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I Will Crush Those Who Stand Before Me
“Leviathan” “Siege” “Dreadnought” if you’re looking in the thesaurus you could say “Big”, “Big”, “Big” and whilst we’re not talking Questoris Knight massive this is as big as an ordinary foot soldier goes. (I hope the slumbering remnants of the Marine incarcerated in his monolithic Dreadnought tomb shell didn’t hear me call him an ordinary foot soldier!)
The Leviathan Pattern Dreadnought was specifically designed for siege warfare. More massive than its fellow Dreadnoughts it is armed with mighty Leviathan Siege Drills housing buit-in Meltaguns designed to rip through Ceramite Armour and reinforced fortifications alike whilst its Leviathan Siege Claws with built-in Meltaguns will rip them apart. They also have a pretty detrimental effect on flesh and bone!
At Last, Back To War
The Leviathan Siege Dreadnought has arrived in the Warhammer:The Horus Heresy range. It is an 154 piece model provided on four separate sprues. Three of these are used to build the body and structure of the Dreadnought and the fourth contains the weapons loadout. This siege Dreadnought is the close combat version with claw and drill weapons. There is a different version available with long-range weaponry. Whichever version you get you can buy the alternative weapon sprue direct from GW. However if you do this with the intention of doing weapon-swapping via the use of magnets beware that it requires a bit of fiddling with this model because of the pipes leading to the arm weapons.
The kit parts are nicely moulded with no flash on my version and they go together well. The sprues are clearly labelled and numbered. There are a few alternative parts: a choice of three breast plates and three groin guards varying from plain to various skull-based motifs. I built mine with the skull and lightning breast plate and the skull and laurel wreath groin guard. You only get one head but a choice of two head guards. In fairness you see very little of the head on the completed model. There are also carapace trims which are an optional fit.
The model is very posable all its joints are flexible( much more than mine!). There is an extra raised foot so it can be built standing square or walking forward. The arms can be positioned staraight or bent at the elbow and there are two versions of the hydraulic pipes that power the Drill and Claws to accommodate this.
I Am Ready To Serve, Again
The weapons themselves are Leviathan Siege Drills and Leviathan Siege Claws both with built-in Meltaguns. There are two copies of each so you can mix and match them as you like or have two the same. For the torso mounted weapons you are offered a choice of two Heavy Flamers or two twin-linked Volkite Calivers. Finally there is an optional Phosphex Discharger that can be mounted on the top. My model depicted has a Siege Claw on the right hand, a Siege Drill on the left, Torso mounted Heavy Flamers and the Phosphex Discharger fitted.
This brings me to a quibble I have with this kit beyond the construction instructions there is no further information provided about the Dreadnought and more specifically the Army Lists for it with point values and weapon capabilities. When I got the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness starter set at the back of its Construction Booklet it had the Army lists for all the figures contained.
I have been able to track these details down on a fan-site on the Internet but it wouldn’t have hurt GW to have included a simple sheet of these details. A bit of background about the origins and purpose of the siege Dreadnoughts would have been nice too. Also the transfer sheet is a standard vehicle sheet for the VII and XVI Legions only a third of it relates to the Dreadnought. It would have been nice to have more alternative transfers for the Dreadnoughts of other Legions instead of the Land Raider ones. After all it’s not a cheap product.
For those who are interested I finished off the base with bits from my garden, my spares box and sand and grit from good old Bognor beach!
Command Me
This is a mighty machine. It is about 50% bigger than a standard Contemptor Dreadnought. You won’t be disappointed with its towering presence on the battlefield. For the money involved, however, you may feel it could have come with a bit more ancillary material.
