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.


As a model, its very nice. As a kit it seems quite prone to warps and bending of the resin. This was mainly the two main side pieces (left and right hull sections) and a piece that holds the rotatory turrets in place. This is only the usual type of reported problems from Forgeworld, those which can be fixed by holding the piece under hot water and gently bending back. This is something that previous was worried about doing, what if I bend it too much? How hot before the resin starts to loose detail? Although I can't give specific temperatures I can say this is a very easy process and I used my bathroom sink and the hot water tap was sufficient. As mentioned I was in a rush, and at the time I was building the main hull I had not access to hot water, so the slightly warped hull was pinned into place by about 5 or 6 pins on both the left and right sides.

The rest of the hull has a very tight fit (ha! Just the way I like it). The plastic hull section (the piece from the storm raven kit) I had problems fitting it, so I found it easiest to cut bits away and green stuff the gaps back together (as shown right). This can be seen in some of the photos of the raptor. The rear hull and access hatch was the only piece I found to be too small. However as I had already glued the bottom hull and the sides together it was a pain to get in. The main engine blocks, and the front turbine type piece went together fine, and connected to the hull with only small gaps needing to be filled. The engine exhaust was a bit big for the main engine block. I managed to get it to stick with a bit of super glue, but would recommend some green stuff and super glue to make a tighter seal.

The wings came in 5 pieces, four of which are the standard storm raven wings (the wings, vtol thrusters, and missiles). The resin piece was an easy fit and worked naturally with the existing wing parts. The accessories and details all fitted well and only required small amounts of gap filling, and were all self explanatory with where to go. The pilot and cockpit are built as per the storm raven kit.

The assembly for this kit was fairly straight forward, I lost the instructions before I started building it and had no problems. Every piece is quite obvious to where it should go. I would definitely recommend gluing pins into place, and then playing about with the main hull sections, six in total. This will help when you glue each piece into place, ensuring that you get the best fit possible. It also helps to plan out areas that may need greens stuff to fill in gaps early on. I also highlights pieces that may need heat bending back into shape for a better fit. Again with a kit like this, take your time and be patient building this it.

Finally I'll go over the turrets in another article, there very nicely built and fit into the model very well.