Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transporter

While we had Leman Russ chassis for quite some time and even in the prior edition of Horus Heresy hybrid kits using the plastics with resin parts, the full resin kits based upon the Malcador chassis are getting replaced by complete plastic kit and various variants right from the start. One of these Malcador based vehicles is the Dracosan Armoured Transporter, which we will covered in today's review as part of the Solar Auxilia Battle Group.

The bulky transport can carry up to 22 models, depending on the weapon configuration, and drops down to 10 when you choose the demolisher cannon. There is a smaller alternative for the Solar Auxilia for transport, roughly Rhino sized, the Aurox, but that one has lighter armour and wasn't announced so far to be moved from resin to plastic.

The Dracosan has a cargo-hauling "sister", the Broncosan, which has remained unpictured so far. But with this plastic kit, it might be an interesting conversion idea for terrain or Necromunda.

We've talked about the aspect, that the Dracosan is based upon the Malcador chassis multiple times, so it is no surprise, that we have shared sprues. The two main sprues of the sides and lower hull, are shared with the upcoming Malcador plastic kit.

Then there are two sprues covering the enlarged hull, to transport up to 22 soldiers within, along with the weapon upgrade to give you both options, of the Demolisher Cannon and Gravis Lascannon.

With this release, we got an updated Solar Auxilia vehicle upgrade sprue. In there you will find the dozer blade, hunter-killer missiles, smoke launchers, various pintle-mounted weapons (multi-laser, heavy flamer and heavy stubber) along with two options for the crew men.

The instructions are pretty clear and give you a good overview on what to expect. The casting quality on the four large and one small sprue is pretty good. One piece wasn't fully formed, which would probably be a novelty for me, as I didn't come across that personally in a Citadel kit so far.

As we did multiple tank reviews on this page, we start the tracks. These are made from multiple pieces and you can see the cut outs for the sponson weaponry in the Malcador. We will cover these up later on with side panels. The shape of the Malcador chassis is similar to a Mark I tank.

The track sections are kept in the same design since the very beginning with the first Leman Russ kits in the 90s. But as part of the 30k aesthetics, you can see the wheels on the tank, as they are not flush with the armour panels, like in the 40k equivalents of the vehicles. We now have to identical, but mirrored sides of tracks. We move on with the hull.

The front armour panel is quite elaborate, with a lot of parts and even includes moving parts as the hull weapon (either gravis lascannon or demolisher cannon) can be elevated. Due to the angles of these pieces, it was a bit tricky to create a flush finish on the edges, as these are prone to leaving gaps. We had similar problems with the deredeo dreadnought body.

The next part is the middle of the tank, combining the two sides. The inside of the floor are markings, so I expect other variants to make use of that. We've seen it with the Basilisk and Medusa for the Leman Russ Chassis. This would increase the likeliness of further variants, beyond the Malcador, for example the Valdor or Infernus, we just saw for Legions Imperialis, but the addition of the Minotaur would be most amazing.

The fit so far is quite impressive and you get a proper feeling for the versatile nature of this kit. Up to this point, it more or less is the shared chassis for most of the Malcador variants.

And that is about to change, as we now add the track guards and side panels, to cover the mounts for the side sponson weapons. Interesting aspect, as you glue the tracks beneath the cover and add them as a single piece to the hull.

The raised transport bay is next. Another very plastic design, with the bars and raised elements. It is a tight but proper fit, and aligns well with the chassis.

And to complete the upper area, we insert the commanders hatch and side panel.

Among the pieces for the next step, I found a miscast / not fully casted hatch. You could either fix that with a bit of green stuff / putty, or just use it as battle damage, when you sharpen the edges. The majority of this step is the trench rails in the back. A design element used during the world wars, to prolong the tank hulls to make them able to cross the trenches. And the other parts are for the air filters.

Now for the hull weapons. The Dracosan Armoured Transport is armed with a gravis lascannon by default, but can upgrade to a Demolisher Cannon. If he chooses to do so, the transport capacity is reduced from 22 to 10. And while it is generous, that they come with two gun mounts, so you could swap between them. If they build them in a way, that you could magnets. Due to the fact, that the demolisher cannon is hollow, this is a bit tricky, but we will take that on further below in this review.

But now we start with the accessories. The hatches on the Dracosan and most other vehicles, can be build either closed or open, along with the option for pintle mounted weapons. Beyond that, there are two different crewmen, a gunner or more of a commander. In case you want a pintle-mounted weapon, you can choose between a multi-laser, a heavy flamer or heavy stubber.

But there are further parts to be added, partially optional. Spare tracks, single or twin hunter killer missiles, smoke launchers, a flare shield, and various auxilia insignia, that gets added to larger flat surfaces.

And of course, a dozer shield. This one is slightly different from the "regular" one for the Leman Russ, as you have the adapter to the body a bit higher, for it to snug to the underside of the chassis. This would be a piece, that would benefit from a magnet mount as well.

While the hull weapon are almost there, and the option to magnetize them could have been implement like with the Sentinel or the great Adeptus Titanicus range, it is unnecessary troublesome to magnetize this. While you can drill both the mount and backside of the Gravis Lascannon, you need to build a layer for the demolisher cannon for a magnet to stick on. After a bit of tinkering, I was able to make it work. But as said above, it could have been so much easier.

To give you a feeling for the size, the Dracosan is longer than a Land Raider (probably around Spartan length), but less wide than it. I assume that this is a good indicator regarding the price.

Naturally, a comparison with the little model. I didn't have a Dracosan at hand, when I did take the pictures for this review, as the Legions Imperialis weren't release yet.

The comparison within the other models from the Battle Group. A really great addition to this range, especially as the plastic kit is much more convenient to build, compared to the resin kit.

Conclusion

Bringing this kit from resin to plastic is convenient on multiple levels. For one, if it is the price of the Land Raider, the costs of this vehicle will be cut in half. With further possibilities for discounts if you go for the Battle Group. But beyond that, models of that size, build from resin aren't as easy. Warpage on a gun barrel is one thing, but if one of the track sides is misaligned, that is work and some trouble that I happily skip if I can.

Beyond that, having the Malcador chassis in plastic, opens it up to release the variants of it in plastic as well. So far we only had the announcement of the regular Heavy Tank, with the likelihood of Valdor and Infernus coming down the line, just like we saw with the Sicaran or Spartan tank hunter variants. Unsure about the Malcador Defender, as it is not part of the Liber Imperium army list, but could be added as an option with the upcoming supplement(s).

Was a pleasure to build. Yes, the damaged piece shouldn't happen, but I haven't heard a bad thing about the customer service so far. So, if you have something like that, get in touch with your dealer and they usually replace it. Still am irritated about the not implementation of magnet slots or something like that with the hull weapon. It would have been so easy and as they already went through the trouble of adding two gun shields (in other kits they force you to choose), it feels as they dropped the idea half-way or didn't think it through.

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.