At GamesDay 2003 there were a lot of Forge World Warhound Titans which has just been released. Amongst all that Imperial heavy armour was this lone Ork Great Gargant.
This was from Armorcast in the days before Games Workshop took large scale resin models back in house and created Forge World. It was only (in theory) available in the USA and was very difficult if not impossible to get in the UK.
If I could find one, afford one and have the time to paint one, I really would like to get hold of this model, but alas I think everything is against me!
With the release of the plastic Stompa you can compare the detail of the Armorcast Gargant versus the well detailed plastic Stompa now available. Large plastic kits are now certainly achievable technically from Games Workshop, of course the business case has to be made. It is this business case which I suspect means we may never see a plastic Gargant. The main problem will be having such a large kit in the stores. Taking up a large amount of shelf space, means that less space for smaller (probably more profitable) kits. Games Workshop have already started to
reduce the space taken by particular models, by combining all variants into a single box. So no longer do we have separate boxes for the Land Raider variants such as the Crusader, but now have a single box containing all variants. This has made room for the larger kits such as the Baneblade, the Shadowsword and the Stompa.
However to make room for a Gargant kit would mean removing more than just the variant boxes.Interestingly we could see a Reaver, though just as tall as a Gargant, certainly does not need such a large box as it is not as big as a Gargant (in terms of girth).
So what will be the next big plastic kit?
My view is that we will probably see a Space Marine Thunderhawk.
This has been rumoured for many years, it’s not a matter of if, more a matter of when.
One tidbit to think about with the release of the Skyshield Landing Pad is the following description.
Landing pads are launch bases used by flight-capable craft to unload or evacuate troops and vital personnel. The Skyshield landing pad used by the Imperial Navy, though originally purpose-built to accommodate Valkyrie and Vendetta gunships, is robust enough to serve even the Thunderhawks of the Adeptus Astartes, and has field generators that protect the craft and its crew from incoming fire.
Note my emphasis. Now obviously this could be referring to the Forge World model, but why note this in a kit description. In the rules yes, in the marketing for Games Workshop mainstream, generally they don’t mention Forge World models as part of describing other products, normally as a separate page or link.
The Skyshield landing pad is a very nice model, perfect for the Valkyrie.
So no plastic Gargant but maybe a plastic Thunderhawk…. perhaps…
