Stormraven Gunship Conversion & the “Counts As” Phenomenon
Well true believers, I have managed to just about finish up my Stormraven Conversion. I know, I know, it took like two months but to be fair I did open up a gaming shop in there someplace!
I really tried to put a lot of detail into this puppy and actually rebuilt it twice, as you can see below. I think the second version really catches the “mini thunderhawk” theme I was going for originally.
The difference between my MKI and MKII Stormraven Gunship is quite striking. As you can see I cannibalized a large amount of kits on my project including both a Land Raider and Valkyrie kit- which acted as the base of the model. However in hindsight I’m not sure I actually needed the Land Raider’s “guts”. I also used front of a Pre-Heresy Land Raider from Forge World, and the FW Razorback Twin Lascannon to get the look I was going for.
While all this was costly monetarily it wasn’t really necessary, as the same efffect could be obtained with scratch building or even using different components. Regardless I used what I did mostly cause I had it already, and it was quick both of which work for me!
Now I’m sure by now you’ve taken a closer look and seen the Chaos iconography, and started screaming heresy. Heh, don’t worry this baby isn’t necessarily chaos per ce, its just a “counts as” Blood Angels Stormraven Gunship.
Why? Well besides the point that fluff wise I’m sure the Iron Warriors have captured all sorts of neat stuff, (Tyranid Levithian ship in Storm of Iron anyone)? I just don’t have the time or the drive to paint up and convert both a Loyalist and Renegade marine army. I would MUCH rather keep converting and painting up models to be Chaos, and run them WYSIWYG off which ever Space Marine book I want.
Yes I have a Chaos Vulkan He’stan (you didn’t think the Salamanders had that spear for the last 10,000 years did you)? I have Chaos Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields, heck I even have Chaos Land Speeders, and I sleep very well at night. That’s because its all WYSIWYG, and I can play it for what it is.
So the moral of the story is let your imagination go wild, convert till your heart’ s content as long as its WYSIWYG.
