Achilles-Alpha pattern Land Raider

Minotaurs Achilles-Alpha pattern Land Raider on display at Warhammer World.

Minotaurs Achilles-Alpha pattern Land Raider

This Achilles-Alpha pattern Land Raider is from the Minotaurs Space Marine Chapter. The Minotaurs is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter whose true origins and genetic lineage remain unknown. The Space Marine formation by this name at large in the Imperium today appears to bear little resemblance to accounts of its past.

The Achilles-Alpha pattern Land Raider is the most durable vehicle currently in the service of the Legiones Astartes. These vehicles shrug off weapon strikes that would cripple other battle tanks, and are proof against even the most toxic environment. The weaponry of these vehicles is formidable, featuring an advanced quad launcher and powerful volkite batteries.

I quite like the up-armoured appearance of this pattern of Land Raider, and the weaponry looks quite formidable. I can imagine this being used to clear barricades in the ruins of an Imperial City.

Land Raider MkIIb

The Mark IIb Land Raider Phobos is one of the earliest marks of the standard pattern of Land Raider, and it still bears similarities to both the Land Raider Proteus and the Spartan Assault Tank that served as the models for the design.

Land Raider MkIIb

The Mark IIb Land Raider Phobos is the only pattern of the standard Land Raider Phobos that uses the older armoured sponsons, as they do not allow the weapons they hold to fully rotate. This pattern of Land Raider is mostly extinct within Space Marine Armouries, having been replaced with newer marks and patterns of the standard Land Raider Phobos. However, some Chapters may still possess one or two as treasured relics of their ancient past.

The Land Raider MkIIb is probably my favourite Land Raider variant. I do have one of them in my collection. I knew that if I was going to get a Land Raider it would have to be the Forgeworld MkIIB Land Raider. I did get one in the end at GamesDay 2006. Sadly it was recently retired from the range. I wrote up some reflections on my MkIIB Land Raider, on the current state of the painting and what I needed to do next. In the end I went down a different route.

Malcador Infernus

Malcador Infernus

The Malcador Infernus is a variant of the venerable Malcador Assault Tank design. It is not widely used by Imperial armed forces at the present time and is in fact little known even within the Imperial military. In many regions of the Imperium, the Malcador passed out of common service many millennia ago. The few Malcadors that remain in the Emperor of Mankind’s service have been relegated to the Departmento Munitorum’s strategic reserve, to the arsenals of second-line Planetary Defence Forces or are maintained in active service only by a few units of the Imperial Guard due to ancient tradition. The Malcador Infernus variant has been mostly replaced by the faster and more reliable Hellhound in front-line Imperial Guard regiments. The Infernus is armed with a massive, vehicle-sized Flamer known as an Inferno Gun.

More photographs of the Malcador Infernus.

Sons of Horus Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer

This Sons of Horus Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer was on display at Warhammer World.

Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer

The Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer is a fearsome and highly specialised variant of the venerable Spartan chassis, developed during the Great Crusade and unleashed upon the galaxy by the Legiones Astartes. While it sacrifices the Spartan’s substantial transport capacity, its massive hull is uniquely adapted to house the complex apparatus required for its devastating primary armament: a prototype Neutron Laser Projector (often a triple-barreled configuration known as a Neutron Laser Battery).

The Neutron Laser is a weapon of the Dark Age of Technology, its principles still only poorly understood by the techno-savants of the Mechanicum. To manage the immense energies and deadly output, the Cerberus’s hull is crammed with sizeable arc-reactors and heavy radiation shielding. The weapon stands as one of the most effective anti-tank systems available to the Space Marine Legions. 

It fires an intense beam capable of:

    • Punching through the strongest vehicle plating, even the ceramite of other super-heavy tanks.
    • Shorting out a target’s systems with a powerful burst of electromagnetic and radiation energy.
    • Neutralising even Titan-class opponents by inflicting a ‘Concussive’ effect, which dramatically reduces the colossal machine’s operational effectiveness, often forcing its powerful weapons to fire less accurately.

However, this terrifying power comes with a significant drawback. The immense energies and unpredictable nature of the prototype weapon mean that the Cerberus is inherently unstable. Even with extensive radiation shielding, the Neutron Laser Projector’s operation often results in a terrible toll on its crew, and misfires can potentially result in catastrophic feedback that damages the tank itself. Nevertheless, the ability of this impressive tank to threaten the largest and most heavily armoured assets on the battlefield—from enemy super-heavy tanks to even lesser Titan war machines—is regarded by many Legion commanders as a necessary, if grim, calculus of war. The Cerberus is a clear expression of the Imperium’s willingness to accept high operational risk for unparalleled battlefield supremacy.

This is the plastic kit for The Horus Heresy. The original resin kit was announced back in 2012 at Games Day.

Solar Auxilia Shadowsword

The Shadowsword is the sister tank to the Baneblade, a super-heavy vehicle employed by Solar Auxilia cohorts to engage and destroy enemy macro-engines with its volcano cannon. The same chassis has also been adapted to mount different primary weapons suited to their own modes of destruction, like the bunker-busting Stormsword siege cannon or the versatile plasma blastgun of the Stormblade.

Solar Auxilia Shadowsword

Leviathan Siege Dreadnought

Leviathan Siege Dreadnought

Heavily-armed and impressively armoured, the Leviathan Siege Dreadnought is an alternative development of the highly successful Contemptor design.

Leviathan Siege Dreadnought

These rare and mighty engines are prized by Astartes commanders, recognised as savagely powerful siege and hunter-killer units that can crush any opposition with an unstoppable wrecking charge. Yet such overwhelming strength comes at a cost – a Leviathan’s systems place an onerous and ultimately lethal strain upon its occupant, the entombed incumbent burning brightly but only briefly in their second life.

More photographs of the Leviathan Siege Dreadnought.