Want to know more about Forge World’s Custodes Ares Gunship model? Don’t miss this deep dive as we break down the secrets to its design!
Custodes have notoriously been a powerful faction in 30k. They did get their points switched around a bit back at the release of Book Eight: Malevolence. During that time, the Ares Gunship was also previewed.
Custodes Ares Gunship From Malevolence
The gunship has same basic statline is the Orion flyer at +35pts. The nose-mounted gun is replaced with the Magna-blaze cannon with two firing modes.
- Statline 1: S10 AP1, primary weapon 2, exoshock, mastercrafted, armourbane, and instant death.
- Statline 2: S8 AP2 heavy 2, large blast.
Bolt launchers also get replaced with Infernus firebomb clusters: large blast, heavy flamer bombs which ignore cover.
Garro also gave us some kind of new rule that looks to be specific to the unit:
The ship also has a rule that if it suffers an ‘explodes’ result on the penetration table from its rear-facing, on a dice roll of a 5+ it actually dies representing the exposed ammo bits for the magna-blaze cannon.
Ares Assembly Instructions Spotted
Thanks to hobby hero Garro, we’ve got first-hand pictures of the Ares Gunship assembly fresh out of the book. It, of course, shares a lot of the same parts as the Orion dropship as well.
Looking at the general overview of the model, it looks like there are almost thirty main assembly steps. (There are a lot more than thirty bits).
The design team did a great job of keeping the theme of the Custodes in 30k. This flyer isn’t “far out” from what the other war machines in their arsenal look like.
The Ares comes loaded with a nose-mounted Magna blaze cannon and two Arachnus heavy blaze cannons. All of the firepower is at the very front of the ship so positioning will be key with this unit.
The biggest design flaw of the ship is actually a completely exposed Fusion Reactor in the back of the ship. This is the rule that Garro was talking about earlier when the plane actually explodes on a 5+ for the vehicle damage table. Great job on giving this thing a massive Achilles heel, Imperium.
Finally, it’s got two Infernus firebomb clusters mounted on the underside of the hull. You might want to leave these and the Fusion Reactor off of the model when you’re doing your painting. It’ll just make it easier on you to get into the nooks and crannies of the hull when you’re doing your detailing.
And there you have it! Overall, the ship doesn’t look too difficult to put together with the main portion being the hull/wing assembly. Our guess is that this thing is going to be a glass cannon that you’ll want to throw all of its firepower at the scariest thing on the table.
Without some serious maneuvering, after a turn or two, it may be shot out of the sky with a lucky hit…
Let us know what you think about this model’s usage in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
