Building a Dune Harkonnen Ornithopter

Building Meng's Harkonnen Ornithopter from Denis Villeneuve's Dune.

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[stangsc]

Beautiful. Ornithopter is one of my favorite vehicles after seeing the movies. Too bad about the window decals though.

[jacobleesjohnson]

Thanks to you I've gotten both this and the harvester. Just beginning my modelling journey!

[skrimshander]

Great walk through of build and paint/weathering work. Love your ‘path of least resistance’ method.

[MichaelTeague-si]

Brilliant weathering work! Always learning new things from your builds... Lights really make it pop too...

[justindavisphotography]

Loved the movies. Very cool vehicle. Wish Bandai was making the models. But you’ve done a good job with what we have. Inspired to get my own.

[cheetocabra]

Awesome job! I'm excited to do my own soon. Also, I can't believe I just noticed after watching so many of your videos that you're also left-handed!

[Ronnke]

Awesome job! I think a little sand/weathering in the crevices of the canopy windows would have looked nice. I imagine windows on Arrakis are really hard to keep clean. :P

[calebfitzgerald]

Amazing aren't they I got some strait away
I heard meng are doing a 1/72 atradies one are you going to do one if they do?
I know I will

[crispy_]

One of the best sci fi ship designs ever

[nmanifold]

Beautiful work, i learntbdo much. One question; what exactly are you using to apply the tamiya weathering? They look like pointy earbuds? I've bern dearching gor something like those.

[AdamantineCat]

Anybody remember the "Star Wars: Incredible cross Sections" books that had the awesome technical drawings/cuatways of the vehicles?
THAT, but for Dune would be amazing.

[neosund]

I tend to sand moveable joints a bit on any snapfit kits that aren't Bandai, they often have tolerances that are just a little too tight

[GarethLloyd-mbtn]

Hi Sam, lovely build. I have a question... when you're putting the washes on, do you do any clear coats before or in between layers? Just wondering how you stop the "sand layer" wiping out the first light grey one as they're both acrylic.

[kyleashley]

lovely! very industrial /insectoidy/ looks functional, i have some of those weathering kits, good tip on using q tips as ive massacred the blushes that come with them.

[AfricanBungleFerret]

Great paint job, nice little kit. By the way. emodels are doing them way cheaper than amazon.

[colonelklink]

Nice! I hope a larger scale version comes out.

[VEVC]

Great job! I'm starting my modeller hobby and can take lessons from your videos.
Actually I've got a 1/72 Atreides Ornithopter (just arrived yesterday from AliExpress) and am making my research how to paint.
They recommend AK, but i see you stick to Valejjo (no idea what the differences are).
I'll search for that Tamiya sandy and burned little boxes, since i like how the sand effect they give looks realistic enought

Anyway thank you for another great video!

[mauliksharma]

I have this model but cannot get the stickers to come off. Are they water slide decals or just a regular sticker?

[kingghidorah]

I kinda wish they made the Harkonnen ones to have a more bubble shaped cockpit

[tonygreenfield]

Nice build. I have noticed from this and a number of build articles on the site you are very trusting as to the snap fit properties of such kits. I am less trusting and tend to run a small amount of Tamiya extra thin cement into the main fuselage joints at the very least.

There is an interesting review of the Thopters at Sacred Cow Shipyards YouTube site that goes into a lot of detail with regard to the aerodynamics and physics of the Thopters and concludes reluctantly that they are impossible. To gain lift, the wings would have to be flapping at frankly insane speeds. Not only would the materials likely be unable to stand the stresses, the wing tips would be creating near constant sonic booms (due to the speed of the tips if the wings were to impart lift) and that such sonic booms would be occuring just a few feet from the fuselage and occupants of the thopter, making for a very unpleasant ride.