TF Pyz Air Detachment

Placeholder for Air Detachment vehicles

## Custom Avenger Strike Fighter

Task Force Pyz has access to a potent Imperial airframe: The Avenger Strike Fighter. The ASF is a Forge World creation that includes an Avenger Bolt Cannon, two Lascannons, a rear-facing heavy stubber, and various options for additional wing weapons, of which the bombs and autocannons are my favorite picks. At just 150 points base this is one of the most broken useful flyers I can take.

Unfortunately the Forge World ASF model is not only expensive, but looks very much like a mix between a Naboo Starfighter and a pod racer, with just a hint of A-10 Warthog. I decided it would be cheaper and more fun to build my own version that stylistically matched my custom army better than the FW model.

As it turns out, I ended up spending pretty much the same amount on bitz, tools, and raw materials to build my ASF than I would just buying the FW model, but the end result of this months long project was a model I am extremely proud to call mine.

First, I took parts from the Nephilim Jetfighter, Stormraven, and Stormtalon to build the main body, tail, and engines for my ASF. The Stormtalon cockpit and (upside down) Nephilim tail didn't fit together right off, so I used plasticard to cut panels to fill in the large holes in the fuselage and some Stormraven exhaust ports and body panels to create the top and bottom. I used more plasticard to fill in the underside of the lateral tail stabilizers. Originally, I used cut-down Stormraven engines connected to the top 45 degree panels on the fuselage, but they were too big and I couldn't find a good way to build a housing for them that would connect to the main body, so I switched them out with converted Stormtalon engines.

I had to buy two sets of engines and use the outside halves of both sets to create the two final engines. I then cut out some of the plasticard panels to make room for the bottom of the engine housing to fit down into the fuselage, pulling the intake closer to the wall so it wouldn't stick out. I could have spent a lot of time and patience cutting much more carefully to line up the engine housing to the edge of the plasticard, but decided to just fill in any gaps with greenstuff instead. In retrospect, I should have found a middle ground to limit the gaps without wasting a lot of time trying to get it perfect, as I had to use a lot of greenstuff to build up the walls inside the gaps, especially on the back side of the engines where the fuselage tapers into the tail.

The wings came from a Valkyrie, with Ork Bomma wing connectors to fill out the sides of the fuselage a bit. I cut down the inside of the wings to match the length of the fuselage connectors and reduce the taper in the wing to make it a little more unique. The bomma connectors needed a good amount of converting; I trimmed off the ork badges, smoothed out the plates, cut off the small engines on the back, and used the intakes on the front to mount the lascannons (taken from the Stormraven turret). I had to greenstuff the gaps between the fuselage and connectors, including extending the tapered back to flow smoothly into the fuselage.

I also carved the stepped edge out of the back of the interior wing sections to match the rest of the wing edge detail, as you can see in the above photo, the wing on the left still has a smooth section where I cut off the extra wing taper, but the wing on the right has been carved to match the rest of the edge detail. I did this by scribing a line on the top with an exacto-knife then cutting straight into the back until a long rectangular strip popped off, leaving the stepped edge. With some sandpaper cleanup it will blend nicely.

I then cut off the landing gear box and thrusters on the wing tips and filled the holes with greenstuff. The undersides of the wings still need some work to smooth out the greenstuff to match the surface to the rest of the wing. A plate of plasticard probably would have yielded a better result but I liked having the option of moulding in the plate lines to match the rest of the wing design. With some more shaping the new greenstuff undersides should be indistinguishable from the plastic sections. I moulded the greenstuff on the wing tips to match the stepped edge as well in place of the thrusters to create a smooth airplane wing. The bombs are converted ork bomma bombs, with all of the ork badges and spikes/rivets shaved off to make for a more imperial human look. They are magnetized on two clamp posts with cut-down nailer brads as mounting rails on the underside of the wing. These rails can be used to mount any of the ASF weapon options, including some custom aircraft autocannons I made that I'll show later.

The photo above shows how the engines look from the front, the housing really looks like part of the fuselage from this angle. The Avenger Bolt Cannon came from a Leman Russ Punisher, and I greenstuffed the square gap into a curved facade to match the gun, with Valkyrie sensors added as the targeting equipment for the gun. The Winged skull was added for effect. Death from the Skies.

The above photo shows the bottom of the fuselage, which proved extremely difficult to fit around a GW flight stand mount. I had to take left over pieces from all sorts of models to fit together plates like a puzzle. It still needs work, and a good bit of greenstuff, before it's complete. The overall effect and small details like the door and skull symbol turned out great. The big flat plate on the rear (a rhino door) will have a badge when the underside is complete.

The full bottom view shows the nailer brad weapons rails and one of the customized aircraft autocannons. The autocannons were taken from the IG Cadian heavy weapons team, the ammo belt from dreadnought heavy bolter attachments, and the resin ammo barrel was cut off a third-party dreadnought autocannon arm. This full wing view also shows the wing tips, with green stuff filling the old thruster gaps, moulded to match the edge of the rest of the wing. In game the ASF will either carry 6 bombs or 2 autocannons, though a mix of each would be fun to play.

After many touch-ups and some remolding of the chassis I decided it was as good as I was going to get it, so it's ready for paint. I originally planned on painting all the Celestine Monk vehicles black, with silver damage/wear and highlights.

When I made the first pass over the ship with my dry brush it turned the whole thing completely silver. Oops. I decided (out of laziness as much as artistic judgement) that dark silver was still ominous enough to fit into the dirty worn theme that the army is supposed to portray, so I went with it for all the vehicles.

The above photo shows (poorly) the ASF nearly complete and on its scenic base. The fine details still need to be picked out, like lights and weapons, tilt shield hull counters, and minor work on the Inquisitorial logos. The base will also get a light autumn leaf treatment to add a touch of color.

Placeholder for converting the ASF to match Task Force Pyz

## Custom Vulture Gunship

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## Valkyrie Air Transport

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## Vendetta Gunship

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