Vulture Gunship Conversion

Ok, this is a relatively easy conversion, but it was bar none the longest conversion I have ever spent my time to make, but god was it worth it. Really its still not finished as I still need one more Hunter Killer (the new HKs, not the old stubby things) to make the second set of 3 for the other wing.

One thing to note, I’m a very unconventional man when it comes to the Materials I use in my convertions…..I literally use anything lying around the house…..but I’ll put in suggestions to the materials you could use.




and sorry that there arent any real WiP pictures, but im not the type of person who makes WiP pictures, but i suppose that will have to change now, wont it?? lol

Oh, and one final note. This requires a little skill with Green Stuff, most just for patching stuff, and gluing stuff together. Super glue just doesnt work fast enough sometimes....lol

Anyway,  lets start with the basics. A list of the 'conventional' materials you’ll need:

Valkyrie Box Set
Plasticard Tubes
Plasticard
And Green Stuff (Lots and Lots of GS. I went through at least 4 Packets of the stuff)

And here is the list of the stuff I used:
Valkyrie Box
Toilet Roll Tubes
Inhaler cases
White Tack (it sticks better than GS.)
Cardboard

Ok, first thing you need to do, is build up the Nose, and Wings from the Valkyrie set. Once you have the nose section done, you have to cut away the bottom part of the nose, as demonstrated in the picture, for the Nose Mounted Heavy Bolter.

Once that is done, patch up the gaps your left with, with Cardboard/Plasticard. For the HB turret, I used the bottom grip of the GW Plastic Glue Lid, as it is just about the right size. The only down side to using the lid, is that nothing will stick to it without super glue/GS, so if you have any plasticard tubes around use it instead.
As for the HB, I use the front end of the sponson HBs you get in the set.
And that’s about it for the nose of the Vulture.

Now to the engine. This is where the toilet roll tube comes in. It is the perfect size for the front air intake/fan section. Cut off a 20mm section off, and glue it to the top of the vents, just behind the Navigator’s seat, and to the back of the nose section. For the bit you can see between the fans and the outer casing, to make that you have to cut out a circle to the same radius of tube. Then draw another circle, 5mm away from the edge and cut it out, then glue it to the toilet roll tube.

Now for the fan blades you could make them out of cardboard/plasticard, and stick them in behind the vents and fill in the gaps using GS, but what I did was leave the fans to the end and just made the fans from GS (I actually used the White Tack and poured Super Glue over it, but I had ran out of GS and didn’t want to pay for more from GW)














The next step is to make the longer section of the engine. For this part I used two Inhaler Cases, and use GS for the detail work on top. But I could have saved myself the bother with the Inhaler tubes, if I had of thought of using another toilet roll tube…..lol
Using this method, I would have cut down the length of the tube, so as I could roll it back up to the size I needed, and glue it at that size.
Next you would need to cut out a cardboard circle, the same size of the fan encasing. then cut a smaller circle the same size as your longer engine component (this will allow you to put the longer engine component through and keep it steady.) and glue it to the back of the fan section.
While you wait for that to dry, look in the Valkyrie set for the hose things that are usually glued to the Valkyrie engines, and glue them onto the longer part of the engine, as demonstrated in the picture.

One more thing you need to do, is attach the bottom part of the nose section to Engine. What I used here was the plastic piece that normally goes between the two Engines on the Valkyrie. I glued the widest end to the nose section. The thinnest end will need to be cut into to fit properly to the engine, then glue or GS it into place.
Also, this is the best place to put the Aircraft stand slot.

Now to the Wings and Tail of the Vulture.
Once the Engine section is completely dry, use GS to glue the Wings onto the Engine, you can see in the pictures that I have GSed braces running along the long part that connects the wings to the tail (you don’t have to do that, but I found it has given the wings some extra support). You may also need to trim away the part of the of that long thing that connects the wings to the Tail so as it fits around the fan encasement, as demonstrated, in the picture above left.



For the tail end, all that needs be done for the centre section is cut it down till it fits into the gap you are left with when the wings are glued on. The last piece of plastic you need to cut up is the top part of the things that normally go onto the top and bottom of the long part (yeah I know what I’m talking about…..lol. Just use the pictures to make sense of my nonsense…lol) cut away the long part of that top thing, and glue it onto the bottom one.  

Now for the tricky part, cut out some 4 lengths of  15mm of sprue, from the clear plastic window sprue, and glue them to the end of the long thing connecting the Wings to the tail, so as they are parallel to the centre part. When it has dried, and don’t attempt to work while it is nearly dry…..just wait, believe me you don’t want the hassle….wrap some card board around the 2 pieces of sprue, and super glue it in place. When that is done, and dried, glue the 2 end parts to the sprue. Leave them to dry. When they are, cake the extra wing part in GS. Make sure you get some of it onto the plastic sections, just for added strength.



by this point you should have something that looks like this. (mind you at this stage i hadnt put any details on it. first really big conversion i made so i had to use trail and error to work out the best things to do first)

The Underbelly needs a talking about now.
As you go along your going to notice the underside doesn’t quite look right….so all you need to do is apply some Cardboard/Plasticard to fill out the body work, and GS over it for a smooth render.

And that Ladies and Gentlemen, is how you make a Vulture Gunship. You will need to add the details in using Green Stuff, of course but I cant really show you how to do that…you all know what the details are and if you dont the model is on FW for reference.....lol.
Oh, and the stand may have to be modified slightly because of the position of the slot for it on the Vulture. It makes the plane look as though it is climbing instead of pointing in a downwards elevation as you would expect. you may even want to drill into the model to place a custom stand in, instead. i still have trouble with my Vulture actually staying put.

But more or less  you will have built yourself a Vulture