Thunderhawk and Rapier Battery for Legions Imperialis

Legions Imperialis reinforcements!

Hey, look at this! A second post within one month! Efforts to get back into the regular posting routine continue here with some kit for GW's "Legions Imperialis" game (a.k.a Epic 30k), the small-scale tabletop game rules for the Horus Heresy. We have a battery of Rapier support weapons for the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons, and, the real star of the show, a Thunderhawk gunship in the colours of the XVI Legion Astartes, the Warmaster's own Sons of Horus!

Rapier Support Battery

"Quad launchers" - the current version of the old "Thudd Guns" - great for knocking enemy infantry around.

"Rapier" support carriers go WAY back into the Rogue Trader times. Take some kind of scary weapon, mount in on a tracked carrier and give up a couple of support crew, and you had a Rapier. They were available back in the day both as 28mm metal kits, and were also among the first metal support options for the early "Space Marine" game - you could get tiny little batteries of these guns to support your 6mm sized Space Marines in the earliest version of the "Epic" game.

The designs have changed over the years, but the concept of the weapon is still the same - some scary weapon on a tracked platform, accompanied by a pair of minders/crew. In the scale of Epic 30k, where super-heavy tanks and Titans stalk the battlefield, these weapons are not large, but they can pack a surprising punch.

Rapiers - anti-tank fire support that will come in handy for the sons of Magnus!

These are great little kits - the only real downside is that they are part of a larger sprue, sharing space with heavy dreadnoughts and other support bits - and so it is not really easy to acquire a decent-sized batter of the guns without accumulating a bunch of other stuff you don't necessarily need. But even the small battery is useful - two laser destroyers designed to pack an anti-tank punch, while the quad launchers take out rival infantry. They don't move very fast, but they do move, and so are good to support an infantry detachment. 

Thunderhawk Gunship

Let's fly the friendly skies of 30k!

On to the star of this post! Here we have a classic Space Marine vehicle, the Thunderhawk gunship. I have been painting Thousand Sons for Legions Imperialis, but there was no way the Warmaster was going to miss out on this bird, so it got the green for the Sons of Horus! 

The original! Who remembers these little metal guys zooming over games of "Epic"?

Remember the original Thunderhawk from the days of "Epic"? The modelling has come a long way!

The Thunderhawk is the all-around, go-to gunship for the Space Marines. While not as large as the venerable Stormbirds, the vehicle fills a similar role, meant as much for action in the void as it is for ground support (hence the main weapon mounted on the top) while it carries Space Marines in for combat landings. It has quite a few weapons to provide fire support for them after they have been dropped off! 

This is a model that GW originally released for their excellent 2nd edition of "Aeronautica Imperialis", the 40k-setting air combat game. The company leaned into the dark humour of its fanbase by touting that a plastic Thunderhawk model was here at long last! I think most of us appreciated the humour :)

Anyway, this thing just looks cool. Here are more photos. 

View from the top.

Side/rear view.

View of the bottom detail.

The model is easy to detach from its flying base, so you can represent it on the ground during the game if the need arises.

There are a lot of parts to this kit...you need to pay attention, because the components are small! But wow, is it ever a wonderful little kit. I painted it sub-assemblies...not a whole lot of them, but I did the tiny heavy bolter currents and missiles separately, as well as the secondary wing assemblies (the smaller "wings" over the top of the engine). I glued those secondary wings into place, but if you wish you can build it so they move! I loved painting all of the details on this model (to the extent I could manage it). I can't wait to use it in a game of Epic 30k at some point. 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for another post, hopefully soon!