Imperial Navy RE-45 Lander

Side shot showing lateral, fast-exit, troop hatches, heavy thruster baffles, underwing air intakes and the rotatable jet nozzles used for hoverflight and fast lift offs.

It is a largely plastic model built over  a balsa wood chassis.

I made this scratch-build Imperial shuttle some time ago but had no idea what it was. However, the recent novel, 'Watchers of the Throne', cleared the matter up.

It's an Re-45 shuttle!

The RE-45 was a commonplace lander used to put Imperial Guard infantry platoons on-planet in hot drops.

It was phased out as developing Guard strategy required the immediate application of crushing force: the lander was just too small and so was replaced by massive landers capable of carrying entire companies (or even regiments) with heavy weapon support.

Most of the RE-45 landers were demilitarised to be used as civilian shuttles but, the Imperium being what it is, a large number of the original military landers are still found in use by various dodgy organisations like Rogue Traders and The Inquisition.

They are of course a bit beat up but that suits Inquisitors travelling incognito.

Bow shot showing the fixed lascannon and twin bolter turret used for point defence and to shoot up the landing zone prior to touch down.

Most RE-45s have acquired various additional blisters of equipment over the years on the outer hull - causing much teeth-gnashing in the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Stern shot showing the three primary thrusters, heavy blast baffles and vertical fins: note the heavy air brakes (located in front of the baffles) used for controlling steep descents.

Dorsal shot showing various augurs and void-vox ariels, dorsal twin thrusters, tail horizontal and dorsal fins and a pilot's hatch.

RE-45 parked alongside a Fury and Inquisition gun cutter.

Another size comparison shot.

The RE-45 is a much more robust piece of equipment than the Avis shuttle or a rogue trader space hauler. his makes it an Inquisiton favourite for insertion into problematic situations where armour, and a servitor controlled twin heavy bolter turret, are more important than comfort or convenience.

Scratch Built Imperial Navy Fury Interceptor P2

Basic hull, dorsal side up

   Some years ago I scratch built an Imperial Guard troop lander. Then I used balsa wood to make the main hull chassis, and hung thin plasticard on it as a skin finish. This time I bought some heavy plasticard and used it to make a monocoque hull with no chassis. This was an error. Despite my best efforts thee plasticard warped slightly under the impact of the cement. It wasn't bad enough to abandon but a slight warp brings back issues as detail is added.

Front hull

   A chocolate mousse container had just the right rounded rectangular cross section and deliniation for the nose cone turret.

Rear, ventral side up

   I added a heat-shield around where the rear where the thrusters tubes would be fixed, partly to look good and partly to hide the attachment point.

   At this point, I left the whole thing overnight to dry then sanded down the edges.

Scratch Built Imperial Navy Fury Interceptor P1

I have this yen, to build a Fury Interceptor as a terrain piece for combat within space ship landing bays.

The first thing I need to know is what a Fury looks like. Well it is big, up to 100m long and comes in various marks of different size. But the only GW pic I could find its not terribly useful.

I found these two pieces of superb artwork all over the net. Unfortunately ,I don't know who the artist is. They show a turret at the front and lascannon hanging off the wings.  Wings on a Void Fighter are a bit strange. I suppose this thing could enter atmospheres but it's unlikely to be much use and certainly can't fly .

Actually few of the Imperial Navy's aerospace fighters can fly either. They have impossibly awful drag coefficients and some have wings that generate negative lift.

Putting lascannon on the wings makes no sense. It will generate the maximum turning force on the vehicle and cause the wings to flutter. If one is shooting at a tiny object a kilometre away the smallest wing vibration will wreck accuracy.

Incidentally, photons are only massless at rest , which is a theoretical concept. Moving photons have momentum and a fighter is subject to Newton's laws. So any laser weapon pumping out enough photons at short enough wave lengths to damage a target will cause a kick back.

The long thin shape does make sense . Assuming the nose is pointed at the enemy to bring weapons to bear (irrespective of what direction the fighter is actually moving)  gives the smallest possible cross section to return fire .

The best way to think of one of these is not as a fighter plane, but as a motor gun boat.

So off to my work table.