Clear Horizon Raven Class VTOL

Let's get this started!

This nice littel model is made by Clear Horizon Miniatures for 15mm scale hard sci fi tabletop games. The kit itself is kind of special. It reminded me a bit of the good old garage kits. The resin seems to be the one one that was widely popular in the 90s and early 2000s. So it is of a sandy yellow colour and a bit softer than what I've seen on other recent miniatures like those by Studio McVey.

The weapon stations were a bit warped, which could be easily corrected with hot water and a little patience. I even found some pieces of pink silicone on missiles which may have been part of the mould. The kit also needed a bit of sanding, but seriously, I liked building it very much. It may be a bit different for us today as we are 'spoiled' by costly but extremely high quality palstic kits but it is produced by a small company with a lot of love and effort put into it. You can virtually see Mr. Harold casting it - perhaps in his garage.

It comes nicely packed in plastic bag with a highly professional looking label print and even stat cards for the Gruntz 15mm ruleset. 

Unfortunately this kit lay on my workbench for quite a while, waiting to be build and painted. Then Harold started a painting contest which stated me building this kit. I primed it a week before the end of the contest and painted it on the two evenings before.

The colour scheme is roughly based on the Oryx Gunship which can be seen in 'Elysium' or the Rooivalk Attack Helicopter of the South African Army.

I decided that it would be nice to have a hex pattern. Unfortunately I don't own a set of the hex stencils recently produced by Anarchy Models. So I drew a hex pattern in Autocad, printed and cut it out. I then applied the brown and green colour by airbrush. The basic colour is a mix of VMC Buff an White. Brown is a mix of VMC Burnt Umber and Orange Brown. The green is VMC German Luftwaffe Camo Green. I Then did the shadows with Army Painter Strong Tone. Believe me, you shouldn't try airbrushing it! Blacklining was done with VMC German Camo Black Brown on the softer corners and Black at all the gaps. I then highlighted most edges with the original colours and added a bit of VMC Buff to them.

The canopy was done with a regular brush, using Scale75's Gold NMM set.

I hope you like it!