Something Old... Something New... Something Pink... Something Cruel... Part 1

A Few Years ago I converted a GI Joe Cobra Stellar Stiletto into a Slaanesh Flyer. It was damaged during a move and has been sitting broken in pieces in the bottom of my display case since then. I've decided to pull it out, repair it and add the glowing engine effects I did on my Dark Eldar Reavers. Here I will describe how I made the conversion. Part 2 will be after I fix it, add new details and rephotograph it.

Converting a Cobra Command Stellar Stiletto into a Chaos Marine Flyer

One of my favorite GI-Joe toys of all time was the Cobra Command Stellar Stiletto. I remember buying this beast with saved up allowance money when I was a tyke.

So now I want to find a way to revive it in my 40K Chaos army by modifying it to match a Hell Talon, same rules, same points, same armament.


Body Details:
Over all I needed to add rivets in the right areas to accentuate the design as well as add that 40k feel. Extra piping and bitz details were added to the engine side greeble areas on the top and bottom. I sealed off the big open hole in the back of the tail fin with sheet styrene, added a few random pipes I found and tubing from a chaos defiler.







Cockpit:
I started by digging up enough bits to make the 2 pilots. The front pilot is flying the vehicle, while the rear pilot is kinda fused in there, more like a servitor. The front controls are comprised of bits from a AMT/Ertl Batman Batboat kit, so is the seat. The side walls are made from sheet styrene with assorted details and controls. I added some tubing and some green stuff to the rear pilot to show how he is fused into the vehicle. I decided to use part of the original canopy as "trim" for the new cockpit. I simply sawed off what I didn't want, sanded smooth, then added rivets.

I built up the canopy with styrene shapes and some bits. I embedded magnets in the rear of the canopy so it could open, and a magnet in the front bottom area so it stays locked down.









Auto-cannon and Twin Linked Las:
I made this from the barrel of a predator auto-cannon and 1 half of a twin linked bolter; housing built from sheet styrene. I cut a section out of the top right of the stiletto, then simply placed the housing in there and trimmed to fit.

I'm not exactly sure where I got this las from, but it ended up in my bits box. I trimmed the outer housing from the bolter turret housing on the top of a land raider and used brown stuff to fill the gaps.







Landing Gear, Bombs and Front Nose:
I used 2 Tau landing gear. Clipped the pistons and glued the bottom pads to the underside of the hull. As if the gear was retracted.

\Technically this vehicle has 8 bombs. I decided to make 2 bombs and use the lower fuel tank shape of the stiletto as a housing for the bomb deployment device. I cut two rectangular holes in the backs of the tanks, created 2 compartments out of sheet styrene and misc bits. Cleaned up the outer housing with styrene and made what looks like retracted doors.

The bombs themselves are Baneblade shells with tail fins from old Imperial Guard Smart Missiles. I created the bomb holding claws by thinly slicing Styrene rod and trimming where needed to make the right looking half-circle claw shapes.

I replaced the rubber nose cone with left over plastic nose cone from some long forgotten jet model I had laying around in my bits box. I detailed the engines with joint plates from an Imperial Sentinel, random tubes, some plastic rod, and added a few rivets in the right areas.








Wings:
I made the wings from sheet styrene using the same technic I did to make my chaos Patrol boat. I measured the existing wings, made a template in adobe Illustrator, created a chaos trim overlay to compliment it. I them printed the pieces out, spray mounted them to sheet plastic, cut, then peeled the paper off, glued with styrene weld, sanded smooth, drilled holes and added rivets, then attached them to the model.




Rear engine:
In my bits box I found a turbo exhaust from an AMT/Ertl Batman Batboat kit. Too bad I only had 1 of them, but not to worry, I'll make a quick RTV Rubber mold and cast it in resin. I then added some spoilers with sheet styrene.



...to be continued...