Bashing the Avengers Quinjet toy into a Dropship. Update 13th May.

[6milPhil]

I've been wandering around the ethernet looking at dropships, most of the ones on offer seemed a little small so I started looking more at converting a toy and on seeing someone recommend the Avengers Quinjet from some film I've not seen thought I'd go and have a look in Argos, lo and behold they've reduced the price from £25 to £15 and my local branch had one left which I grabbed before some child was made happy with it.



It comes with an Iron Man toy which I immediately passed onto Captain Stinky, so the first thing I had to do was the obvious...



That done it was time to tart up the components. The first pieces were the rear wing section, having removed some unfeatured yellow lumps I noticed how the wing top suffered from mould pull and the rotor was really visible so I slapped on some liquid green stuff. There's not a lot of difference this will make even when sanded, it's limited by the softness of the plastic, but I'd rather slightly rough wing to rotor detail.



Next up I hacked off the landing gear. Here it is next to a figure, and it looks to me more like a wheel from a Mini Cooper than something which might hold a Dropship up. It also made the craft sit very low on the table... what were the designers thinking... this isn't a toy!




So I hacked together a landing leg which fits the need a little better, I'll cast three of these.


Meanwhile on the main body I decided to lock the cockpit in the up position which as you can't get deep into the toy has to be done at the join via the top. I've put both superglue and UHU down this crack in a boots and braces approach.



While on the bottom of the cockpit the wheel well has to be filled. I want the landing legs I built to be quite high, I like the idea of being able to get figures underneath the craft if possible, it gives a suggestion of scale.



On the side there's a retracable hook in which to clip your Iron Man toy, I've hacked this off and glued the remaining internal stalk in place.



This leaves the outer piece of this side with a hole.



So I knocked together a shutter to fill it, watching out to maintain the clearance so the piece it's going onto will still fit.



This side piece also needs re-enforcing to hold the new landing legs. Starting with some plasticard.



And then filled it with milliput to make it stronger.



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[Predatorpt]

GRRRRRRR  Here in Portugal is still costs 60€!

Can't wait to see what you're going to do with it 

[supervike]

Excellent!!

Please show us more!

[Vermis]

So I hacked together a landing leg

As you do...

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Yarp!  Excellent.

[6milPhil]

I had quite a productive weekend with this, so here's an update

These are part of the wings, with the green stuff sanded down to cover the mould pull.



First cast of the new landing legs, quite acceptable.



Next was fixing the wings, there's three options: up, down and kind of straight. To limit the footprint and to allow figure movement under the wings I went for up.



They were superglued in place and the gaps around the hinges filled.



Next onto the paint on the rear wing sections, sadly Vallejo bright colours are a real struggle to get a constant colour the red needed three coats, while the yellow needed six. To get the lines straight I cut very gentle grooves into the wing, which really helped.



Next some paint onto the main wing section.



Getting enthusiastic I stopped taking photos for a while, mainly due to the mindless enthusiasm you get when you reach top speed. Here's one with several of the pieces painted and washed. I was looking through my inks, uming and ahing and found an unopened pot of Devlan Mud by some outfit called Games Workshop, so I thought I'd give that a try.



Next was a tricky bit, the canopy around the windows. This is one piece you can't dismantle which is a pain both for the canopy and the cockpit detail.



Next the cockpit, which has this huge seat in it. There's a similar one in the rear interior. I want to disguise both, the rear one was easiest because you can't really see it, so a simple piece of plasticard was glued in.



I found the shape for the interior by fitting a small piece of paper into the cockpit and gradually trimming it until I had a reasonable fit. I then used this to cut a piece of plasticard, which I then detailed.



It's not a perfect fit, but it will work once painted. I've leaving the seat of the chair as it won't be visible once a pilot is in there.



Got the basic paint on a pair of the landing legs.





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[The_Beast]

Thanks so much, as well!

I think there are at least two, if not more, Quinjet's floating around, with corresponding price difference. I remember scoping them out for conversion, but figured I'd wait for closeout/discard to thrift store bottom feeding prices.

Definitely opaque the cockpit, though, cover with armor panels, leaving small pilot windows, and simply drybrush those with gem highlights

You're a better man than I. 

Doug

[pocoloco]

Nice work on it Phil, it'll be quite a monster when finished. What kind of troop comparment does it have/will have?

[6milPhil]

I'm not sure what I'll do with the canopy windows yet, paint very likely but I'll not be adding anything to it.

Hang on a mo' I'll take a photo or two.

Couldn't resist a side shot of the main hull. Bear in mind this is just the basic weathering, there's more to come after the decals.



This is the back of the craft, and I've ramped the brightness to vaguely show the interior...



... and here with the ramp, the ramp is a tricky bit as it clips in the hinge to open and close so has some flexibility to it. It'll be the last piece I do, and then I'll add a more detailed ramp way, and paint it.

[Ironworker]

I've got one of these I've been balking at starting on.  Great work so far.  I'm really looking forward to the finished product. 

[pocoloco]

How many troopers that hold should hold, side shot at least show the thing to be quite large.

[6milPhil]

20 maybe?

[pocoloco]

20 maybe?

More than plenty then!

[6milPhil]

Yep, I'm really only going for around 8-12 and possibly a combat bot thing... which reminds me... any suggestions for a suitable range for those?

[Hitman]

Can't wait to see the final results....looks awesome to date. Nice set of step by step photos. You have a lot of talent!! Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Hitman
 

[6milPhil]

Glad you like it, many thanks to Pocoloco for sending me some decals. Should have a couple of photos up later today.