From GregB - Raven Guard Contraption (25 points)

Invictor War Suit for my Raven Guard Space Marines. Plastic model from GW.

Back to my 40k Raven Guard project for this week. Here we have some sort of bonkers contraption known as an "Invictor War Suit". This is a multi-part plastic kit from GW, one of the newer releases for the newer Primaris Space Marine range of figures for their Warhammer 40,000 setting. It's a big walking thing with guns. 

Guns solve problems, right?

The grim darkness of the far future is in fact overrun with big walking things with guns. Some are big. Many are bigger. Some are quite huge. But they walk, and they have guns, and thus this "newer" design takes its place in an august lineup. But it is also a little different, at least for Space Marines...

A view of the carbon-neutral power system...

That is because the pilot of the machine is, well, a Space Marine. Makes sense. But this is still different. You see, usually, Space Marine machines of this sort, called "Dreadnoughts", are 'crewed' by a near-dead Marine, who is essentially entombed in the machine, allowing them to fight for the Emperor for, like, nearly eternity. Lucky them. You don't see the 'pilot', because his remaining bits are plugged into arcane machinery, hidden under slabs of armour. 

So. Many. Guns.

But this thing...well, it just has a roll-cage, and the pilot can hop in and hop back out. Like a kind of regular machine. I mean, still a whacky, far-future, gun-festooned machine...but a pilot that can hop out, check things over, compare notes with fellow pilots...that seems borderline heretical! This design brings to mind the sort of "war-jack" type walker units seen in other sci-fi settings. It also made me think of the "APU Defense Sentinels" from the otherwise un-watchable "Matrix: Revolutions" film.

This kit was certainly a challenge to put together...GW made some heroic assumptions about what bits you might glue, and others you might not, and how the whole thing would work. I had major issues sorting out the cockpit, and a lot of trouble with the legs. Enough trouble that I am confident this will be the only such machine that will be joining my 40k Raven Guard forces...give me a normal dreadnought over this thing any day...

Some unsolicited feedback for the design of this model...

But for all the issues, more guns is more guns, and when you are defending The Emperor, it seems you can never have quite enough guns. This thing delivers - and for added fun, it can punch recalcitrant unbelievers into dust for sport. 

The cage doesn't exactly close, like it says it will in the instructions...but close enough. All aboard for fun!

Points-wise, we have 20 points for the machine, and five points for the fellow driving the thing, making for 25 points. In terms of skullz, there are very few to report on this machine - only three, in fact. Thanks for reading, hope to have more to share next week.  

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I know the assembly was a struggle, but great work on this machine Greg. 

I really question GW's recent design decisions over these past few years. So many of their new models do nothing but erode the iconic designs (and background) of their established IP. I look at this model and wonder 'Why?' when the Space Marines have something very similar (but infinitely more characterful) in the wonderfully evocative quasi-corpse-piloted Dreadnought. The same goes with the constantly upscaled Knight designs which now begin to rival scout Titans, and the ancillary (and often ridiculous) Titan designs that don't really add anything new to the game, but instead horn-in on existing Engine classes. It all just seems a bit egregious and stoopid. But what am I saying, this is GW we're talking about here - it all makes perfect sense when you're just wanting to make a buck, IP be damned. Please, move along. :)

All this grousing aside this contraption looks suitably shooty, grindy and very stompy (even if it doesn't have airbags, cruise and nav). Well done dude!

 

- Curt