Warhammer 40,000 – Goliath Truck and Rockgrinder

A themed week on industrial vehicles without mentioning the most obvious one, the Goliath Truck and Goliath Rockgrinder, wouldn't be complete. So here it is.

I have been really looking forward to show you this kit. Ever since it was released, it is on my watchlist and I really like the design they went with on the revamp of the Genestealer Cult. Through the industrial mining look, the Cult fits very well with one of my favorite settings within 40k, Necromunda. The suits, the gear and the other vehicles have such a strong connection and make for such a great themed army. With that said, this is probably the one where you have the least amount of work to bring it into a non-combatant role (if you want to).

But enough of the intro, let's open this box. The kit, that gives you enough parts to build either the Goliath Truck or Rockgrinder has a 46 EUR price tag and comes with two sprues and a multipage instruction.

Similar to yesterdays Skorpius kit, we have one sprue filled with larger parts and another one with lots and lots of smaller bits and pieces. Casting is superb, very little clean up needed.

As the Rockgrinder is a heavier variant of the "regular" Goliath Truck, we can build both in one go, beginning with the main hull. Lots of large pieces with a good fit. You might end up with some smaller gaps, you can either try to close them with using liquid green stuff / a filler, or by adding pressure until the glue cures.

The Goliath has a very unique design, with a driver seat in the middle position and bully, wide wheel arches. Additional panels and tools are added to the interior and exterior. As I want to use this in generic, non-GSC scenarios, I removed the small cult pendant. The hatch for the gunner can be closed or open.

The Goliath has two settings for the height of the axles. You can add the wheels in a raised position for more ground clearance or lower to show the weight of the additional Rockgrinder gear. I went with the lower setting, so that the bulldozer blade will be closer to the ground.

Take a look at the exhaust pipe, that piece could be used as a massive flamer or melta cannon as well. The Goliath has a tool rack on the right side and the cover can be build either closed or opened.

If you want to build the Rockgrinder, the flat bed is covered with a raised layer. This shot is just to show you how it would look, as I prefer the lower flat bed. (You don't need to use that one, it is just a variant to show the transport capacity of the regular Truck compared to the Rockgrinder).

Now for all the bars added to the exterior of the Goliath. You have a proper railing behind the weapon mount along with some hand rails in the transport compartment. Along with the front mount for the bulldozer blade (if you don't intend to use that one, you could leave the front mount off). The tailgate can be build either closed or opened, I really like the idea of an folded down / open tailgate, to give the option to place someone or something on top of it. Look at the small chains left and right, holding it in place.

We have a spare mining hammer, along with the turnable weapon mount and the heavy stubber. This one can either build connected to a crew member or as a single piece. I went with the later to be more flexible.

The weapon mount can either be used for the twin-linked autocannon of the truck or the heavier weaponry of the Rockgrinder. Please take note that the instruction unfortunately has two typos on the part numbers. Nothing to complicated as the parts are clearly distinguishable, just a heads up.

The Rockgrinder has access to heavy mining lasers, seismic cannons and clearance incinerators. I went with the seismic cannon, as it looks the most industrial. You could make those swapable with magnets. Be sure not to glue the upper part of the weapon rack onto the lower mount, in case you want to be able to switch between Truck and Rockgrinder.

The truck has a twin-linked autocannon on a flat weapon mount, that connects to the same piece as the Rockgrinder's weapon mount.

To give you a better idea of what I mean, a short series of pictures. You can easily swap them, if you want to make it more stable, use magnets.

Now for the wheels and the control panel. I really love the way these wheels look, it would be great if Games Workshop offered them as spares, as you could convert a lot of vehicles, for example the ork trucks with it. I added the control panel, you would only need it for the Rockgrinder, but I think it looks great for the truck as well, to steer the autocannon.

Now for the drilldozer blade. This is perhaps the most work intense part of the build, as you want to make sure to clean any mould lines from the circular saw blades. I like the small details on this one, like the rack with the off-road lights rack, great addition. You can easily keep this whole blade optional, by using either pins or magnets.

There is a small crew of fourth generation cultist. You have a half-torso for the gunner and three standing crew men, of them has optional parts to steer the weaponry of the Rockgrinder. Due to the way these are designed, you can easily convert them with using parts from the Neophyte Hybrids, for example to give the gunner another part of arms/hands, in case you build the heavy stubber as a piece of its own.

And the completed Goliath, either as a truck or as Rockgrinder, with the "modified" lower flat bed and crew added.

For a brief size comparison, even though it is "just a truck, it is the size of a Rhino. And with its generic industrial look, you can use it with Necromunda gangs, you could use it with Adeptus Mechanicus (maybe a lowtech cult), Ashwaste nomands and many more.

And of course the final set of pictures of the truck, but without the crew and the lowered flat bed of the truck on both builds. I would have to add some kind of joysticks to the control panel to finish the build.

Conclusion
Am I satisfied? Absolutely! This was a very fun build. A great looking vehicle and it is a shame that I didn't have the chance to cover the kit earlier on here. One of the reasons was, that I was hoping for a Start Collecting! box for the Genestealer Cult, sporting this truck along with some hybrids and a character. Well, maybe it is not to late to pack one for us, as you could easily have more than one Goliath truck/rockgrinder.

I love the amount of detail that went into this kit. It is very convincing and can easily build both variants, if you use a few magnets or pins. I like it when they keep the design in such a way, that's very customer friendly. Along with the crew, that gives you additional poses for your Neophyte Hybrids, it is solid set. Add a box of the just mentioned third and fourth generation cultists and you have a proper Kill Team (if we get vehicle rules) or Necromunda gang. If you go for less mutated parts from the fourth generation hybrids you can even field them as a regular mining militia of some kind. As a kit it gives you a great canvas for some mute colours, along with heavy weathering, it is a mining vehicle after all.

46 EUR isn't a bargain, but it is reasonable for a kit of this quality. If we would have the chance to get this as a Start Collecting box or "mobile infantry" bundle, as they offered the Astra Militarum with a Chimera, it would be an even better deal.

Warhammer 40,000 is a brand by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.