Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Valdor Tank Destroyer

This week is packed with Solar Auxilia. We had the Medusa/Basilisk earlier, the Arvus Lighter as well today and going to have the sister-tank to this one, the Malcador Infernus tomorrow.

But today - today is about the Valdor Tank Destroyer, as it is available for pre-order this saturday and will be released / delivered on Februar 1st.

The Valdor Tank Hunter, named after Captain General Constantin Valdor of the Legio Custodes, uses the Malcador heavy tank chassis and was developed during the Horus Heresy, to provide the Solar Auxilia with a weapon to counter the heavy armoured vehicles of the traitor legions. It is armed with a Neutron Laser Projector, which was mounted upon the Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer and Sicaran Venator tanks of the Legio Astartes as well.

This tank pattern was used beyond the Horus Heresy, during the Great Scouring and put into service as a rare relict with the Imperial Guard, and saw action among other campaigns on Vrak in the final phases of the war.

With the Malcador being available as a plastic kit and Games Workshop moving away from hybrid kits, they now have the chance to release this as a full plastic kit. Re-using some sprues from the Malcador chassis and adding the new parts needed for the conversion / completion in additional sprues.

At a total of 6 sprues of various sizes, the box has a RRP of 55 GBP / 70 EUR and includes a decal sheet along with a b/w instruction booklet.

The decal sheet gives us various numbers and icons for vehicles and provides black and white insignia of a two cohorts of the Solar Auxilia, the loyal Boremanite Devils and traitorious Cthonian Headhunters.

The first pages of the instructions, give us an overview of the sprues included, with two large ones, three medium sized ones and a small one.

The kit re-uses two sprues from the Malcador, both named B, covering the sides and lower parts of the hull. As well as Sprue F, which is used for all the hull and sponson mounted weaponry, across the Solar Auxilia and as such not only with the Malcador but Leman Russ kit as well.

The sprue E is used with both, the Malcador Infernus and Valdor Tank Destroyer, as it provides the modified crew compartment, along with mounts for the casemate-mounted guns.

Said gun, the Neutron Laser Projector, can be found in sprue F, with all the additional parts, for example the power lines, feeding the laser.

These new sprues have a little Warhammer icon on them, which is a new design choice.

Last but not least, the Valdor Tank Destroyer has a Solar Auxilia Vehicle Upgrade sprue, featuring the dozer blade and various other optional bits and pieces for the heavy tank included.

Assembly of these chassis is pretty straight forward. We begin with the tracks and due to the size of these pieces, they are build from multiple segments to create their final size.

The tracks are the same design as they have been since the early 90s, with the Imperial Guard tanks. A very nice detail and coherent decision. But due to the grooves they got easier to assemble.

While above we had minor differences to the regular Malcador track sections, the hull with the modified crew compartments is quite different. Yet, these are again the same steps for Malcador Infernus as well as the Valdor tank. The small mounts on the floor provide grip to these parts, that would otherwise be simple encased. Unfortunately, unlike the Medusa/Basilisk, we don't get an interior in this case.

The rear, where the engine and part of the transmission is housed, is empty. But more on that further below.

We aren't supposed to add the sides just yet, but I wanted to show you the "generic" base chassis for both Malcador Infernus and Valdor Tank Hunter.

From here on, we have individual steps from here. I started assembling the engine bay and was a bit irritated, to look into the empty space beneath the doors, and that was not something that I want to keep that way. I had a tank engine from another model and coincidentally it fit the width of the section.

This is a part from a Rubicon Tiger Tank, a HL230 V12 engine and in one of the Imperial Armour books it says, that the Malcador tank uses a HL330 v12 Multi-Fuel engine, what a coincedence.

But it looked a bit lost, so I added some pieces from the vehicle upgrade sprue, to provide it with a bit more size. In addition I added some spare pistons, I had from the Thanatar legs, a spare back plate from the Infernus, closed the area on one side and created a more crowded engine bay.

Of course, this shouldn't go to waste and I want to provide a better access, not only for painting, but later on the model, so I carefully cut away the doors and left the hinges, so I can assemble them in a way, that the engine can be seen.

Next are the trench rails, fuel drums and exhausts. I only placed the trench rail without glueing them, to have better access for painting.

For the track sections, the Valdor only has a sponson on one side, as the left side has the power-supply of the Neutron Laser Projector.

As for the Neutron Laser, that is quite the massive piece and is mounted, with a slight option to elevate the gun itself. By clever split of the pieces, the gap or seam where the larger pieces connect are covered. There are two more struts connecting the left and right side, providing further stability.

While we added the majority of tracks in the first steps, now the last ones including the track guards are added to the side. Some of them only connect, when the sides are added, and especially the track guards are not entirely optional. If you intend to leave them off, you will have to fill in some gaps in the middle sections. On top of those, a roof for the encased gun is added, along with the middle section of the power supply.

The single sponson of the Valdor Tank Hunter on the right side of the tank, can mount different guns. You pick these from the sprue sprue and with little effort you could magnetize them. While the Malcador has the sponson on the inside, with the Infernus and Valdor, the sponsons are on the outside of the side pieces.

The Solar Auxilia vehicle upgrade kit, makes use here as well, as you have various options you might add to your tank. Beside the bulldozer shield are missiles, a crew man and isignia among other items included.

The commanders hatch can be closed or opened, with the crew man in a few different poses added to that spot.

And this is the final build of the Valdor Tank Hunter, featuring some of the options. Please note, that I didn't glue everything in place, as I still want to be able to access certain areas for painting. So some of the gaps won't be there, once fully assembled. I kept them in the shown sub-builds, to paint them up seperately and glue them afterwards.

We want to give some size comparisons, as you can see here next to the Medusa based upon the Leman Russ, or the Malcador Infernus.

And of course in direct comparison with the smaller epic scale Valdor Tank from the Legions Imperialis range.

Conclusion

The design of the tank destroyers always appealed to me, and with the Valdor I had seen multiple dioramas in the past, showing it in service of the Death Korps of Krieg and such. But with it being a massive resin kit (only a few pieces of track were plastic), and the Forge World price, I didn't really feel like I wanted to tackle that challenge. The large resin side parts are prone to warpage and thus take a bit more patience and craftmanship from the builder. But those days are gone, at least for the Valdor Tank Hunter and with this plastic kit you have a very reasonable entry towards both a gaming piece as much as a stunning looking model kit.

After building the Medusa, I was hoping for more interior detail, or maybe a few pieces to create more variation with the tank commander. Some stowage for example would have been nice, as the smaller Legions Imperialis kit covers just that. There is no vehicle upgrade kit for that currently in stock, some things could be picked up from OOP Forge World upgrades, or third party manufacturers. Especially if you go for a themed army, that fights during the late Heresy and maybe the Great Scouring, strong weathering and further (improvised) equipment would look fitting.

And to point out, this model is not exclusive to the Horus Heresy, you can use it with 40k in your Astra Militarum as well. Just leave the icons from the Solar Auxiliar off, and either use bits from the Tank Accessories or Cadian Upgrade kit, to bring it into service with the Imperial forces. There is still a broad variety of renegade and loyalist vehicle crews from Forge World, partially OOP, from the Imperial Armour 5+6 Siege of Vrak campaign book releases.

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.