Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Malcador Infernus

And to complete the preview on the upcoming Solar Auxilia releases, the Malcador Infernus will be reviewed today, in addition to yesterdays Arvus Lighter and Valdor Tank Hunter.

The Malcadur Infernus uses the chassis of the Malcador heavy battle tank and is an alteration to fulfill a certain role on the battle field and mounted with a larger weapon system in the hull, just like the Valdor. In case of the Infernus, it is armed with a vehicle-sized flamer, the Inferno Gun, which is sometimes even used on titans like the Warhound Scout Titan.

While it dates back to the Age of Strife and was produced during the Horus Heresy on both Forge Worlds of Voss and Mars, it was relegated to strategic reserves and second line units during the civil war, and within the 40th millenium only in service by a few Imperial Guard units due to tradition, as it was mostly replaced by the faster more reliable Hellhound tank. The concept of a flame tank is not sci-fi, and was in fact put into reality during both world wars (yet more or less only prototypes in world war 1) with the very similar Churchill Crocodile, which was a converted battle tank with a fuel trailer.

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.

Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Medusa and Basilisk

While we're waiting for the release of the Malcador Variants of Infernus and Valdor in Horus Heresy scale, we fill the gap with the Basilik / Medusa kit for the Solar Auxilia today - in a double feature. Because not only do we cover this one in Horus Heresy scale of 32mm, we do also have you covered for Legions Imperialis today in this review of the Medusa and Basilisk Battery.

During the civil war of the Horus Heresy, the Leman Russ was the work horse of the Imperial warmachine and used as a chassis to build various variants and derivations, for different purposes, like the self-propelled-gun variants, we talk about today. The chimera chassis, which was developed later would take over some of the variants, therefore the Basilisk in 40k looks different than 30k. And with the Solar Auxilia Leman Russ plastic kit we have the chance to see these as new full plastic sets and not resin or hybrid set.

Games Workshop repurposes some of the sprues to cover these variants, we see this today with the Medusa and Basilisk, where the track sections and parts of the hull are re-used, and we will see this with the Malcador later this week. But let us open up the box and see, what is inside.