The Marauder Bomber is the workhorse of the Imperial Navy. Capable of both atmospheric and void operations, it is used as an attack craft in fleet actions as well as fulfilling a tactical role, supporting ground offensives by bombing enemy troop concentrations and support positions. Such tactical bombing missions are often launched prior to, and in support of, Imperial Guard offensives.
There are two of these in the Wings of Vengeance boxed set. This is the painted version on the GW website.
The models are made from two sprues, making two bombers in all.
There appeared to be a large number of parts for this large aircraft. This initially put me off slightly, so one of the reasons I didn’t make it first. However decided I better crack on and got going. The first stage is getting the main fuselage and cockpit together. These models are well designed and went together very easily.
The wings and embedded engines contain quite a few parts, though the main wing is a single part.
I added the fore and rear parts to the fuselage. I added the dorsal turret, which looks like it could quite easily shoot the plane’s tail off!
I diverged from the instructions and added the weapon loads whilst the wings were separate. I went for a full weapon load. What I was concerned about was the stuck weapons falling off or being knocked as I added further weapon loads. In the end sticking them down went very smoothly.
I am not thinking about WYSWIG with these models, as they restricts how you can use them in games, and I am not going to go out and buy lots of models to represent different variants.
Here is the almost completed model, the tail has been added, as has the front and real turrets.
The next stage was to glue the wings to the main fuselage, so here is the completed aircraft.
I do think these planes should be larger, here is one next to a Thunderbolt Fighter. The size was of course a consequence of it being originally a Forge World resin kit of Warhammer 40K. I think there are opportunities here to release a bigger bomber and other aircraft. These could come from the Warhammer studio, but why not from Forge World?
Another view, this time taken with my big camera.
I gave the models an undercoat of white.
So the next stage was to paint the basecoat on the planes.
I started using Macragge Blue….
I then realised that I really didn’t like the colour! I was trying to get a naval feel to the models, hence going for blue over brown or green. However I really didn’t like the results I was getting. It looked way too bright, more Space Marines than Imperial Navy!
Having completed the full basecoat, it became more apparent that this was the wrong colour!
It certainly is very bright.
So I decided to try a second coat using Thunderhawk Blue and that worked for me.
So I painted the whole model with Thunderhawk Blue.
I much prefer this over the Macragge Blue that I tried first.
I painted the engine exhausts with Leadbelcher.
I did think about painting the forward weaponry black, but in the end went with Leadbelcher.
I painted the engine inlets with Abaddon Black, which didn’t go as planned and resulted in a bit of overpainting on the engine cowlings, so I had to go back over those with some more Thunderhawk Blue.
I painted the engine exhausts with Leadbelcher before painting the ordnance with Citadel Base Mechanicus Standard Grey.
I gave the model a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade Shade.
The next stage was a drybrush of Chronus Blue Citadel Dry Paint.
I think I might use some Nuln Oil shade to emphasise certain aspects of the plane, such as the engines and the panels.
I then did the cockpit and turret windows with Lothern Blue and some white paint.
