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This beautifully painted Forge World Crassus Armoured Assault Transport was on display at Warhammer World.
This immense armoured carrier is named after one of Lord Solar Macharius’ greatest generals, Borgen Crassus, who remained steadfastly loyal to the Imperium throughout the grim and bloody Macharian Heresy that followed the Lord Solar’s death. The vehicle can be retrofitted with additional weapons to undertake other battlefield roles as required.
This Blood Angels Legion Thunderhawk Gunship was in the display cabinets at Warhammer World.
The Legion Thunderhawk Gunship, used during the Horus Heresy, is a formidable aerial weapon platform, a testament to the Imperium’s technological prowess during the Great Crusade era.
This massive gunship, larger than a Space Marine Rhino transport, is equipped with a formidable array of weaponry, including twin-linked heavy bolters, a powerful autocannon, and a devastating missile launcher.
Its hull is reinforced with ceramite plating, providing exceptional protection against enemy fire. Inside the Thunderhawk, a crew of skilled Space Marines operates the various systems, while a troop compartment can accommodate a squad of Astartes.
The gunship’s engines, capable of reaching incredible speeds, allow it to rapidly deploy troops and provide crucial fire support during battles.
The Thunderhawk’s versatility and firepower made it an invaluable asset to the Legions during the Great Crusade, and its legacy endures even after the Horus Heresy.
This Imperial Fists Arquitor Bombard with Spicula Rocket System was in the displays at Warhammer World.
The Legion Arquitor is a heavy artillery platform designed to operate at the forefront of a Legiones Astartes advance. Equipped with a reinforced chassis and brutal short range firepower, it is called upon to break the most stubborn of fortifications or to annihilate massed enemy infantry and armour.
The spicula rocket system fires rippling salvos of unguided missiles that crash down on enemy positions, creating massive cumulative blasts that can scatter whole formations.
From the displays at Warhammer World.
Built to approach its targets silently and with utmost stealth, the Kharon Pattern Acquisitor is deliberately made to be a thing of mystery and terror when its presence is unveiled.
Used primarily in a paramilitary role by the Sisters of Silence, it can suppress civilian resistance with lethal effect, its hellion cannon cutting through rampaging mobs and destroying makeshift barricades. Against greater threats, various payloads of missiles can be deployed, including sophisticated antipsyker warheads.
The Imperial Guard Chimera is an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, an infantry transport designed to transport men to where they need to be, then provide support fire and cover behind its armour.
One variant of the Chimera is the Hellhound flame tank.
See more photographs of Chimera transports.
This Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank Annihilator was part of the displays at Warhammer World.
Based upon the technology of the Coronus Grav-carrier, the smaller Caladius grav-tank is designed to utilise the firepower afforded by the heaviest elements of the Legio Custodes’ arsenal on a highly mobile, protected platform.
Given the fusion of advanced systems and weapons, the Caladius is perhaps the most powerful battleline armoured unit of its size in the Imperium’s forces, utilising technologies and materials derived not only from the Dark Age of Technology, but from developments made as a result of the Great Crusade’s two centuries of warfare. A particularly powerful variant was the ‘Caladius-Annihilator’ which featured an enhanced capacitor-fed Arachnus blaze cannon potent that is enough to pose a threat even to super-heavy armour.
There were a number of Legio Custodes vehicles in a huge diorama display of The Burning of Prospero.
The Burning of Prospero, is the name of the full-scale invasion and planetary devastation of Prospero, homeworld of the Thousand Sons, by Imperial forces that mainly included the Space Wolves Legion, the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence.
This is a Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank.
The principal armament of the Caladius is the double-barrelled Iliastus accelerator cannon, an advanced weapon which was to become the precursor to the main weapon of the Legiones Astartes Sicaran Battle Tank.
There was also a large Orion Assault Dropship.
Created as a dedicated assault dropship for the Legio Custodes, the Orion can carry a full task force of the Emperor’s Talons into combat. Protected by frontal armour superior to that of the Legiones Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship, its Arachnus heavy blaze cannon and Lastrum bolt cannon can swiftly clear a landing zone of hostile infantry and armour with brutal efficiency, allowing the units within to deploy before it soars back into the sky to unleash death upon any foe who dares approach.
I’ve always liked the Tallarn Imperial Guard and have over the years bought some of the models. I have even painted some.
These Tallarn Imperial Guard were on display in the cabinets at Warhammer World.
The Tallarn Desert Raiders are a regiment of the Imperial Guard raised from the Desert World of Tallarn. The soldiers of the regiment are highly skilled at desert and mobile armoured warfare.
The Mechanicum Ordinatus are massive weapons of destruction that the forces of the Imperium use when faced with unprecedented enemy forces. Essentially they are Titan style weapons on tracks.
In the time of the Great Crusade the Ordinatus macro engines were rarer than even the Battle Titans of the Legio Titanica, and only a handful of Forge Worlds had the resources or indeed the doctrinal blessing and religious authority to produce or maintain such embodiments of the Omnissiah’s divine wrath. Such was the sacredness of these machines above all others, that an entire subcult of the Mechanicum was devoted to their worship and propitiation.
We first saw these vehicles in Epic, and then Forge World released 40K scale Horus Hersey versions of these massive vehicles.
The Ordinatus Ulator is a rare and truly arcane weapon system of huge power. Its primary weapon is the Ulator class Sonic Destructor.
Another version is the Ordinatus Sagittar, similar to the Ulator, it is armed with a Volcano Cannon.
These are nice models, but I am not really a fan of them. They look very vulnerable to enemy fire, there is no armour to speak of. They also don’t look very mobile (despite the four tracks). What do you think?
These models of the Imperial Guard Baneblade super heavy tank were on display at Warhammer World.
The Baneblade super heavy tank is the standard super heavy for the Imperial Guard. It’s huge and the design is one of the oldest in service with the armed forces of the Imperium. It is one of the Standard Template Construct (STC) designs that ensures that Forge Worlds across the galaxy are able to easily manufacture the tanks to a consistent design. The size means a large crew, ten in all. They are often used as command vehicles by Imperial Guard commanders.
With a range of armaments, a Baneblade is less of a tank and more of a tracked fortress. An unmistakable icon of the Imperium’s armoured supremacy, a single one of these super-heavy war engines can serve as the mailed fist of an Imperial Guard offensive, or as the unassailable lynchpin of even the most desperate of defences.
The Baneblade was originally an Epic design, but was then available as a modelling project in White Dwarf. Forge World produced a resin version for many years. In 2007 a plastic version of the tank was made available. We shouldn’t forget the 1/6th scale version that Forge World showcased at Games Day 2006.
Initially I wasn’t a fan, I thought it was too big, but over the years I have come to like the concept.
Minotaurs Achilles-Alpha pattern Land Raider on display at Warhammer World.
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.
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.
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.