Horus Heresy – Legiones Astartes Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought

With the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought, the third Dreadnought pattern after Leviathan and Contemptor made its transition from a resin kit towards plastic for the Horus Heresy range.

Beginning with the second edition of Warhammer 40k / post-Rogue Trader era, the classic pattern we know as a dreadnought is classified as Castraferrum Pattern Mark V Dreadnought, with the variants that were released by Forge World as Mark IV with slightly slender / less bulky proportions.

The first Dreadnoughts, similar to a lot of now Space Marine war gear, was just called Imperial Dreadnought and over the time retconned as Furibundus Pattern in the lore. Their initial sculpts were made by Bob Naismith. The Rogue Trader design was picked up later and transformed what we know today as Contemptor Dreadnought.

The basic function of a Dreadnought within a Space Marine legion or chapter is the same. The remains of a wounded soldier are embedded into these weaponized tombs and he can once again serve alongside his brothers. There are multiple patterns, depending on the role of the Dreadnought on the battlefield, and during the era of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought was developed and put to use as a heavy support unit, with access to various heavy weaponry. While it was initially deployed in low numbers among the Legiones Astartes, the effectiveness of the Deredeo Pattern created a higher demand during the Imperial civil war.

While the Anvilus Configuration that we will build today, covers the options for the Anvilus Autocannon Battery and Hellfire Plasma Cannonade as a main weaponry, there are other options available to the Deredeo, for example Heavy Lascannons and Volkite Falconet Battery. These are currently covered by Forge World, but I expect them to be released as plastics as well, similar to what we saw with the Leviathan or Contemptor Dreadnought. Beyond that, the close-in defence weaponry of the Deredeo covers either twin-linked Heavy Bolters or Heavy Flamers and in case of this boxed set, the Aiolos Missile Launcher, as a shoulder mounted weapon system. That slot can be used for Boreas Air Defence Missiles or the Atomantic Pavaise, currently only available (previewed) in resin.

The plastic kit is 65 EUR RRP and spread across four sprues. Two of which cover the frame of the Deredeo and the additional two include the weapon systems, Autocannon, Hellfire Plasma and Missile Launcher. This way it would be easily possible to swap the two weapon sprues and include different weapon systems. In addition, you will find the assembly instructions, an 80mm round base and the vehicle decal sheet, with iconography for Sons of Horus and Imperial Fists.

The sprues are filled to the brim, no large gaps and a few options for the armour panels as well. But we will go into detail on that further below. Beyond that, moderate mould lines and crisp details.

We begin as usual from the bottom up. The Deredeo has three different feet, to build two different poses. Either a stabilised stand or a walking pose. Depending on that the side-toes are either folded up or on the ground. We went with the walking pose and folded up side-toes.

The two poses are just suggestions, you can pose the legs a bit more freely due to the (ball-)joints on the ankles, knees and hips.

The groin piece combining the two legs comes with a clean and a sculpted groin armour, as well as the knee pad, which are either both clear so you can apply decals on them, or with either a coat-of-arms or the eye of horus. As we're going with a traitor build on this one, we will use the clean groin armour and eye of horus for the knee.

The upper torso is connected via a ball-joint to the hips, so you can angle and level it to a certain degree. The connectors on the sides will give you some degree of freedom for the weapons later on. As you can see, they have a tongue-and-groove connection for better guidance.

The front armour on the Deredeo is a two-piece, and comes with three different designs. You could mix them if you want, as the connecting area is the same for all of the designs. It comes with a clean one, a loyal aquilas and an iron halo style for the traitors. As mentioned above, we will do a traitor build and go with the halo. On the underside you see, that the weapons can be magnetised and you have the choice between heavy flamers and heavy bolters. They keep in place by friction, but are a very tight fit. Unlike the upper armour, which created some gaps that will need some filling.

Next is the head, which is available in two variants, a regular and one more elite one with a scroll across the forehead. The head can be turned and slightly elevated.

As for the weapon mounts, they can be magnetized / swapped, but not in the way you could expect. They are not magnetized on the ball-joint of the shoulder, but inside the connector piece, as you can see from the magnet mounts.

There are two main weapon systems included in this kit, and we start building the Hellfire Plasma Cannonade. Keep in mind, that the main weapon systems have batteries/ammunition feeds, that can be magnetized to the back of the hull as well. Align these before you glue anything down. The build of the plasma cannonade is mirrored and identical on both sides.

Same thing for the Autocannon Battery, impressive how they made the ammo belt feeder, as it is really plastic and you could do something like that in the past only with resin. Very well made.

As the sides are taking care of, we now add the shoulder mount, which is covered in the Anvilus configuration with a Aiolos Missile Launcher. This is very similar to the design that was included with the Whirlwind or Hammerfall Bunker. You could obviously drill some of the small rockets out to show depleted rounds.

And that's how they look assembled. Quite a good fit, even just put in place by friction.

Each weapon is held in place by four magnets, two on the shoulder joints and two more for the ammunition/battery.

I kept the model in build units, for easier painting. As you can see, the legs, the upper torso, head and all the weapons separately. I have to say, I thought it would be bigger compared to the Space Marines, from memory - but then I remembered that they scaled up the new Marines so they are now beefier compared to the first edition Horus Heresy pictures.

And here is the Anvilus Configuration of the Deredeo, one time with the Hellfire Plasma Cannonade and Autocannon Battery.

Conclusion

Load out is quite compelling, but some of the fit is not the best on some parts. For example, the armour panels will need some additional attention. I was surprised how tight the close weapons fit, but overall, the magnet options are impressive, yet the choice for the size is unusual, compared with the Adeptus Titanicus range. Until the second weapon load out is released, you can work with the resin bits, as they seem to be compatible. And this might be the chance for the Atomantic Pavaise to be finally released, after its preview on the Open Day in 2016.

This plastic kit surely is cheaper than the reason option, especially as you know have two weapon systems included, and not bought individually at 30 EUR each. Unlike the other Dreadnought patterns, the Deredeo didn't have any legion specific designs, so there are no hybrid kits on that end, but with this plastic kit you have three different options for that right from the start (with the eagle, the halo and blank armour plates). And some items, like the barrels of the Autocannon are surely easier to handle and less hassle in a plastic kit.

Yet, the time it took to build this model was above average. It was quite time consuming. One for the mould lines which were more present compared to other kits recently, and the other due to the complexity of the shape, the design is broken into multiple smaller parts to create rounds / bends etc. and this added to the time needed for the assembly.

Beyond that, I like the design and I'm really looking forward to get some of those as a unit in Horus Heresy Legions Imperialis.

Warhammer 40,000 and The Horus Heresy are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.