The Thunderhawk Gunship was a development of the later Great Crusade, designed to operate in atmosphere and void space as a flexible flying craft. It combines the roles of orbital troop lander, heavy gunship and medium bomber, and proved a highly successful addition to the fleets of the Legiones Astartes, scouring landing zones with its array of heavy weaponry before disgorging a payload of Space Marine infantry onto the battlefield. The Thunderhawk went on to become an icon of Astartes power in the air.
Designed to operate in both planetary atmosphere and the cold void of space, the Thunderhawk Gunship combines the roles of orbital troop lander, heavy gunship, and bomber into a single, brutally effective aircraft. Sturdy and well-armoured, Thunderhawks deliver their Adeptus Astartes passengers into the very heart of raging battle, and provide fire support with a truly fearsome array of weapons afterwards. These iconic vessels have come to be feared as the harbinger of doom by the enemies of the Imperium of Mankind.
I picked up an Aeronautica Imperialis Adeptus Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship from my local FLGS. Construction was actually quite simple and I found the model was easily put together.
I am painting my Adeptus Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship as a Grey Knights Thunderhawk as discussed in this blog post. First though I gave the model a white undercoat. I then started painting the model with a basecoat of Basilicanum Grey contrast paint. Unfortunately I finished the paint pot before finishing the model.
So I popped out to my FLGS to buy a new pot of Basilicanum Grey. I then finished painting the model.
Designed to operate in both planetary atmosphere and the cold void of space, the Thunderhawk Gunship combines the roles of orbital troop lander, heavy gunship, and bomber into a single, brutally effective aircraft. Sturdy and well-armoured, Thunderhawks deliver their Adeptus Astartes passengers into the very heart of raging battle, and provide fire support with a truly fearsome array of weapons afterwards. These iconic vessels have come to be feared as the harbinger of doom by the enemies of the Imperium of Mankind.
I picked up an Aeronautica Imperialis Adeptus Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship from my local FLGS.
Construction was actually quite simple and I found the model was easily put together.
I will be painting my Adeptus Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship as a Grey Knights Thunderhawk as discussed in this blog post.
As with my Asuryani Flyers the next stage after giving the Adeptus Astartes models for Aeronautica Imperialis a white undercoat was to think about the colour scheme. I have the models from the Wrath of Angels and I now have a Thunderhawk as well. I did think about Ultramarines blue, then Salamanders green, but in the end decided on painting them up as Grey Knights. Forge World had a display of a Grey Knights Thunderhawk at a GamesDay event which is what inspired me.
Grey Knights Thunderhawk
I think this could work, however they used a grey colour scheme rather than the metallic finish of the Grey Knights themselves.
So I gave the Storm Eagles a basecoat of Basilicanum Grey contrast paint.
I did the same with the Xiphon Interceptors.
The next stage will be that heavy dry brush and then a lighter dry brush to draw out the highlights and make the models look more like the Forge World Grey Knights.
After that it will be detailing the hull (with red), the engines and weapons.
I have in previous blog posts discussed what possible future aircraft we coud see for Aeronautica Imperialis. In the first of the discussion pieces I went through prospective models, and I followed this with an updated version back in May when the Wrath of Angles boxed set was announced.
Stormbird is a catch-all term that refers to a series of various super-heavy dedicated attack landers that were once used by the Legiones Astartes as their primary means of deploying forces into combat. Stormbirds also served in air support and general planetary transport roles during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.
Forge World have released a 40K scale model of the Sokar Pattern Stormbird, which is a huge (expensive) resin kit. I have seen the model at Warhammer World and it is one big model
The Sokar Pattern Stormbird was one of the later patterns of Stormbird developed during the Great Crusade and was used as the design precursor to the smaller, more widely produced Thunderhawk gunship.
Sokar pattern Stormbird
The Sokar pattern Stormbird is a dedicated attack lander. It has served as a high-durability orbital assault craft, a mobile bastion and firebase which could land a Space Marine strike force and withstand heavy ground fire while its cargo or troops and war machines disembarked to press the attack.
I could see Forge World making and releasing a Sokar Pattern Stormbird in resin for use in Aeronautica Imperialis, though such a large model may be problematic from a rules perspective. The Thunderhawk Gunship is not as big as the Sokar Pattern Stormbird and even that looks like it might be problematic from a gaming perspective, as it might be too big for the board.
This then got me thinking about other large flyers and that they would have similar issues.
Well of course I am talking about the new Adeptus Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship for Aeronautica Imperialis. Of course one day we may see a 40K scale version, but not today. I did manage to get a box of the Aeronautica Imperialis Thunderhawk when it was released.
The box comes with two sprues with the parts divided between them.
Construction was actually quite simple and I found the model came together quite easily. It was an interesting build and it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
You can model the landing gear deployed or stowed. I decided that I would have it deployed, maybe I could use the model as scenery (or an objective) in future games of Adeptus Titanicus.
What I was less sure about was the “attack wings” that can be constructed in a manner so they can move, but mine don’t stay in place and just flop down. I think I might keep them loose (for painting) and then take a view.
The model is very large compared to the other Aeronautica Imperialis models I have, the kit comes with an extra part to extend the flying base, so the Thunderhawk can fly higher than the other models.
So I kind of dithered slightly, but this morning I changed my mind and picked up an Aeronautica Imperialis Adeptus Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship from my local FLGS.
Designed to operate in both planetary atmosphere and the cold void of space, the Thunderhawk Gunship combines the roles of orbital troop lander, heavy gunship, and bomber into a single, brutally effective aircraft. Sturdy and well-armoured, Thunderhawks deliver their Adeptus Astartes passengers into the very heart of raging battle, and provide fire support with a truly fearsome array of weapons afterwards. These iconic vessels have come to be feared as the harbinger of doom by the enemies of the Imperium of Mankind.
The box contains two sprues to make up the model. There are a fair few parts as one would imagine for a kit of this size (even if it is a tiny plane). The model is very well detailed. It does make me think that would GW ever decide to re-issue Space Marine or Epic40000 (as in WH40K ground combat) but in the new Adeptus Titanicus scale? Part of me thinks they won’t, it could possibly cannibalise sales of (proper sized) Warhammer 40000.
Another thing is that the pricing of the models would be quite extorinate compared to previous versions of Epic. The original metal 1997 Epic40000 Thunderhawk was £7.00, whereas this plastic kit has a list price of £26 nearly four times as expensive. Yes it has been over twenty years, but even so this means we would be paying £5 for an Ork vehicle and £10 for a Land Raider if GW ever did go down a path of making vehicles and infantry for Adeptus Titanicus.
I will be painting my Adeptus Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship as a Grey Knights Thunderhawk as discussed in this earlier post.
It was announced yesterday that the Aeronautica Imperialis Thunderhawk Gunship will go on pre-order next Saturday (30th October) for release on the following Saturday (6th November).
The Thunderhawk Gunship fulfils a number of different strategic and tactical roles. Its primary mission is that of a drop ship but its utility does not end with the deployment of its lethal cargo of Space Marines, for it is a formidable heavy weapons platform in its own right. Equipped with a dorsal-mounted turbolaser, the Thunderhawk is able to engage targets as large as a Scout Titan or super-heavy tank as well as enemy fortifications. In addition to its main weaponry, the Thunderhawk mounts numerous heavy bolters with which it can scour a landing zone clear of enemy troops in a storm of mass reactive shells. An additional payload of wing-mounted missiles allows the gunship to operate in direct support of the squads it delivers into battle.
I am looking forward to actually buying this model, I suspect it will be expensive for a single plastic model, but ah well, why not.
Also coming out in the same time frame is the Fire Raptor Squadron.
The Fire Raptor Gunship is a specialised variant of the Storm Eagle known to have its origins in the Imperium’s dim and distant past. The vehicle is configured to maximise ammunition stowage in order to feed the voracious appetite of its numerous weapons and this is achieved by sacrificing the Storm Eagle’s transport capacity.
Nice models and more firepower than the Storm Eagles that come in the Wrath of Angels boxed set.
What I am still thinking about is what colour to paint my Adeptus Astartes models.
I did think about Ultramarines blue, then Salamanders green, but now thinking about painting them up as Grey Knights.
Back in July 2020 I wrote a speculative piece about future releases for Aeronautica Imperialis and some personal preferences for models. I had written the post after finishing painting my Valkyrie Assault Carriers which had been released alongside there Skies of Fire boxed set which contained miniatures for the Tau and the Astra Militarum.
I started to think about which models I would get next, and that got me thinking what we have seen that still needs to be released and also what could be released in the future and what I would like to see in the future as well.
Since that article was published we have had some new releases for Aeronautica Imperialis from GW and resin models from Forge World.
Forge World released the Vulture Gunship and the Arvus Lighter in August 2020.
