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So...I've been thinking lately, about this. What Space Marine player doesn't want a thunderhawk at some point? I'm not ordering anytime soon, so this is a far off thing, but anyway, I'm going off on a tangent.....

Are thunderhawks assigned to companies or by chapter? Would a Ravenwing thunderhawk be black as the company colors....or would there be no such thing and it would just be a Dark Angels thunderhawk....thus green?

Same for Deathwing...would it be bone colored?

Thunderhawks are used for void combat as much as, or more than orbital drops. So I would say everyone's thunderhawk, regardless of chapter, would probably be painted black. Especially since unlike Drop Pods, T-hawks are pretty awkward in the unloading stage so I imagine that it's done at night, if possible. And a T-hawk dropping off assault marines would probably be so high up in the atmosphere that it's practically space anyway, to make it harder to intercept him.

Plus, a void-camo Hawk would look amazing.

 Silverthorne wrote:
Thunderhawks are used for void combat as much as, or more than orbital drops. So I would say everyone's thunderhawk, regardless of chapter, would probably be painted black. Especially since unlike Drop Pods, T-hawks are pretty awkward in the unloading stage so I imagine that it's done at night, if possible. And a T-hawk dropping off assault marines would probably be so high up in the atmosphere that it's practically space anyway, to make it harder to intercept him.

Plus, a void-camo Hawk would look amazing.

Except that everyone's Thunderhawks are not Black, they are painted in the same Livery as the rest of the Chapter's Vehicles. Camo'd per theater of operation, if that it what the Chapter does, because hey some don't.

If the Ravenwing's fighters are Black, it's a safe bet their Thunderhawks are Black, and since the Deathwing's Laid Raiders are Bleached Bone, I'd assume the same for their Hawks.

Chapters usually have one comapny master as master o the fleet, an it's his job to find pilots and crew for all the vessels down to Thunderhawk size re: promoting, demoting, and assigning crew, and distributing ships among the companies. Since all the Thunderhawks are in that unified command, they would probably all be Dark Angels' green.

You can't use deathwing land raiders as an example since first companies usually have permanent land raiders that are their problem.

 Silverthorne wrote:
Thunderhawks are used for void combat as much as, or more than orbital drops. So I would say everyone's thunderhawk, regardless of chapter, would probably be painted black. Especially since unlike Drop Pods, T-hawks are pretty awkward in the unloading stage so I imagine that it's done at night, if possible. And a T-hawk dropping off assault marines would probably be so high up in the atmosphere that it's practically space anyway, to make it harder to intercept him.

Plus, a void-camo Hawk would look amazing.

It doesn't matter what you paint space craft in, only an utter moron would use the visual spectrum of light for void warfare. They'll be looking at the thermal signature (which will show up like a christmas tree because stealth in space is bloody impossible) of the thunderhawk instead.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Silverthorne wrote:
Thunderhawks are used for void combat as much as, or more than orbital drops. So I would say everyone's thunderhawk, regardless of chapter, would probably be painted black. Especially since unlike Drop Pods, T-hawks are pretty awkward in the unloading stage so I imagine that it's done at night, if possible. And a T-hawk dropping off assault marines would probably be so high up in the atmosphere that it's practically space anyway, to make it harder to intercept him.

Plus, a void-camo Hawk would look amazing.

It doesn't matter what you paint space craft in, only an utter moron would use the visual spectrum of light for void warfare. They'll be looking at the thermal signature (which will show up like a christmas tree because stealth in space is bloody impossible) of the thunderhawk instead.

Pretty much this. The distances that space combat would be fought at are so vast that the odds of stumbling upon a target due to visual camo is like hitting the lottery ten times without ever having bought a ticket!

pelicaniforce wrote:
Chapters usually have one comapny master as master o the fleet, an it's his job to find pilots and crew for all the vessels down to Thunderhawk size re: promoting, demoting, and assigning crew, and distributing ships among the companies. Since all the Thunderhawks are in that unified command, they would probably all be Dark Angels' green.

You can't use deathwing land raiders as an example since first companies usually have permanent land raiders that are their problem.

You can use them because its sets a precedent for the company having its own vehicle colors. Everything they use is Bleached Bone. A Master of the Fleet may control all of that to a degree, but they are still gonna be vehicles assigned to that particular Company and they like to keep everything similarly colored as a sign of appeasement to the Machine and as a way to recognize that this Machine is one of them.

Hope this helps. I'm pretty sure that's a Deathwing Thunderhawk in the background. So I guess it's painted the same as the rest of the Deathwing. The Ravenwing probably has theirs painted black.



Woah sorry for the huge image, not sure how to make it smaller It's from Abaddon's page on the WH40K wiki (not lexicanum).

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Silverthorne wrote:
Thunderhawks are used for void combat as much as, or more than orbital drops. So I would say everyone's thunderhawk, regardless of chapter, would probably be painted black. Especially since unlike Drop Pods, T-hawks are pretty awkward in the unloading stage so I imagine that it's done at night, if possible. And a T-hawk dropping off assault marines would probably be so high up in the atmosphere that it's practically space anyway, to make it harder to intercept him.

Plus, a void-camo Hawk would look amazing.

It doesn't matter what you paint space craft in, only an utter moron would use the visual spectrum of light for void warfare. They'll be looking at the thermal signature (which will show up like a christmas tree because stealth in space is bloody impossible) of the thunderhawk instead.

You might want to do a little more research on Space Warfare and anti-satellite weapons, since the USA and China both use the visual spectrum as a key part of the targetting component of ASAT weapons and as a result, most military satellites are, in fact, black. Also I don't know how you get the moronic idea that stealth in space is impossible... radar works in outer space just as well as in the atmosphere, which is the basis of our entire anti-ballistic missile program, and the basis of 'penetration aids' in ICBMs.

@PhillyT-- visual cuing or acquisition doesn't just mean you have some space ensign out there on the battle barge's bridge wing with binoculars. It's a a super-cooled ultra wide aperature collector feeding data into a fractal recognition algorithim in a super computer. That's current-day technology. IoM stuff probably is 40x better but somehow involves the use of removed human brains.

 Silverthorne wrote:


You might want to do a little more research on Space Warfare and anti-satellite weapons, since the USA and China both use the visual spectrum as a key part of the targetting component of ASAT weapons and as a result, most military satellites are, in fact, black. Also I don't know how you get the moronic idea that stealth in space is impossible... radar works in outer space just as well as in the atmosphere, which is the basis of our entire anti-ballistic missile program, and the basis of 'penetration aids' in ICBMs.

@PhillyT-- visual cuing or acquisition doesn't just mean you have some space ensign out there on the battle barge's bridge wing with binoculars. It's a a super-cooled ultra wide aperature collector feeding data into a fractal recognition algorithim in a super computer. That's current-day technology. IoM stuff probably is 40x better but somehow involves the use of removed human brains.

Void Warfare in Science Fiction is a little bit different than making a military SAT black, and harder to see from Earth or other SATs. Ship to ship Warfare is going to be across an entire system where visual contact would be less necessary. It'll still be a component, but they'd be looking across spectrums of light. Most ships will also put off enough power/spectrum effecting energies that just having them be Black wont really help.

 Silverthorne wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Silverthorne wrote:
Thunderhawks are used for void combat as much as, or more than orbital drops. So I would say everyone's thunderhawk, regardless of chapter, would probably be painted black. Especially since unlike Drop Pods, T-hawks are pretty awkward in the unloading stage so I imagine that it's done at night, if possible. And a T-hawk dropping off assault marines would probably be so high up in the atmosphere that it's practically space anyway, to make it harder to intercept him.

Plus, a void-camo Hawk would look amazing.

It doesn't matter what you paint space craft in, only an utter moron would use the visual spectrum of light for void warfare. They'll be looking at the thermal signature (which will show up like a christmas tree because stealth in space is bloody impossible) of the thunderhawk instead.

You might want to do a little more research on Space Warfare and anti-satellite weapons, since the USA and China both use the visual spectrum as a key part of the targetting component of ASAT weapons and as a result, most military satellites are, in fact, black. Also I don't know how you get the moronic idea that stealth in space is impossible... radar works in outer space just as well as in the atmosphere, which is the basis of our entire anti-ballistic missile program, and the basis of 'penetration aids' in ICBMs.

Because we're shooting at them from the ground, and we can't just pull out a thermal camera without going bloody blind from the radiation pummeling our atmosphere. However Thunderhawks engage in ship-to-ship warfare and rarely ever have to worry about being shot at from the surface of a planet.

Now I don't know if you actually know the details of Thermodynamics, but you can never be invisible or completely cloak your radiation without dropping off the face of the universe altogether. In void warfare all somebody has to do is simply check the thermal spectrum to know exactly where you are. Even if you dampen the heat of your ship (somehow) to match the background radiation of space, your emissions from whatever form of propulsion you're using would still be a dead giveaway. Hell, even if by some bs space magic you were able to reduce your ship's temperature to absolute zero and cut off all radiation, you'd still be visible because you'd appear to be a giant pure black dot on the screen of whoever is looking at you.

The only way you can actually use stealth in space or hide is to stay away from the enemy's sensors, or use the radiation of stellar bodies such as planets or stars to hide your own signature. Even in space Sun Tzu's wisdom still applies, and you always want to fight with the stars at your back.