Legions Imperialis – Fast Attack Troops
I know, Legions were huge and the Fists were about 100k Astartes strong, so enough for some assault troops and obviously vehicles like Bikes, Speeders and such. But I didn't feel like having fast attack troops with the Imperial Fists felt "fluffy". And with the way Legions Imperialis forces are built, a formation of an allied Space Marine legion would be an interesting addition and create some variation for Painting.
The fitting formation would be the Legion Sky-Hunter Phalanx from the The Great Slaughter supplement.
It covers four compulsory Vanguard detachments, that are limited to Scimitar Jetbikes, Land Speeders or Javelin Squadrons. Outriders may only be taken from the optional detachment. The Light Armour is currently limited to the Sabre tanks in Legions Imperialis.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Karacnos Assault Tank Squadron
In addition to the armoured transport of the Triaros, the Mechanicum now has access to the Karacnos Assault Tank in Legions Imperialis as well.
Using the chassis of the Triaros Armoured Conveyor, the Karacnos is an uparmoured variant to be used in assault operations. The transportation compartment have been replaced by the Karacnos Mortar Battery system. These batteries fire radioactive warheads into the enemy, but that is not covered beside regular rules for mortars in their unit entry in Rise of the Dark Mechanicum supplement.
The Karacnos Assault Tank Squadron of four vehicles will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 31,50 GBP or 41 EUR.
Horus Heresy – Mechanicum Heavy Support Force
Early in february we saw the teaser for the next Horus Heresy boxed set - the Mechanicum Heavy Support Force! A bit as a surprise, because we mostly saw regular battle groups so far with Legiones Astartes or Solar Auxilia, now the Mechanicum even gets some tactical reinforcement.
Interesting combination regarding the content, as we get variants of existing kits with the Karacnos and Thanatar, and an entire new plastic kit with the Krios Battle Tank / Venator, for a price of 110 GBP/ 145 EUR.
Adeptus Titanicus – Legio Astraman Ad Arma Pt. XVI
With the finished bases packed in the boxes, I went off to the paint meetup last year, and this was my project for inbetween the other things to get either into the mood for painting or as a palette cleanser.
I used 3d printed bits and parts from the Civitas Imperialis ruins set, along with spackle and cork, to finish the bases.
From there I went the regular route, adding the texture paste (used the remainder of the Armageddon Dunes and Armageddon Dust, but from now on using Dark Earth by Vallejo) and let it dry properly.
Adeptus Titanicus – The Dark Mechanicum stalks…
We've covered the Dark Mechanicum units for Legions Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus, and the smaller Stalker Constructs "only" include two of each of the three different constructs, so I went for a second box to boost them up to four per unit.
It was important to me, to swap around the legs and poses as much as possible, to create the most variety from that set. With the Scintillax "Cyclops" Noospheric Stalker and Tenebrax "Archer" Battle Stalker, that wasn't the biggest issue as they have weapons options and that alone prevented them from being a clone army.
Legions Imperialis – Converting the Termite Assault Drills
While covering the Termite Assault Drills last August, I further altered the built and captured it in pictures, but didn't come around earlier to write an article about it. You can stretch the eight models per box by a bit, if you grab a hobby saw.
The Assault Drills breach from the ground or into it, and by that you get the perfect idea to build them that way.
Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Malcador Infernus
And to complete the preview on the upcoming Solar Auxilia releases, the Malcador Infernus will be reviewed today, in addition to yesterdays Arvus Lighter and Valdor Tank Hunter.
The Malcadur Infernus uses the chassis of the Malcador heavy battle tank and is an alteration to fulfill a certain role on the battle field and mounted with a larger weapon system in the hull, just like the Valdor. In case of the Infernus, it is armed with a vehicle-sized flamer, the Inferno Gun, which is sometimes even used on titans like the Warhound Scout Titan.
While it dates back to the Age of Strife and was produced during the Horus Heresy on both Forge Worlds of Voss and Mars, it was relegated to strategic reserves and second line units during the civil war, and within the 40th millenium only in service by a few Imperial Guard units due to tradition, as it was mostly replaced by the faster more reliable Hellhound tank. The concept of a flame tank is not sci-fi, and was in fact put into reality during both world wars (yet more or less only prototypes in world war 1) with the very similar Churchill Crocodile, which was a converted battle tank with a fuel trailer.
Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Valdor Tank Destroyer
This week is packed with Solar Auxilia. We had the Medusa/Basilisk earlier, the Arvus Lighter as well today and going to have the sister-tank to this one, the Malcador Infernus tomorrow.
But today - today is about the Valdor Tank Destroyer, as it is available for pre-order this saturday and will be released / delivered on Februar 1st.
The Valdor Tank Hunter, named after Captain General Constantin Valdor of the Legio Custodes, uses the Malcador heavy tank chassis and was developed during the Horus Heresy, to provide the Solar Auxilia with a weapon to counter the heavy armoured vehicles of the traitor legions. It is armed with a Neutron Laser Projector, which was mounted upon the Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer and Sicaran Venator tanks of the Legio Astartes as well.
This tank pattern was used beyond the Horus Heresy, during the Great Scouring and put into service as a rare relict with the Imperial Guard, and saw action among other campaigns on Vrak in the final phases of the war.
Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Arvus Lighter
What's the difference between a Hippo and a Zippo? One's really heavy, the other's a little lighter.
Well and today we're covering the Arvus Lighter for the Solar Auxilia. It is going for pre-order today and will be delivered on February 1st of 2025.
We don't cover aircrafts that often on the blog, if it is vehicles it is mostly tanks. But during the release of Aeronautica Imperialis we covered the resin variant of the Arvus Lighter in epic scale by Forge World. But in preparation for departure into a review covering almost 80 images, be certain that your seat back is straight up and your tray table is stowed.
The Arvus Lighter was so far only available as a resin kit from Forge World in 28-32mm and a rather niche option, as it is primarely a small cargo shuttle, mostly used to transfer supplies and small units, in between vessels or to planets. They are equipped with strong engines, to carry even the heaviest load, but it has no armaments as it is not expected to engage the enemy. Yet in this iteration, it is armed with a multi-laser in the back.
Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Medusa and Basilisk Batteries
We are doing a double feature for the Solar Auxilia today, covering a kit in both Legions Imperialis and Horus Heresy scale. We're building the Medusa and Basilisk, once as a battery and one time as a single miniature.
For Legions Imperialis it is a set of 8 models, covering both Medusas and Basilisks in a single box.
You might be irritated to see a Basilisk on a Leman Russ chassis. The variants we know from Warhammer 40k are much younger, based upon the chimera chassis that wasn't around during the civil war. The Leman Russ was the work horse of the Imperial warmachine and thus provided for vehicles in its weight class the base for example the self-propelled-gun variants, we talk about today. And in addition to the the many, many different alterations of the Leman Russ himself, there were further derivations for example tank hunter variants, with hull mounted weaponry as well and even recovery vehicles like the Atlas.
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