Warhammer 40,000 – Blood Angels Commander Dante

Along with the Lion, and briefly after Azrael, another classic Warhammer hero returns Commander Dante.

He is the second of the major Blood Angels characters to cross the Rubicon Primaris after Mephiston, the Chief Librarian.

The box is available for pre-order since today, April 15th, at a RRP of 35 EUR and will be delivered a week after.

Dante had an old model, which was available as a metal and later finecast miniature. There's a very early Rogue Trader era Blood Angels captain (070268/3), who seems to be the base for the aesthetics of both, Captain Tycho and Commander Dante. So, depending on how you count, this is the second / third iteration of this character.

But let us introduce Commander Dante, to those who don't know him.Commander Dante is a Blood Angels character that is around since the 2nd Edition of Warhammer 40,000 universe, and was introduced in the Angels of Death Codex supplement that covered both Dark Angels and Blood Angels. He is one of the most revered and experienced Space Marine commanders, having led his chapter for over 1,000 years.

The sprue is properly packed and casted with crisp and fine details. Basically, minor to no clean up needed for mould lines, only filing the connection to the sprue during the build process.

We will build him from the bottom up, beginning with the base topper, which recreates his classic pose - very fitting for a character with jump pack. While the metal miniature had the tendency to break at the tip of his toes, the connection here is stronger and still quite elegant.

With Dante crossing the Rubicon Primaris, his armour was upgraded as well. Yet, this is not a typical Mk X power armour, but a reforged variant of his artificer power armour.

Minor details come as separate pieces, to ensure their level of detail and to work around the undercut limitations of injection moulding.

And even after 1,000 years and after becoming a Primaris, Dante still uses his iconic equipment - the Perdition Pistol and Axe Mortalis. Both items were upscaled to fit his new massive frame.

But of course, Commander Dante wouldn't be Dante, if he wasn't wearing the Death Mask of Sanguinius, his laurel wreath, and a refashioned Iron Halo. Once again, due to the way these pieces are split, a very plastic final result, you would otherwise only be capable of producing in resin.

The final piece is the jump pack, which was upgraded as well, in the style of the Primaris Interceptors.

I only blu-tacked the jump pack to the model, to be able to paint the shoulder pads properly. A very neat design.

The combination of Commander Dante being a bit taller than your regular Primaris Marine and his elevated pose on top of the ruin, really makes him stand out. As you can see in the second row, he comes eye to eye with a Primarch! Oddly enough, Dante seems to be the one classic Space Marine Character that I don't own so I had to use the comparison picture from Warhammer Community. First row middle, shows the very first Space Marine next to the almost triple the size Commander Dante.

I like the dynamic pose and it is a trueful reimagination of this character into the 10th edition of Warhammer 40,000.

Conclusion

As Commander Dante is such a powerful and iconic character from the Blood Angels range, I saw many people building updated variants of him using the Sanguinary Guard and later with the release of Age of Sigmar, using combinations of Stormcast and Sanguinary Guard bits. And now, you have access to a proper official model, that is quickly and easily build.

While the prices of these characters are certainly steep, I welcome the updated models as they carry more weight and tradition, than most of the newer characters. I would love to see more of the classics crossing the Rubicon Primaris, as this is not just about scale but giving some heroes, who have been around for 30 years a well-earned update and give the designers a chance to incorporate their ideas and new possibilities upon some icons of the Warhammer universe. But it will be interesting to see, who will cross the Rubicon Primaris next, as we have the Dark Angels covered with Azrael, the Space Wolves with Ragnar Blackmane, as did Marneus Calgar and Tigurius for the Ultramarines and now the Blood Angels add Dante to Mephiston. Ezekiel would be an interesting choice to add to the Dark Angels, as some other choices got an update but are still Firstborn like Asmodai or Space Wolves' Ulrik the Slayer.

If you need inspiration for further Primaris Blood Angels characters, Requiem_82, who I already mentioned in the Azrael review, did some amazing conversions, on Dante himself, and two classics from the Blood Angels range, the Blood Angels Chaplain (from the Angels of Death cover) and the Blood Angels Captain (original classic captain).

Warhammer 40,000 is a brand by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer