Building the Aeronautica Imperialis Thunderbolt Fighters

The Thunderbolt is the mainstay weapon system of Imperial Navy fighter wings and is a rugged, well-armed and armoured heavy fighter with all-around capabilities, a good maximum speed and above-average maneuverability, powerful nose-mounted weapons and hard points located on the wings for missile or bomb load-outs. The Thunderbolt’s primary combat role is as an air superiority fighter. It seeks out and engages enemy aircraft in dogfights or hunts enemy bombers to establish air superiority.

There are two of these in the Wings of Vengeance boxed set. This is the painted version on the GW website.

Here is the sprue for the models. As you can see both Thunderbolts are on the same sprue.

These models, like other Aeronatical Imperialis models, have a fair few parts, but they are easily constructed. I like the fact that the wings are one piece, rather that sticking two pieces, the top and bottom together (as you would normally do with an Airfix style kit). It does show how far plastic kits have come in the last few decades, but also from a design perspective, realising (especially with SF models that they don’t necessarily need to reflect an actual prototype).

One of the challenging aspects of this kit is the engine cowlings and exhausts, but once you have done a dry run, they are relatively simple to put into place.