Horus Heresy – Mechanicum Heavy Support Force
Early in february we saw the teaser for the next Horus Heresy boxed set - the Mechanicum Heavy Support Force! A bit as a surprise, because we mostly saw regular battle groups so far with Legiones Astartes or Solar Auxilia, now the Mechanicum even gets some tactical reinforcement.
Interesting combination regarding the content, as we get variants of existing kits with the Karacnos and Thanatar, and an entire new plastic kit with the Krios Battle Tank / Venator, for a price of 110 GBP/ 145 EUR.
Star Wars Shatterpoint – Vent Building
We had a good time with the last kit we build from the Star Wars Shatterpoint terrain range, the Maintenance Bay Terrain Pack, and have an eye on the upcoming releases. And while I have the two other sets, High Ground and Take Cover, I was missing a single building, that is exclusive to the Starterset.
While that is a real good bargain, with two starter warbands and a lot of terrain, I want to use this terrain with my Legions miniatures and wasn't interested in the other items from that set, so I went on the second hand market and picked up the Vent Building on its own. The other terrain items from the Shatterpoint Starterset are the same as in the High Ground Terrain Pack.
We have a few sprues and as usual the assembly instruction can be downloaded from the Atomic Mass Games website, and I put them on my tablet.
Quick removal of the parts from the sprue. A bit of clean up where the parts connect to the frame, but beyond that very little mould lines to clean up.
Warhammer 40,000 – Converting the Space Marine Terminators
Last year I showed you the new Space Marine Terminator Squad, in updated scale and Indomitus pattern armour. And those were build with the intention of use in Space Hulk, as written last July as well. As I pointed out, a few options and poses were missing to fulfill all roles needed to play the different campaigns.
As a TLDNR sum up, there is the core game of Space Hulk and further campaigns, making use of the Terminator variant boxed sets for Dark Angels or Space Wolves, and I wanted to re-create this more Codex Astartes compliant with Sons of Dorn, the Imperial Fists. By using the parts from the Terminator Squad plastic kit and further sprues, among others from the Deathwing Assault set, I went on to convert the Terminator miniatures for the weapon load outs, that I would need to cover the extended gaming material.
While could build most of what we need, especially for the Space Hulk core set and Ultramarines campaign from the vanilla Terminator squad, there are still a few poses open.
From the Dark Angels campaign Bringer of Sorrow, we would need the third Terminator with a special weapon, in this case the Plasma Cannon, as we covered the heavy flamer with the multi-part squad and the assault cannon from Leviathan.
January 2025 review
Welcome to 2025 and we're doing a recap on January!
The year started directly with a gaming event, Dino and I went to ScenarioCon in Hackenheim. I managed to play quite a few games, tried out Fallout Wasteland Warfare, a home brew horror game about Jack the Ripper and All That'Z Left.
Adeptus Titanicus – Legio Astraman Ad Arma Pt. XVI
With the finished bases packed in the boxes, I went off to the paint meetup last year, and this was my project for inbetween the other things to get either into the mood for painting or as a palette cleanser.
I used 3d printed bits and parts from the Civitas Imperialis ruins set, along with spackle and cork, to finish the bases.
From there I went the regular route, adding the texture paste (used the remainder of the Armageddon Dunes and Armageddon Dust, but from now on using Dark Earth by Vallejo) and let it dry properly.
Adeptus Titanicus – The Dark Mechanicum stalks…
We've covered the Dark Mechanicum units for Legions Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus, and the smaller Stalker Constructs "only" include two of each of the three different constructs, so I went for a second box to boost them up to four per unit.
It was important to me, to swap around the legs and poses as much as possible, to create the most variety from that set. With the Scintillax "Cyclops" Noospheric Stalker and Tenebrax "Archer" Battle Stalker, that wasn't the biggest issue as they have weapons options and that alone prevented them from being a clone army.
Legions Imperialis – Converting the Termite Assault Drills
While covering the Termite Assault Drills last August, I further altered the built and captured it in pictures, but didn't come around earlier to write an article about it. You can stretch the eight models per box by a bit, if you grab a hobby saw.
The Assault Drills breach from the ground or into it, and by that you get the perfect idea to build them that way.
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 Arvus Lighter
What's the difference between a Hippo and a Zippo? One's really heavy, the other's a little lighter.
Well and today we're covering the Arvus Lighter for the Solar Auxilia. It is going for pre-order today and will be delivered on February 1st of 2025.
We don't cover aircrafts that often on the blog, if it is vehicles it is mostly tanks. But during the release of Aeronautica Imperialis we covered the resin variant of the Arvus Lighter in epic scale by Forge World. But in preparation for departure into a review covering almost 80 images, be certain that your seat back is straight up and your tray table is stowed.
The Arvus Lighter was so far only available as a resin kit from Forge World in 28-32mm and a rather niche option, as it is primarely a small cargo shuttle, mostly used to transfer supplies and small units, in between vessels or to planets. They are equipped with strong engines, to carry even the heaviest load, but it has no armaments as it is not expected to engage the enemy. Yet in this iteration, it is armed with a multi-laser in the back.
Like us on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram
Categories
- events (188)
- fantasy (526)
- General (155)
- historical (591)
- Little Big Adventures (4)
- offtopic (5)
- reviews (461)
- science fiction (570)
- showroom (97)
- work-in-progress (384)
