Arvus Lighter Conversion

I call it the 'Bug'.
That might be because its a 'bugabout' to get from A-Z, could be the mandible-like cabin,  could be because its small and flits around the place, but for whatever reason, when I look at this thing I think 'Bug'

 

So while having a look at ways to expand my Mortalis set I realised that I liked the idea of a landing bay and the associated debris and things that would come with it (and will look to get the Forgeworld one). Central to any landing bay however is something landed! Here is my Mechanicum Shuttle, come Arvus Lighter, that I'm halfway completed.

Another reason to get into a gaming group is that this is where I inherited a broken down Valkyrie, which had been sprayed or painted with a horrendous texture to it. Its feet had been broken off and the fins were fairly degraded, coupled with some huge holes where the glue had degraded the plastic it was time for a refurb.

As I wanted a bridging point between 30k and 40k I figured the Arvus sits nicely between the two, as the Sons of Sek could use it as a Plenipotentiary's shuttle, and the Mechanicum can use it as a Castellax delivery service. Both legally in game too.

So, with that in mind, I Razor saw-ed the wings down, broke off the rear fins and the remaining feet, removed the cockpit and the major Valkyrie-apparent bits and set to work. 

The Cockpit I wanted to be abrupt and short, like the Arvus. So I turned the front of a dreadnought's Sarcophagus upside-down and mounted a gunshield from the Ballistarius strider thing (new Mechanicus walker) over the major distinguishing marks. Not so carefully trimming the old Valkyrie canopy down to a better size I then added some panels to cover some major glue-holes and attached it all. 

The canopy will be painted over, so there was little need to include interior detail.

The chin-turret is a Daemon-head command module from the Apocalypse upgrade kit, with two leftover Lascannons, and another gun shield. It was tempting to have it swivel and I might still alter its incline to show the weapons descended and sagging at rest.

Around the edges of the craft I was determined for it to be functional, with louvres and flaps that appeared to really add to the function. Off on a raid the really interesting parts of the bits box went I and came back with some interesting feet (rather than the classic skids that you get). 

Legs and feet provided by the Mechanicum. The green stuff will be trimmed off when its set.

I added a few token Mechanicum bits for structure, but the the wings seemed fairly well set.

I'll attempt to open the ramp when I fill in the gaps will Milliput, and add a few more touches for Mechanicum-ness. 

Alongside this, I'll make some debris and tooling to make the landing pad more interesting.




More to follow