Horus Heresy: Leviathan Siege Dreadnought Impressions

A MKVI Space Marine next to a Leviathan Dreadnought.

Earlier this year, I assembled one of the plastic Deimos pattern Rhinos for the Horus Heresy, one of the first new plastic kits released alongside the new game. While I was excited about assembling the rhino, I was most excited about assembling some of the other Horus Heresy specific kits Forge World made that were always entirely resin. One of these models was the Leviathan Dreadnought. I always liked how massive the dreadnought looked, as though it was designed to be a true-scale Space Marine Dreadnought. I even think I have one of the resin kits somewhere in my backlog of models, but due to it being in resin, I never actually got around to assembling it. So when Games Workshop released the plastic version with assault weapons, I was really excited and had to get one.

Leviathan Dreadnought: Impressions

Blood Runs.  War Calls.

I do not think that I am out of line by saying that we all love Space Marines.  And for the most part, Games Workshop has created a fantastic line of models to represent them on the tabletop.  There is one notable flaw with them, however, and that is that they simply are not in scale with other models in Warhammer 40k.  Instead of being mythical godlike giants, they stand as tall as Imperial Guardsmen.  Because of this, many talented people have created their own “true-scale” marines.  Just to name a few, MoneyBallistic has some seminal Iron Hands, while Kari has some terrifying Red Corsairs.  Also from Iron Sleet, Migsula is creating a whole army of properly scaled Space Wolves with his Vlka Fenryka project.  The only other thing as iconic as a Marine in power armor is the lumbering armored sarcophagus that is the Space Marine dreadnought, so it stands to reason people would want to try to create a true-scale version.  This task, however, presents a whole new range of challenges.  While not easy by any means, the task of creating true-scale marines is dramatically aided by the availability of plastic and resin terminators, whose added bulk is often a good starting point for such conversions.  But when one tries to move beyond simply creating warriors in power armor, the task becomes substantially harder, because all the Space Marine vehicles are based upon the improperly scaled power armor marines.  There is really only one other plastic kit, besides the basic dreadnought box, that might serve as a base for such a conversion, and that is the Dreadknight.  As a part of his Invitational entry, Kari did exactly this, to excellent effect.  The Dreadknight’s long limbs do not quite mirror the aesthetics of the traditional Dreadnought, so I have been looking for alternatives.  I am excited to say that the search may be over, after seeing Forge World’s newest release, the Leviathan pattern Dreadnought!

Deredeo Dreadnought: Assembled

Dreadnoughts keep getting bigger and bigger!

Forge World has a particular talent for making impressive robots, from the cyclopean Warlord titan all the way down to the more humble dreadnought.  In recent years, Forge World have done a lot with their Contemptor dreadnought, making countless variations and legion specific versions. Just when I thought they had reached a natural end, they released an even bulkier variation of the Contemptor theme, the Deredeo pattern dreadnought.  In the excitement that accompanies any FW release, we promptly purchased one. Despite our excitement, and getting an incredibly well cast version of the dreadnought, other projects pulled us away from the new dreadnought, and it did not get built.  In the last few weeks, however, something pulled me back to the armored giant, and I was able to clean and assemble the model rather quickly (and just in time for FW to release another new dreadnought, the Leviathan Dreadnought?!).  Although it was a fairly straightforward build, I thought that I would give you some of my thoughts about it, along with some pictures!

Deredeo Dreadnought: Unboxing

Iron Within, Iron Without!

Since I became invested in the hobby years ago, I have been enthralled by the design and concept behind the Space Marine dreadnought, and I doubt that I am the only one.  There is something intriguing about these sepulchral walking tanks, primarily stemming from their utilitarian function of saving a heroic warrior from the verge of death, giving them the opportunity to fight once more.  Although they had some comical renditions in the beginning (a walking peanut), since the 2nd edition, they have looked like a squat walking sarcophagus of adamantium, complete with stubby gun arms, a drum-like powerfist, and a rectangular sarcophagi in the center.  This has become a cornerstone in the Space Marine aesthetic. Forge World, always wanting to shake things up a bit, released a new pattern of dreadnought loosely based on some old models a couple years back, the Contemptor.  Although reminiscent to its smaller cousin, it is bulkier, with a more rounded design.  Coupled with its separate head and its more articulated legs, the Contemptor is a far more agile and believable walker.  SInce its release, Forge World has produced numerous Contemptor dreadnoughts, including many chapter specific ones.  Just when we were all getting used to this new dreadnought, Forge World decided to release yet another variant, the Deredeo dreadnought.  Although reminiscent to the Contemptor, the Deredeo is slightly bigger, and serves as a dedicated weapons platform.  My fascination with dreadnoughts made ordering one of these Deredeo variants an inevitability, and a few weeks ago I got it in the mail, and thought you all might be interested in seeing what comes with the model.

Horus Heresy: Contemptor Dreadnought

By the manner of their deaths we shall know them.

It seems that a week can’t go by without Forge World releasing another new awesome model, one that makes it difficult to reason with yourself why you shouldn’t own it too. And with the release of the first Horus Heresy book, Betrayal, it has reached a fever pitch. But looking back, I feel it can be argued that the release of the Contemptor Dreadnought was a turning point (and foreshadowing for the Heresy) for Forge World in this regard. As soon as the kit was released, blogs from around the world exploded with their own versions of the dynamic armored behemoth.

The model was very well received, partially owing to its reimagining of the old concepts (the bulbous nature of it really harkens back to the original Rogue Trader design) and the model’s insane level of poseability (something largely unseen in Games Workshops larger models). This high degree of poseability comes at a high cost however. Aside from being fairly difficult to assemble, the model can very easily adopt an awkward pose despite one’s best intentions.  Before long, the grim defender of humanity can transform into a caricature of Space Marine might (maybe just skipping along or attempting some acrobatic marvel).