Flying Into 6th Edition: Mantis Warrior Stormtalon Gunships Finished

First and foremost I'd like to admit something: I love flyer models in 40k. For a short period of time I had an Imperial Guard army solely because they had Valkyries. My Tyranid hive fleet has been led by Overlord Muggis, a flying hive tyrant, for a long time. Land speeders excite me. When GW decided to put out the Stormtalon Gunship they automatically had my money in their pocket for at least three.

You've seen the Storm Eagle I painted. I love that model. It is huge, Space Marine-y, and looks like it'll mess you up. The rules could use some tightening, but I can deal with it. I bought three Stormtalons and intended to have them painted and ready for use tomorrow for the 40k Tournament at Gamers Sanctuary. I managed to paint them JUST in time.

Stormtalons line up in the setting sun

I decided to equip them with the missiles. These can either be typhoons or the stormhammer missile. It makes them 155 points each, which is crazy for an av11 flyer, but who knows what will happen with them in 6th Edition.

They're easy to assemble. The worst part about painting them is the cockpit. Whoever decided that you should paint the lines on was a moron. I'm terrible at that.

There is a beam that goes through that allows the engines on the side to rotate with each other. I don't really like moving parts on my models, but they do move somewhat. The assault cannon and front chin mounted thingy move independently as well, but I glued them down so I can take it off the air stand and put them on the table without them falling over.

Speaking of the air stand, it goes REALLY FAR into the model. (That's what she said?) It isn't like the Storm Raven or other models - the model is hollow in there and you can put it pretty far in. I feel like I might need to file the edges a bit so that it goes in better, as it is tight like a toiger.

The cockpit part wasn't hard to glue on with white glue. I found that tip on From the Warp - super glue can cause gases that fog up the cockpit so you should use white glue.

I did put the tails on 'backwards' facing out like a normal plane because I think they look a  lot better like that. Not sure why GW thinks their planes should have backwards tails.

The model would be really easy to magnetize with the side pods, but I chose not to because I just hate magnetizing. I hate parts falling off, moving around and facing the wrong way, etc etc.

These Stormtalons have seen numerous drops... they're weathered to show that.

I really like the look of the model. They've gotten some flak for having the chin assault cannons, but I don't really see the problem.

So now I have five Mantis Warrior flyers. Can't wait to field them tomorrow :D