Corvus Blackstar

I have become Death, destroyer of Blob Armies.

The result of a drunken one night stand between the Stormraven and Valkyrie, the Corvus Blackstar may be a bastard, but unlike certain others, he actually makes his parents proud. Even if they did make him take the black.

Yet another awesome vehicle given to the Spess mehreen army while other more unfortunate factions are left with dust and nothing. The Blackstar is a unique plane exclusive to the Deathwatch after being given their own fancy codex. Though the Raven Guard and Hawk Lords are looking to acquire them for their own purposes, and the Blood Ravens have "recovered" a few of them...they want more.

A sleek and deadly craft, it is designed to penetrate the outer defenses of alien hosts to strike directly at its heart. Though small enough to slip through sensor grids, the Blackstar is brimming with firepower. Primarily fulfilling the role of transport, its vectored engines are nimble enough to dart through winding terrain. Once in position it will switch from fighter craft to hovercraft, deploying the Deathwatch Space Marines held within. Essentially speaking, the Blackstar is a smaller, faster, more agile, tougher and more shootier counterpart to the Thunderhawk- the UH-60 Blackhawk Direct Action Penetrator to the Thunderhawk's CH-47 Chinook. The pilot of each Blackstar is (usually) a veteran Techmarine which has proven himself in countless campaigns and machine loving.

Why this aircraft is ridiculously awesome

Curiously, unlike more mainstream Imperial technology, the Corvus Blackstar is far, far more advanced than the other Imperial craft which it resembles and it shows. In contrast to other Space Marine aeronautics, the Corvus Blackstar along with the Nephilim Jetfighter is surprisingly aerodynamic.

Additionally, it gains brownie points for actually looking like a Terran Quantradyne APOD-33 dropship from Starcraft and thus less painful to the eyes; the Blackstar boasts an amazing array of equipment optimized for alien hunting, such as halo launchers, twin-linked assault cannons (which can be replaced by lascannons), stormstrike missiles (replaceable with a twin-linked Blackstar rocket launcher), more missile pods that can fire incendiary Dracos air-to-ground missiles or air-to-air Corvid rockets, a Blackstar cluster launcher, which is multiple auxiliary grenade launchers mounted in the rear to strafe smaller targets, an anti-air ballistics suite which is protected by ceramite plating which shrugs off even a direct hit from enemy anti-aircraft fire, and it is also equipped with decoy flares and interceptors. And Hurricane Bolters, cause it needs more dakka.

Tl;dr Holy Shit! This thing is a flying Baneblade!

Gallery

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  Pict Capture
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  Side and Front Views
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  Back View
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  Stormstrike Missile andBlackstar Rocket Launchers
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  BlackstarCluster Launcher
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  Hurricane Bolters
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  Infernum Halo-Launcher
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  Armoured Windshield
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  Air Brakes