Gearing up for the new codex! My first Storm Raven

In my opinion, the Storm Raven is the next worst thing to happen to 40k since the Valkrye. But since it is a Blood Angels unit... I LOVE IT! It is payback time for all you IG players out there. You think your Vendetta gunships are cool... how bout 4 missles, a twin linked lascannon and a multi melta, oh and ours carries 12 guys and a dreadnought!

Let the arms race begin. :)

So I played around with a few ways of creating this thing, and I decided on using the rhino chasis as my base, as I'm sure many other guys are too. I thought the Land Raider would be just too big once I got done making it a flyer. Also, I just happened to have a Razorback on my loot shelf. So I began looking for parts to turn it into a plane...

My first stop was Toys R Us. My intent was to buy some cheapo kid toys. You know, the fake GI Joe stuff. No luck at TRU. They only had a few Joe things as well. By the way, what the hell happened to GI Joe? That stuff used to be awesome. It looked sort of futuristic, but it always maintained that 80s military feel. I bought two toys, an Ice Dagger that looked like a snow mobile on crack, and the Night Raven, which is the 2010 remake of the 80s raven... probably the coolest GI Joe toy ever, that had a cockpit that lowered, missles that lowerd, landing gear that lowered, and a drone that attached itself to the back. It was also about 2 feet long. Well this new raven is a piece of CRAP with a capital S. It is shaped like a long rectangle with some missles hanging of the wing shaped back area. I wont get into it, but man, the things they are pushing on the kids nowadays.

Neither of the things were usable. The Ice Dagger was just too big, and it was all one big part too, so I couldnt even use it as armor plates. The raven was a joke.

Back to the drawing board.

Then I did an ebay search for Gi Joe, and instantly came across the old Sky Hawk! It had the twin engine turbine vertical take off engine, and carried one joe. It had skids with a couple of missles and some distinct rectangular stabilizers on the back. It was perfect! Plus, it was about the same width as the rhino, so it should fit nicely.

I started by cutting the tail section off the cockpit of the Sky Hawk. It came off in a nice angular V shape, that would actually help afix it to the back ot the rhino. The angle was perfect. Then I cut out the front of the rhino, which perfectly fit the cockpit. It looks as if the models were made for each other! A liberal dose of super glue and now it is waiting for the next step.

If you look at the pictures, you will see an empty space between the tail and the cockpit. I will use some card to close that gap to make it look like a long fuselage on top of a rhino. I will mount the assault cannon/las cannon under the nose of the ship, and I will mount the heavy bolter/multi melta on top just behind the cockpit. I will use the sponson areas of the rhino to hold the Hurricane bolters, and finally I will add some wings extending out from the top of the rhino, upon which I will afix the missles.

To finish it, I will close up the windows of the cockpit... it is about the right size to hold 12 marines, while the fuselage and rhino will look perfect for a dread. The best part is I just got a butt load of other GI Joe parts that I can also use to make this thing look awesome.