Legions Imperialis – Land Raider Proteus Explorator Squadron

In anticipation of the upcoming releases for Legions Imperialis, we are going to fill some gaps in our reviews, beginning with the Land Raider Proteus.

The iconic Space Marine vehicle is available in Legions Imperialis as a Land Raider Proteus Explorator Squadron of six vehicles at a RRP of 31,50 GBP / 41 EUR.

For those unfamiliar with the Land Raider tanks, they are heavily armoured troop transport vehicles in the Warhammer universe. In 1988, the Imperial Main Battle Tank had a plastic kit with the internal code RTB11 (RTB5 was an earlier double pack containing two tanks), and it could be used not only by Space Marines, but by other Imperial forces as well. Not long after that, the first Land Raiders appeared in 'epic scale', as they were part of the original Space Marine game (the predecessor to the Epic series and Legions Imperialis).

There are several marks and variants of the Land Raider tank. During the Horus Heresy, the most common variant was the Land Raider Mk II Proteus, which was armed with twin-linked lascannons. A larger variant, the Spartan Assault Tank, was developed to transport larger units of Terminators and even Dreadnoughts into battle. The Mk II Proteus was split into two sub-variants: the Explorator, which had no hull-mounted weapon systems, and the Carrier, which had access to twin-linked heavy bolters, twin-linked heavy flamers and twin-linked lascannons for the hull. Both variants have optional pintle-mounted weapon systems.

While the Land Raider was once used by other Imperial forces, nowadays it is mostly used by Space Marine forces, as well as by Grey Knights and the Inquisition.

The Legiones Imperialis Land Raider is the Proteus Explorator variant and comes with two identical mid-sized sprues, a decal sheet for Astartes and a black-and-white instruction leaflet.

The sprues are filled with no wasted space. The casting quality is good, with minor to no issues with mould lines, and even the delicate pieces are positioned so that they are not prone to breaking (there is no tension on smaller pieces, such as the barrels of the twin-linked las cannons).

In this review, we will build using the contents of a single sprue. Once again, I am amazed by the level of detail that can be produced at this scale.

The first steps cover the inner part of the chassis, and we have the Proteus Explorator pieces with front panels, but without hull weapon systems. It is not possible to build the Carrier variant from this kit; you can only build the Explorator variant.

The fit and clean-up are good so far.

We then add the first details to the inner hull: in this case, the exhaust pipes and hedgerow cutter.

Now, the sides are added. These sturdy, single-cast pieces cover both sides and include the weapon mount for the sponsons. This is the only part of the build that is rather time-consuming, as you want the tracks to be clean and free of mould lines.

The final steps cover the side sponsons and crew. The side sponsons are small pieces, so it is better to put the glue on a tile and dip them in it rather than applying the glue directly to the parts. This is a delicate step, so you may wish to use tweezers.

There is an option to use various crew members for the hatches and to add pintle-mounted weapons. The crew wear Mk 3 armour, and there are four pintle-mounted weapons to choose from (three heavy bolters and one heavy flamer), as well as a regular tank commander.

This is what a trio of Land Raider Proteuses looks like.

Here is a direct comparison between the Land Raider Spartan (left) and the Proteus (right), as well as the latest Land Raider model next to one of the earliest, if not the earliest, in Epic scale. To provide some additional information on the scale: this is not 'just' scale creep. The older versions of Space Marine/Epic were in a roughly 6mm scale, whereas the newer AT/LI/AI models are 25% of the 'full-sized' Warhammer models. This roughly translates to an 8mm scale if we define the Warhammer range as 32mm.

Now, let us see the Land Raider Proteus Explorator from various angles.

Conclusion

These are very well-made tanks with lots of detail. Due to the fact that we get six models and not just four as in some of the other boxes, the price is pretty decent.

Overall, assembly is quite quick and straightforward, as the fit is not an issue. Cleaning up the tracks takes a bit of time, especially if you build multiple tanks at once.

I am not sure if we will see further variants, such as the carrier, at this scale, as the difference is negligible, and the other sub-variants were mostly older Forge World models that are not included in the current edition of Horus Heresy. The size of these units varies depending on whether they are used as a transport detachment, and it depends on how you want to use them whether a Spartan or even a Rhino is a better tactical choice than a Land Raider.

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