Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Malcador Infernus and Valdor Tank Destroyer
While we covered the Dracosan Transport and the main build of the Malcador for the Solar Auxilia, it is now time to give the Malcador Infernus and Valdor Tank Destroyer for Legions Imperialis a closer look, especially as both were just teased in plastic for full scale Horus Heresy.
This is a mixed kit, featuring two of each Malcador specialised variants for a RRP of 41 EUR.
Both tanks are named after important characters / heroes of the Imperium, the main tank and chassis itself after the Sigilite, Malcador and the tank hunter variant after Captain-General Constantin Valdor of the Legio Custodes. These variants are a usual thing and often seen with historical tanks as well, using a widly produced chassis and repurposing it to various roles needed on the battlefield, for example the PzKpfw. V Panther was build as a regular battle tank, but also as the tank destroyer variant Jagdpanther, with a hull-mounted weapon (the Allies mostly went for turret mounted tank destroyers). The Allies did similar with their battle tanks, for example the Churchill Infantry tank had a variant with a mounted flame thrower and fuel-trailer, the Churchill Crocodile, which pretty much is the template for the Malcador Infernus.
Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Dracosan Transport Detachment
As we have covered the Legions Imperialis transporters for the other forces, like the Rhinos for Legiones Astartes or Triaros for Mechanicum, it is now time to take a closer look upon the Dracosan for the Solar Auxilia.
We have already reviewed the Dracosan for Horus Heresy on this blog, so it is a neat addition to cover the smaller epic scale kit as well.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Triaros Squadron
Within the Mechanicum Battle Group for Legions Imperialis are not only infantry and walkers, but an armoured transport vehicle as well - the Triaros Armoured Conveyor as a squadron of four. We even recently covered the 32mm variant plastic kit from the Horus Heresy range on here as well.
Currently only available as part of the Mechanicum Battle Group the Triaros Squadron will be available as a set of its own shortly. As usual we get two identical sprues, the instructions are part of the combined booklet and at least as part of the Battle Group it does not come with decals. But this was the case with any of the vehicle kits from the Legiones Astartes or Solar Auxilia, and if you ask me the icon on the side doors of the Triaros shown above are decals as well, so we might see these in a later release.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Thanatar Siege-Automata
Another kit that we just recently build in full scale of Horus Heresy, the Mechanicum Thanatar Siege-Automata. And while the larger brother is currently "just" available as the Thanatar Cavas Siege Automata, the new sprue as part of the Mechanicum Battle Group covers both, the Cavas and Calix Siege Automata.
Availability currently limited to the Battle Group, we will see this box of 8 of the Thanatar Siege-Automata somewhere in the close future at a RRP of 41 EUR, covering two identical sprues and eight bases with 32mm diameter.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Battle Automata
In between the regular Mechanicum Infantry and the largest of the Siege Automata are various classes of Battle Automata the (Dark) Mechanicum can muster, and that is another new set as part of the Mechanicum Battle Group.
This set combines five different Battle Automata, with the first time we've seen the Arlatax Battle-Automata and small versions of the Castellax, Domitar and Vorax Battle-Automata as well as the Vultarax Strato-Automata.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Infantry
Among the sets from the Mechanium Battle Group is a whole new set of Mechanicum Infantry with quite a lot of units covered in a single kit. As of today these only available through the battle group but will be released as individual kits soon.
The RRP of the Battle Group is 125 EUR for four sets of different Mechanicum units, compared to 41 EUR RRP for a single set of two sprues with bases (25mm round in this set) and an instruction leaflet.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Battle Group
A proper start for the Mechanicum in Legions Imperialis, not with single boxes but directly with a Battle Group boxed set and a new campaign supplement The Rise of the Dark Mechanicum to cover the rules for these new units.
This trend to introduce new units as a bigger boxed set is something that we saw for a while now with the Horus Heresy, we received the "full scale" Mechanicum this way, the Solar Auxilia and most of the updated Marks for the Legiones Astartes.
The Mechanicum Battle Group is available as of today (October 19th) for pre-order and will be released on Saturday November 2nd 2024.
The way Games Workshop counts the miniatures for Legions Imperialis is a bit irritating, as they count each model individually (for example crew of weapon platforms count as individual models), so the 40 Tech-Thralls boost that number quite a bit. In this case you get 146 miniatures in their epic scale for 95 GBP / 125 EUR RRP. Unlike the two other Battle Groups for Solar Auxilia and Legiones Astartes, the Mechanicum "only" covers four boxes instead of five, which is the reason why this boxed set is a bit cheaper than the other ones. What individual kits these are, will be answered further below.