Building the Deathwatch Corvus Blackstar - Which Options?

As I prepare for the arrival of my Conan Kickstarter pledge, I've started to clear out a little cupboard space for the boxes, which are pretty hefty and apparently weigh around 7KG between the two boxes. So, the first box out was the box on top - the recent Corvus Blackstar flier from Games Workshop.

The kit comes on two frames and is really simple to build - the hull, wings and tail are all separate sections so they can be assembled in stages if you wished.

There are several options on the sprues. The first is to choose either the Twin Linked Assault Cannons or the Twin Linked Lascannons, determining whether you want your flier to be anti-infantry or anti-tank. The Assault cannons are the standard loadout, but the lascannon "upgrade" is free. You also have a rear facing Blackstar Cluster Launcher in the shape of two little pods mounted either side of the rear hatch. These fire either Frag Clusters (Large Blast) or Infernus Clusters (Blast but also Ignores Cover)

Once you have your main weapon worked out, then comes the underwing missiles. Standard issue is Four, One Use Only Str 8 Ap 2 Concussive Stormstrike Missiles, great for pairing with the Lascannons for ultimate vehicle violence. A "3 melta bombs" points upgrade gives you the Blackstar Rocket Launcher, or a choice between Corvid warheads (Heavy D6 & Skyfire at Str 6 AP4) or Dracos warheads (Heavy 1, Large Blast, Ignores Cover at Bolter strength) each turn. To increase the infantry killing potential, another three melta bombs gets you a top mounted Hurricane Bolter.

There are two other decisions to make on the kit which come down to design preferences - There are two different canopies for the cockpit - both solid grey plastic as there isn't actually a cockpit - metal shutters over the windows as if to represent it being shielded during atmospheric re-entry, or a standard canopy that you can paint up as you wish. The second decision is whether to have the fins at the back of the wings and the body open or closed - there are little rods to prop them open if you choose that option.

If you like playing with magnets, all of the builds are relatively simple to magnetize but I made a choice to go with the anti infantry load out, complete with an Infernum Halo-launcher for the top as it looked awesome.

Both the thrusters on the wings and the cluster launchers are moveable, while the cluster launchers can also be removed. 

The base was created using my quick dirt base method - a walkthrough can be found here.

After building the kit, which took maybe 2-3 hours to allow for drying time and wandering off to check Facebook, I was left with several bits left on the sprue - the alternate canopy, the lascannons, the Stormstrike Missiles, the auspex array. I looked at them and thought, "did I make the right choice?"

To help fix that doubt, I built my second one.

Everything I could do differently, I did - Lascannons, Stormstrikes, no Hurricane Bolter, the little vents on the back open instead of closed. Thus, over the two kits I used all of the available options.

In total, both of them together combine to be just under 41% of a 1000 point army and are nice center pieces for the army that will be following thanks to Deathwatch Overkill and Death Masque.