Blood Ravens - Stormhawk Interceptor

The Stormhawk Interceptor has to be one of my all time favourite vehicles in my Blood Ravens army. I started this vehicle without any idea on design, loadout (for gameplay) or any fine details that I would choose to make the model pop.

The only way I knew to go about it, was to consult my Space Marine Codex and choose some heavy output weapons - as when I play this miniature, it will be quite the target; so arming it with hard hitting pain delivery systems was probably the best choice.

After assembling the mini (the only sub-assembly being the nose mounted heavy weapons), it was straight onto the paint station.

So as with most of my Blood Ravens army, the first port of call was to give the model its Mephiston Red undercoat. What I love about the Citadel spray cans is that they act as both a primer and an undercoat, saving you time and money in the process (although Citadel cans can be quite expensive).

Once the undercoat had dried, it was onto base-coating the vehicle with all the primary colours. The red having already been done was layered with Evil Sunz Scarlet, slowly building up the colour with two thin coats.

The problem I have with larger models is making sure that the thinned paints don't pool into one area, which is exceptionally difficult when it comes to Space Marine vehicles as they have a lot of large flat areas.

After base-coating the primary colours, I layered the lighter paints onto the appropriate areas.
The model was fully washed over with Nuln Oil to get the depth and detail, but I chose to do this before painting the iconic Blood Raven 'ivory / cream' colour. This basically allowed me to be as messy and generous with the Nuln Oil without ruining any of the painstakingly painted 7 layers of Screaming Skull to achieve the perfect cream colour.

So with the cream painted on, the next part was weathering. This consisted dry-brushing Abaddon Black and Necron Compound, for scuffed and scorched armour details. The black would represent carbon discharge from engine exhausts and ventilation.

Another detail to add would use a micro-pen to inscribe details on the side of the craft. This would be a Tyranid Gargoyle 'kill count' etched in a tally counter style. Along with this were a couple squiggles to represent the pilot name that was inspired by modern day fighter aircraft.

The base (as seen in the first picture) was made exactly like my other Blood Ravens. The difference being that I used old bits of scenery to decorate the base, as I had the luxury of space.

One small basing detail in particular (a bleeding Black Legion Heretic Astartes helmet - seen in the first photo) gives a nod to a specific game that I played, where the Interceptor was the last model to blast Abaddon the Despoiler off the board and send him back into the warp.

Last but not least, this model was used as one of the 'centre-pieces' to my Armies on Parade 2017 board. A hollow acrylic rod was fashioned to fit into the base mount so that it would sit at an angle, flying over the rest of the army. But it would also allow me to detach it from the board, so that it could also be used in a game.

Dead happy with this project, the only finishing touch now is a set of Blood Raven decals!