to be clear, this is not my work. It does, however, generally illustrate the direction I was initially thinking about heading. I'd be adding a bit more detail though and probably add some tech-y bits to blend the transition between the blocky stepped fuselage and sloped nose.


As you can see, he's retained the "cheek" thrusters, didn't add the canards, etc...

[mangozac]

Certainly the angled nose works well on the model with the "cheek thrusters". There's still a slight discontinuity where the angled parts meet the existing hull either side of the cockpit though, and that's the main reason shy I conceded that the flat nose works better.

I'm sure layered panel details would help add interest to the flat nose.

I really like what you've done so far, especially with the cockpit. Do you have any plans for the areas where the "cheek" thrusters used to be so that that area isn't left looking so boxy? Are you still planning to elongate the hull behind the cockpit as per your original concept?