Space Marine Chapters have a vast armoury of specialised vehicles, and while many have come and gone throughout their millennia of service, few achieve the status of the Rhino and Land Raider. We must look to the skies for another such icon – the Thunderhawk Gunship, at once an atmospheric transport, spaceborne heavy fighter-bomber, and beast of burden with a wicked right hook.
Though the Thunderhawk has been a vital part of Space Marine air fleets for 10 millennia, it only saw action in the very last years of the Great Crusade. As the Legions began to spread out, strike forces grew smaller, and a lighter and cheaper replacement to the enormous Stormbird was sought – for those operations that didn’t warrant the deployment of an entire battle company.
Although initially unpopular due to its lighter construction,* the massive Turbo-laser Destructor mounted along the spine quickly marked the Thunderhawk as a capable ground attack vehicle alongside its transport role. By the time of the 41st Millennium, it had become the mainstay of Space Marine air support, appearing in several distinct designs in metal and resin. But the people were crying out for a Gunship in plastic – and in 2021, their prayers were answered.
Aeronautica Imperialis is a tense game of desperate aerial dogfighting at epic scale, and the Thunderhawk Gunship quickly came to rule the skies in its definitive modern incarnation, a sleek all-rounder that can both shrug off damage and also dish out an almighty pounding.
It’ll soon see action in Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Legions Imperialis. With entire companies of tanks rolling around and Titans a common sight, the turbo-laser mounted on the spine will be doing significant work on the battlefields of the 31st Millennium as well.
In real-world terms, however, the Thunderhawk has been around for more than 30 years.
These diminutive dropships for Epic Space Marine were the first vision of a future classic, although it took until the later iteration in 1995 for the modern silhouette to take shape. Despite being widely regarded as one of the finest units available to the Angels of Death, the Thunderhawk was a mite too big to join the realms of Warhammer 40,000. Or so it was thought…
A trial series of metal Thunderhawks did the rounds at Games Days in 1995 and 1996, soaring in at the back of this classic display of the entire Ultramarines Chapter.
Eventually In 1997, a full metal Thunderhawk became available to the public, and it was a beast. The order form even asked the buyer to confirm they were ‘barking mad’,** but the challenge was worth it – each kit of this limited run came supplied in a beautiful felt-lined wooden box, individually numbered from 40,001 to 40,500, and containing over 10kg of solid metal components.
This behemoth tested the skills of veteran hobbyists – big lumps of metal don’t stay stuck together very well – but this didn’t dampen enthusiasm. Before long, the 500 Thunderhawks had sold out, and Forge World began work on a new resin version that would refine the design and bring it into the modern day.
This release also provided actual rules for using it in games of Warhammer 40,000 – something which had been omitted from the original – through the Imperial Armour books. Suddenly, regular people could not only own a Thunderhawk, but actually use it in games!
Fast forward to 2017, and the venerable resin model was retired in favour of a newer, sleeker design. In case you’re curious, this is the one you’ll find on the Forge World webstore right now.
Even as it sat watching proudly from the sidelines, the Thunderhawk saw elements of its design appear in other Space Marine vehicles. Aircraft from the Stormraven to the Fire Raptor adopted the bullish front end and brutish, no nonsense construction characterised by the Thunderhawk.
* Remus Ventanus was particularly disparaging of his in Rules of Engagement by Graham McNeill.
** No kit has ever tried harder to stop people from buying it. The sheer number of warnings made sure only the most dedicated enthusiasts got their hands on one.
