HERMES Air Assault

[Klaus not Santa]

Hi all,
now that I finally finished my shelf queen ATHENA I have time to tackle new ideas.
As previously mentioned I have an idea for a dio with a militarized version of the HERMES conducting an air assault and dropping off some troops.

The first sketch for the MkII version shows the new nose and the chin mounted mini-gun.


I had the mini-gun already built a few weeks ago for the "Meeting of Scouts" diorama but didn't use it. So now it will be a part of the new HERMES.


Since the pieces are almost identical to the original HERMES the build was pretty fast.


Here's a comparison between the MkI and MkII


Next up were the wings and rotatable fins.



As usual the generous help of Green Putty was required



I changed the details a bit and here you can see the rear fin being rotated to a "forward" position, while the front fin is rotated to the "landing" position.



But for the diorama both will be in the landing position.


The MkII also received two auto-cannons for the wings.


The start of the rear/main thruster.


Not exactly the same as on the MkI


But looks similar


Then I built the thrusters for the nose and underbelly


But they were too high - not looking good!


So I built another set of thrusters and they are now the same height as the MkI HERMES.


Next I added some details to the chin gun - mainly the ammo feed.


The pilots windows are also a bit different form the original ones.


Finally I built some rocket launchers for under the wings.


Only 7 shots each, but a nice extra punch I think.


And they look good on the HERMES.


This is as far as I got
I hope you like it.

Cheers

Klaus

 

[Quaralane]

Off to another very nice bit of scratchbuilding, I see

 

[Klaus not Santa]

Thank you Quaralane

In case you haven't seen it, I merged all ATHENA posts into one page:

http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.de/p/athena.html

But be warned, it is huge and will take a long time to load.

The build of the HERMES continued over the last few days, and I think I made good progress.
First I added the intake fan.


Then the first armor panels and the front grill.


More panels.


After that I started to build up the passenger pod.


Fits snugly under the body.


Other than the VIP pod, this one has sliding doors.



As Malevengion commented:

One thing I wonder about the HERMES design is how is it intended to maneuver? It's got plenty of thrust and vectored thrust nozzles for VTOL capability but seems a bit light on control surfaces. Of course, it's a bit of a roar in there and cause carnage sort of aircraft so it works (and it's looking good too!) but that's just my take. I look forward to seeing this diorama come along!

Maneuver? We're Imperial Guard! We only go straight! And we're only going forward 'cause we can't find reverse

Just kidding.
I added some flaps to the fins (top and side) that should allow some additional maneuver force to the various thrusters.


With most of the inside completed I worked on the passenger pod.
First was the bench.


GreenStuff for the cushions.


And some holders/handles for the seats (in open position).


Mounted together with some grab handles.


Almost done!


Still needs the lights and a million of rivets
I really like this version of the HERMES.

What do you think?
Cheers

klaus

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely a troop carrier this go around

 

[Klaus not Santa]

Hi all,

thank you Quaralane.

In my part of Germany the summer is very hot and very humid - murky - and we have quite a lot thunderstorms.
One could say Germany now has "rainy season".
It makes working and live a bit exhausting, breaking sweat just by moving a finger

But I got to work a bit more on the HERMES.
I started off with cutting the wood to the base size (30x30cm).


Then I built up the mountain on which the air assault is to happen.
I used Styrofoam as base.


And covered everything up with cheap masking tape.


I want it to look as if the HERMES is hovering above ground while unloading the troops.


Once satisfied with everything I covered it with instant plaster.


And while the plaster was still wet I added sand and little rocks. The sand is standard bird cage sand and some small black deco rocks.


The HERMES on the cured mountain section.



While the plaster cured I started to build some assault rifles and dismantled heavy weapons.
You can see I folded the tripod for the heavy Bolter and mounted the bi-pod for the mortar to the tube in a folded position.


Next I started to position the troops.


As you can see there's still a lot to do, much, much cleanup.


What do you think so far?
Cheers
Klaus

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely taking shape

 

[Grendels]

Looking good!

 

[Bouq]

Looking great!!

 

[jake]

awesome scratch building, Cant wait for some primer shots.