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The Aurox Armoured Transport is an armoured troop transport tank primarily used by various arms of the Imperial Army to carry veteran grenadier units to battle or to protect their commanders while dictating the course of battle.
A further variant of the Aurox is used by the Solar Auxilia, re-fitted for extreme environmental conditions.
This Liche Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon was in the display cabinets at Warhammer World.
Only the most prestigious priests can harness the undying will of a fearsome Necrolith Bone Dragon, much less ride such a behemoth into battle. These reanimated wyrms descend upon the living, given unnatural flight by skeletal wings, before lashing out with wicked claws and jagged fangs. Those who survive must contend with clouds of seething dust and desiccating smog, for a dragon’s breath is lethal even in death.
This Imperial Fists Mastodon Heavy Assault Transport was in the displays at Warhammer World.
The Mastodon was one of the heaviest assault transports in the arsenal of the Legiones Astartes during the Great Crusade, and is still found in the armouries of the Space Marine Chapters of the 41st Millenium. Its cavernous assault bay, capable of housing almost half a Company, is protected both by thick layers of ceramite armour as well as crackling void shields. It also mounts a fearsome siege melta array, allowing it to breach even the most formidable defences with ease, as well as an array of secondary weaponry intended to defend the vehicle as it approaches its target. Unleashed only against the most fearsome of enemy redoubts, there are few obstacles that can stay the wrath of this relic of the Imperium’s bloody birth.
This Imperialis Militia Carnodon Battle Tank was on display at Warhammer World.
The Carnodon is a versatile medium battle tank which acted as the lynchpin for many of the storied successes of the Imperial Army during the Great Crusade. As a premier mobile fire platform, it was regularly adapted to combat a wide variety of foes and respond to any number of battlefield conditions. During the early years of the Great Crusade, it rapidly became a byword for conquest amongst the Expeditionary fleets, a legacy which led to the production of the dedicated Imperial battle tanks of latter-days. As the Great Crusade moved ever outwards and supply of the Aurox chassis peaked, it is thought that many Carnodon tanks entered a strategic reserve and were distributed to Crusade muster worlds behind the front lines; with over two hundred thousand examples thought to have been stored pending secondary mobilisation in the warrens under the world of Tallarn.
This was the Legions Imperialis Diorama at Warhammer World. One of the reasons I wanted to visit Warhammer World was to see what Legions Imperialis models they had on display. I was not to be disappointed.
Ceres City changed hands nine times during the campaign for control of the Delta-Garmon system, and the diorama captures the Blood Angels and the Titans of Legio Solaria waging war against the Iron Warriors and Legio Fureans.
Iron Warriors’ Deimos Pattern Predator tanks move forward down the street.
Overhead view of the Deimos Pattern Predator tanks supporting the advancing Titans.
Overhead view of the Warbringer Nemesis Titan.
Reaver Titans advance past the destroyed remains of fallen titans.
Warhound Scout Titans advance.
There was a lovely display of a ruined Imperial city with vehicles and titans fighting through the ruins.
This Forge World Mark IIb Land Raider was on display at Warhammer World.
It was looking a little dusty.
The Land Raider MkIIb is probably my favourite Land Raider variant. I do have one of them in my collection.
Grey Knights can use Land Raiders! When I first started putting my Grey Knights force together 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.
The standard Land Raider, also known as the Land Raider Phobos, is an Imperial main battle tank and troop transport which serves as the “armoured fist of the Space Marines.” Available to the Space Marines, the Traitor Legions of the Chaos Space Marines and the forces of the Inquisition and Adeptus Mechanicus, it is one of the most resilient and iconic armoured vehicles in the galaxy.
The Land Raider’s heritage predates even the founding of the Imperium of Man, yet it remains the single most destructive weapon in the Adeptus Astartes’ arsenal. Protected by bonded Ceramite and Adamantium armour, the Land Raider is nearly impervious to all save the most destructive weaponry.
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.
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.
Of course the Mark IIb reflects the Epic 40000 version of the Land Raider from the late 1990s.
The Necromunda Cargo-8 Ridgehauler was on display at Warhammer World.
The Guild of Coin rules the roads of Necromunda. They transport material between hives and, for a hefty price, they’ll even smuggle weapons and people. Crossing the arid, violent, and irradiated ash wastes is a risky business, so the guild employs convoys of Cargo-8 Ridgehaulers. These hulking vehicles are perfect for traversing the dunes thanks to their massive wheels and sturdy engines, hauling trailers of armoured containers and transport carriages across the Great Equatorial Wastes, but their true appeal comes from their modularity – it takes little effort to outfit one with enough guns to make it a mobile fortress, ready to repel gang ambushes and raids.
Back in January 2022 we were given a glimpse of a vehicle used in the Ash Wastes of Necromunda, though we had no idea what it was. It looked interesting though, I did like the concept of a land train running though the ash wastes and getting attacked by raiders.
There were echoes of Mad Max and Car Wars in all this. However at this stage this was a concept, and we got some idea about the vehicle from the drawings in the animation.
Then we found out that the land train was the Cargo-8 Ridgehauler.
Goods from the hive manufactories are ferried across the poisoned wastes on great land trains. There’s money to be made from protecting the Guild of Coin’s Cargo-8 Ridgehaulers, which are juicy targets both for the nomadic denizens of the Ash Wastes and for gangs of underhive bandits.
My reaction was a little muted to the reveal. It wasn’t quite what I was thinking it might be. It seems to have been built around the Munitorum Armoured Container and I am not sure if this works. Well I get that the background is about moving goods across the ash wastes, so need containers to move it.
We did get some additional trailers, but I really felt that this wasn’t the concept we saw in the original animation. I decided that this wasn’t a model I would buy. However, I still like the concept of an armoured land train.
The Master of the Ravenwing on display at Warhammer World.
Master Sammael of the Ravenwing is a true Angel of Death. From the saddle of his jetbike he cuts down any foolish enough to stand in his path with the infamous Raven Sword, its blade cut from the same meteorite as the Sword of Secrets. A highly accomplished hunter of The Fallen, Sammael is rightly honoured by his brethren and he is feared by his foes as few other holders of his rank have ever been.
The technology used in the production of these jetbikes has long since been lost to the Imperium. The only jetbike known to survive into the 41st Millennium is Corvex, used by the Grand Master of the Ravenwing company of the Dark Angels chapter, currently Sammael.
Imperial jetbikes were common among the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and the Heresy, typically operated by Sky Hunter Squadrons.
The Sky Hunter models have been recently released as a plastic kit for The Horus Heresy. Previously there were resin models from Forge World.
When Warhammer 40000 was originally released their was a jetbike available for both Space Marines and (interestingly) the Imperial Guard. The Mk14 Bullock original miniature first appeared in White Dwarf 96 in December 1987. It was designed to be used with the RTB01 plastic space marines.
I did buy a pack, but not sure where they are now, or even if I sold them on eBay twenty years ago.
When the Dark Angels were released I really liked the Master of the Ravenwing on the “last” remaining Imperial Jetbike, so much so I knew I had to get one for my Grey Knights army.
At the time I thought possibly maybe more than one!
This Primaris Repulsor of the Salamanders Space Marine Chapter was part of the displays at Warhammer World.
The Repulsor armoured transport is a deadly combination of manoeuvrability and raw brute force. Due to the turbine array at its rear, it has tremendous motive power, held aloft by powerful anti-gravitic generators. The Repulsor is so heavily armed and armoured that is doesn’t skim over the landscape but instead crushes the ground below it. The tank grinds forward with a deep bass thrum, reducing rock to gravel and fallen bodies to smears of gore and powdered bone.
Ravenwing Darkshroud at Warhammer World.
Of all the archaic relics deployed in the field of battle by the Unforgiven, the Darkshroud is perhaps the strangest. Those who have witnessed it at close range and felt its caliginous pall, and lived to tell of it, are disturbed forever more. The Ravenwing Darkshroud displays icons and structures from Caliban, evoking glorious religious imagery such as angel wings, shrouded statues, parchments and stained glass with lead frame. It possesses a pulpit-like cupola from which a Space Marine shoots others with either a heavy bolter or assault cannon, and is covered in metal panels.
I am not sure what I really think of this model. My first impressions is that I don’t like it. There is something about the Dark Angels (and the Ravenwing) iconography which always appears a little over the top. It’s not as bad as the (newer) Sisters of Battle adornments, but it’s close. The idea of stained glass on a combat vehicle does not make sense to me. The actual vehicle underneath looks interesting, but the additions seem to be unintegrated and stuck onto the vehicle.
On my models I do and have used Grey Knights iconography to enhance them, as you can see with this Land Raider model.
So I am not entirely opposed to the concept of iconography on Warhammer 40K vehicles, but not sure I like the Ravening Darkshroud.