Fire Raptor kit overview

 

So when I bought this kit I was amazed by it. It's the first big kit I've bought from either Gamesworkshop or Forgeworld, I think the next largest kit was a rhino. I toyed with the idea of buying it for a while and finally purchased it to use in a tournament. A had about two days to get the kit to a playable state, so early on in the project it was a rushed and frustrating job. I would definitely recommend spending some time on this kit and spending as much time as needed to get it right.

I knew from the beginning this was going to be converted in some way, however for the tournament I was aiming on just a ready to play build with the converting coming later. The design specification I had in mind was the following:-

1) To give it a scenic base - the flyer base is the largest in 40k and is a large space to leave empty
2) Keep to the Dark Angels aesthetic - although a nice model, the raptor is chapter generic (with good reason), I wanted to make this tie in with the rest of the army
3) Emphasis the Relic of the armoury rule on the model - the raptors are old vehicles, with lost STCs, and so I wanted this to show on the model.
4) Make the model stand out against other flyers - I wanted this flyer to look like it maintained air superiority, I wanted it to stand out against other flyer, but was not sure how.

I'll explain each point more later on in another post.