Thunderhawk Gunship
This project completely came out of nowhere! After speaking with a friend who recently got a Bambu X1 Carbon printer and wanted to really try it out on a big project, I thought of what I could add to my Horus Heresy Imperial Fists. While I've never really considered buying any of Forgeworlds mega expensive models, they sure are impressive. So after a quick search on Cults 3D I found Nordwand's Deliverance Pattern Heavy Assault Gunship and thought it looked like a great project!
Nordwand's 3d model is set up more like a model kit than a wargaming miniature with lots of individual parts. It took me a long time to get all the print plates set up with the many pieces of the kit. I then printed most of the small parts on my Elegoo Mars Pro II. Then in just a few days all the parts were finished, and it only took a single roll of the cheapest Bambu filament! 3D printing consistently blows my mind with how quickly technology is progressing!
Originally, I had grand plans on magnetizing parts of the hull to reveal the detailed interiors and have marines preparing to disembark. However, I quickly reeled myself in and remembered that I have very little time and a mountain of projects to finish. So, I instead decided to focus on a detailed cockpit as a mini diorama and eventually some troops at the assault ramp.
I modified various 3d marines to make my crew miniatures. I can do minor changes to stl files but am not skilled enough to make models from scratch.
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| Only some of the first batch of printed parts! |
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| The fuselage assembled. |
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| I wanted to make sure I had a detailed cockpit. |
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| I was very happy to get a clear canopy printed. |
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| I was assembling everything as they came off the plates. |
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| The completed gunship. |
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| Still working on the crew. |
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| Had to do some work to get the assault ramp to open easily. |
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| First round of paint. |
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| Bright, but I plan on weathering it. |
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| Painted, with no decals. |
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| Complete with weathering and decals. |
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| The transparent cockpit turned out great. |
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| This will mainly be used as terrain, but I still love it! |
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| Ready to make landfall! |
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| I am happy with how the cockpit turned out. |
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| I'll have to make some other photos as there are a lot of extra details in the cockpit. |
I've never bought a FDM printer due to the layer lines, but this Thunderhawk has proven to me that the technology is definitely there to print miniatures with incredible detail on a FDM printer!
At the end of the day, I could not be happier with this project and how it turned out. With very limited time to build and paint, I have far too many projects that get boxed away unfinished, I'm very glad this one was completed.
