Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Cerastus Knights Atrapos

We get to see three former Forge World resin kits from the Adeptus Titanicus range re-released as plastic kits today, and in this review we will cover the Cerastus Knights Atrapos.

This set of four Cerastus Knights Atrapos will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 47,50 GBP/62,50 EUR. Their rules are covered in the Core Rulebook for Legions Imperialis.

The Atrapos pattern of the Cerastus Knights is a rather "recent" addition to the lore of Warhammer 40,000, with them being introduced as 28mm model kit in 2015. Similar to the Mechanicum Questoris knights, the Cerastus Knight Atrapos is a unique and rare variant among the Knight Households. They were originally developed to take on heretek engines and xenos warmachines, as those were considered a blasphemy to the Omnissiah, but their rare and potent weaponry made them a devastating threat against not only Knights but Titans well, on both sides of the Horus Heresy. Armed with Atrapos Lascutters and Graviton Singularity Cannons, mounted on the swift Cerastus chassis the Atrapos is a rather destructive choice, especially further upgraded with the Macro-Extinction Protocols, Blessed Autosimulacra and Ionic Flare Shield, which were partially transfered into their unit profile in Legions Imperialis.

As usual with the Legions Imperialis kits, we get two sets of the same mid-sized sprue in this kit, but as these can be used with Adeptus Titanicus as well, we receive not only the sprues, instructions and a new decal sheet for Mechanicum knights, but the command terminals for use in Titanicus as well. The sets come with the flat Legions Imperialis bases, in this case 50mm rounds.

The layout of the sprues is pretty similar to the other Cerastus Knights, as we get two Knights per sprue. Tightly packed, lots of details and crisp casting. Nothing to argue about.

The new Mechanicum Knight decal sheet covers the House Makabius, House Malinax (shown on the backcover of the packaging), House Vyronii and House Coldshroud, along with generic heraldry, both in black and white, to fit the various painting schemes you might be going for. As well as the Command Terminals for the use of these in Adeptus Titanicus.

We're going to build a single sprue, so two Cerastus Knights Atrapos with the different poses.

Each sprue covers two different poses. We get two different leg stands to begin with, and one thing that is new with the plastic kit compared to the resin set, the leg armour comes in two designs. You can optionaly choose a shin guard with the mechanicum iconography. We went with this design for one of the four lower leg armour panels. You can't mix A/B for further variants from stock, as the cables and further connection pieces wouldn't line up. But by mixing the feet and putting something below them, you could very likely alter the poses further.

As they do have a different design for the armour, for purist mixing them with the other Cerastus lower halfs isn't an option.

Now we're assembling the upper torsi and there are two things to point out. First of all, these come with four different heads per sprue and that picks up the different designs Forge World offered for the larger models, and they split the rounded upper carapace into multiple pieces, to properly cast the shape. A good decision!

Now for the arms. These can be mixed left and right, as well as angled, as you have moving pieces on the elbow and two different angles for the shoulders. On top of that, we have two different designs for the shoulder armour. Another addition to the old design.

Here's a comparison of the Cerastus Atrapos on the flat and classic Citadel bases, along with a side by side next to a Cerastus Knight Lancer.

In addition, we cover more scale shots, showing the Atrapos next to the Asterius, Magaera and Thanatar, along with a second picture covering a comparison with the Serperos Overlord Heavy Stalker and Stalker Constructs.

The last set of pictures covers as usual some shots from different angles.

Conclusion

Entertaining build and really well implemented. The Cerastus Knights for Titanicus were stunning kits and they kept the bar up with this addition. The transition from resin to plastic has multiple benefits for the hobbyists. Not only did they nearly cut the price in half, as the former price for the resin models was 50 EUR for the set of two, and now we have four for the price of 62,50 EUR, but it such a pleasant build and proper quality. We had some issues with the master models not being properly cleaned and you could see the 3d print steps in the resin casts. Along with some rather thin casts, where there were air bubbles or not fully casted areas in the shoulder pads. This is not an issue with the plastic kits and that is a huge improvement (never the less, Forge World customer service replaced those, but it shouldn't be an issue in the first place).

The Mechanicum knights are not exclusive to the Mechanicum, neither in Legions Imperialis nor Adeptus Titanicus, so you can use them with other Legions, Cohorts etc. as well. A box of these will provide you with a proper banner for AT as well as LI, you might even think about splitting one with a friend, as two are already not a bad setup.

And while the Legions Imperialis players now have theirs in plastic, it might be just a matter of time, until we see further sprues to offer the full scale Horus Heresy Cerastus Knights as an Atrapos in plastic as well.

The Horus Heresy and Legions Imperialis are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.