Storm Eagle

This Storm Eagle was in one of the display cabinets at Warhammer World. It is very much what I feel the Stormraven Gunship should have been.

Storm Eagle

A formidable gunship, the Storm Eagle mounts fearsome firepower for a vehicle of its size and is capable of transporting twenty Space Marines directly into the thick of an assault.

Storm Eagle

The exact provenance of the Storm Eagle is unknown, but it bears clear similarities to the Stormravens employed by the Blood Angels and Grey Knights. Certain sources place the principal manufacture of the Storm Eagle upon Tigrus and Anvilus IX, both primary-grade Forge Worlds that suffered catastrophic damage during the Horus Heresy. In recent decades the number of Storm Eagles in active service has begun to increase, especially amongst those Chapters known to have favourable relations with the Adeptus Mechanicus. This has lead some observers to believe that production has been restored at an as yet unknown location.

Sisters Of Silence Kharon Pattern Acquisitor

From the displays at Warhammer World.

Sisters Of Silence Kharon Pattern Acquisitor

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.

This is one of the strangest Imperial vehicles from Games Workshop. Almost too futuristic for the Warhammer 40000 Imperium, it would appear that in the Horus Heresy there was a much higher level of technology that was utilised by different forces.

Mars Pattern Reaver Titan

This huge Mars Pattern Reaver Titan was in the display cabinets at Warhammer World.

Mars Pattern Reaver Titan

The Reaver Battle Titan is a frontline combat titan, designed for direct confrontation with the enemy. … Reavers primarily serve as vanguards for the Warlords, there to fan out and prevent the larger and slower Warlords from being flanked, so they can keep the enemy boxed into the Warlord’s field of fire.

Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought

The Deredeo pattern Dreadnought was in the displays at Warhammer World.

Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought

The Deredeo pattern Dreadnought is a dedicated heavy support frame, though it shares many core components and systems with the more general assault-based Contemptor class. Initially deployed in limited numbers to each of the Legions due to difficulties in its manufacture, its durability and firepower saw demand for the Deredeo pattern dramatically increase after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.

Xiphon Pattern Interceptor

This Xiphon Pattern Interceptor was on display at Warhammer World.

Xiphon Pattern Interceptor

With unparalleled speed and manoeuvrability, the Xiphon pattern Interceptor saw increasing service in the Legiones Astartes during the dark days of the Horus Heresy. Based on ancient designs, the void and atmospheric craft carried heavy armaments into battle, allowing it to destroy both air and ground targets with apparent ease. Its pair of twin-linked lascannon and Xiphon rotary missile launcher combined with the Interceptor’s speed and agility to make it a deadly opponent from which the enemies of Mankind could not hide.

Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank

This Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank was part of the displays at Warhammer World.

Caladius Grav-Tank
Caladius Grav-Tank

Often deployed in situations requiring the heaviest of weapons the Legio Custodes could bring to bear, the Caladius pattern Grav-Tank. Utilising technologies and systems 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, the Caladius was well-protected and highly manoeuvrable, perhaps the most powerful battleline armoured unit of its size in the Imperium’s forces.

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. The Grav-Tank is also armed with a twin-linked Lastrum bolt cannon, exemplars of bolt-weapon technology whose bolt shells are customised mass-reactive heliothermic warheads, hand crafted by the artisan weaponsmiths of the Lastrum Core Clan on Terra.

Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport

Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport
Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport on display at Warhammer World.

The Dracosan Armoured Transport is manufactured to standards only usually required of war machines destined for service with the Legiones Astartes. It is large enough to accommodate a full strength Solar Auxilia Infantry Section of twenty auxiliaries, and heavily armoured enough to protect them from intense enemy fire.

Solar Auxilia Shadowsword Super Heavy Tank

This is a Solar Auxilia Shadowsword Super Heavy Tank on display at Warhammer World.

Shadowsword

A single super-heavy tank is a dominant presence in an Astra Militarum battle line. As it ploughs inexorably forward it lays down a wide path of destruction. Enemy ranks shatter long before it reaches their position, and those unlucky few who are able to maintain their defensive formations are ground to paste under the slab-like plates of its tracks. The Shadowsword is equipped with one of the most fearsome primary weapons – the dreaded volcano cannon – and is capable of taking down Titans at extreme ranges. Nothing short of the most powerful energy fields can hope to stop a direct hit from its blasts.

The Shadowsword is armed with a fearsome array of weapons – none more so than the mighty volcano cannon on its turret. It can also be equipped with a pair of sponsons sporting a twin heavy bolter or twin heavy flamer, each capped by a lascannon turret!

The Shadowsword is the sister tank of the more common Baneblade super-heavy tank of the Astra Militarum. The Shadowsword is a nearly identical super-heavy tank to the Baneblade with the exception of its armament and battlefield role as a Titan-killer. Armed with a massive forward-firing gun known as a Volcano Cannon the Shadowsword’s primary focus during combat is the destruction of enemy Titans. The Shadowsword and Baneblade have been fighting alongside the forces of Mankind since the Dark Age of Technology, thus making it one of the oldest tank designs still in regular use by the Imperium. Each Shadowsword uses ancient Standard Template Construct (STC) designs that only a handful of Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Worlds have at their disposal. Each Shadowsword is individually logged, registered, and tracked on Mars, not only to see where it is but to see where it has been and the honours it has received, as a Shadowsword’s deeds are celebrated as if they were those of a favorite child amongst its makers. The Shadowsword is a highly prized addition to any armoured regiment of the Imperial Guard.

The Burning of Prospero

The Burning of Prospero

This amazing display was at Warhammer World.

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.

Legio Custodes Orion Assault Dropship
Legio Custodes Orion Assault Dropship
Caladius Grav-Tank
Caladius Grav-Tank

Land Raider Proteus

Those of us who have been playing Warhammer 40K since it was first released will recognise this model from Forge World. It is of course a resin version of the original original Land Raider that was released back in 1987 following the release of the 1st edition of Warhammer 40,000, Rogue Trader.

Land Raider Proteus
Land Raider Proteus on display at Warhammer World

Mechanicus tech-savants believe that the Land Raider Proteus is a precursor to the Phobos pattern vehicle now found amongst the armouriums of the Adeptus Astartes. Bulkier and faster than the Phobos, ancient and forgotten data-looms describe the Proteus as a forward assault vehicle, commonly fielded in Explorator missions during the dawning days of Mankind’s fledgling galactic empire.