Fliers.
Everyone’s
talking about fliers. Games Workshop
released some gorgeous ones, and I’m lucky that it happened right around my
birthday, so my Necron Overlord now has two Scythes at his beck and call
(thanks to Marcus and my lovely lady). I
still wanted to try to make something, though, preferably on the Imperial side
of things.
It turns
out Jeff Vaughn--the guy behind the fantastic Malcador and Baneblade models
I’ve worked on--also did a template for a Thunderbolt which is available over at the BWC Archives. Like his previous stuff, it’s a very solid
model that isn’t cluttered with details.
Easy to understand, easy to build.
And let’s
be honest—after Dan Abnett’s Double Eagle a good chunk of us wanted to
field a full squadron of fliers. Not one
or two models that we call a squadron, but a full-on group. A squadron that can rain death down on the
battlefield or take out Matt’s Warlord Titan with a few
passes.
Did I say
that last bit out loud...?
Anyway...
So, for
this post, I’m building three Thunderbolts side by side.
Be aware
right up front, this template makes a Thunderbolt that’s about 2/3 the size of
the Forge World model (which is about 11” wide (wingspan) x 10” long). You need to enlarge it to about 150%, which
will give you something almost spot-on to the true model. If your printer lets you go big, you can get
most of it going corner to corner.
Helpful
Hint – I took my templates to the local Fed Ex/ Kinkos and used the
photocopiers there. They have oversized
11”x17” paper (they call it “tabloid-sized”) which will fit these designs
perfectly. I got three sets of 150%
sized templates for just $1.70. So
that’s sixty cents per Thunderbolt.
Alternately,
you can build it at the existing scale and just tell your friends it’s very
high up in the air. Just remember you’re
doing that while you follow along and cut all my custom measurements by a
third.
Because of
the size, I couldn’t paste these pages to one piece of cardstock, so I had to
cut the different elements apart in advance.
Then it was just some basic work with a glue stick while Iron Man
played in the background. I found the
main fuselage went well corner to corner on a pizza box, and the secondary
fuselage goes side to side. All the
other elements could fit with no real problem.
Once they
were in place, it was time to start cutting.
I started with the main fuselage.
It’s big, but it’s also about half of the work.
This is one
of those templates that looks intimidating because it’s got a single piece with
a lot of sections in it on it. Well,
first off, the Thunderbolt fuselage only has thirty or so scores that need to
be cut. Total. That’s it.
Second thing is, they’re almost all on the same side. Praise where praise is due,
Jeff Vaughn made a phenomenal and very easy to use template.
Before I did
anything, though, I added a few tabs to the template at key points around the
fuselage. These can be rough, quick
things—they’re never going to be seen.
They just need to be wide enough to hold some glue.
I’m not
putting tabs everywhere, like I have on some previous models. The tabs do affect the thickness and the
folds at points, and I’m worried how that could work on some of the fold-heavy
places like the nose. So I’m going to try
something new there, which I’ll get to soon enough.
This
is Important—Remember when I said the scores are almost all on
the same side? These are a couple of the
ones that aren’t scattered through this template, and I’ll try to identify all
of them. On the main fuselage there’s
two lines in the nose structure and two along the tail. Make sure these lines get scored on the
opposite side.
The bulk of
this went together without any real problems.
It took me about thirty minutes each to cut out the main fuselage
sections (making three of these at the same time, remember), and then another
twenty for scoring. So call it three
hours to get all three sections ready for folding and gluing. Then I worked through and glued the tabs,
rotating my clothespins from one fuselage to the next as I went.
Helpful
Hint – Make sure your creases are good and solid. Because a lot of these are shallow folds,
there’s an instinct to go easy on them.
Go deep with the folds, because the card is going to straighten out
naturally and the actual shape of the assembled fuselage will hold it in
place. Better to go too deep and have to
push it out than too shallow and have no way to fold it deeper
Once all
three were dry, I took a good look at the nose section. I knew it was going to take a bit of work
because there are so many fine lines that a score just being a little off could
make elements not line up right here.
This is also why I didn’t want to be dealing with tabs for this part.
Instead, I
cut a few strips of white paper (plenty of it leftover from the templates) and
started using them like patches, or even paper mache. I’ve used a similar method a few times before
to cover small gaps and imperfections in models. I held the nose sections in position, added a
drop of glue, and pushed the paper over it.
I used a hobby knife to make sure the paper sat flat on the card and
went into the corners.
Helpful
Hint –the paper soaks up glue a lot faster than the cardstock and
becomes soft. As a result, you need to
wait longer so this can get drier or those little pieces will pop apart like...
well, wet paper. This requires a bit of
patience, but the results are fantastic.
Rather than
do one whole nose, I’d do the same patch on each fuselage and work my way
through, giving them more time to dry. Each
nose needed about four pieces to make it solid.
This probably took close to an hour and a half altogether, but it was
worth it. This let me straighten a few
pieces and make sure everything lined up well.
If there are a few gaps, they’ll end up getting hidden by the
lascannons.
Once they
were done I put the tail section together the same way. I put down a bead of glue and ran a strip of
paper along the inside. The hobby knife
let me work it into position.
That gave
me three pretty solid main fuselage sections.
Next time I’m going to work on the weapons mount and the secondary
fuselage, and hopefully get the wings attached.
Do you have another place for the blue prints? Tried to join the group but still no luck joining after 2 weeks. :(
ReplyDeleteYeah, they can be really slow about that. Sorry. I'd pester them again. It took me about a week before I was approved for the main archive, but then almost a month for the BWC2.
DeleteI might just put all the templates I work with up somewhere. Either tie them to the posts or make a little separate archive. I'll make an announcement when I do.
Still no word. Wrote anoter email. but i am losing faith. :( if you had some up that wold be great as another source.
ReplyDeleteAlready up, Anon, and the Thunderbolt is in there. Check the front page of the blog.
DeleteThank you!
DeleteHi. Where can I find the complete templates to build the model?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about "complete," Luca, but you can find the sametemplate I used here--
Deletehttp://thegrimcheapness.blogspot.com/2013/10/standard-template-construction.html
Hello, where are the templates available? Perphaps you still have a copy of them?
ReplyDeleteThank you
Errrrrr... well, like it says right in the post, the template's available over at the BWC Archive.
DeleteI think it might be in the STC Archive, too, but I'm not sure about that.