Sicaran Tank for 30k Sons of Horus

Sicaran tank of the XVI Legion on maneuvers with some infantry. 

And in yet another jarring switch of settings, we zoom away from the battlefield of late 19th century France and into the distant and grim dark future - back to some more 30k stuff again!  If you are going to bring "hope and change" to the galaxy, you might as well do it in style, and so I present a Sicaran tank from the armouries of the XVI Space Marine Legion, the Sons of Horus.  This model was assembled for me by the excellent Steve B here in Winnipeg (you can see previous examples of his modelling skill on display here).

If the Mechanicum had ever designed a sports car, it would have looked like this. Steve did a great job assembling this beauty for me - thanks Steve!!

When Forge World first rolled out the 30k kits years ago, they were both faithful to the original setting (as seen in the very old game "Space Marine") while also very clever in bringing out new old models for 30k players.  Part of the ambient setting for 30k is the deep, fundamental difference between a Space Marine Chapter (of the 40k "times") and the Space Marine Legion (from 30k).  The Legions were huge, with tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of Space Marines.  The powered the Great Crusade with their own fleets, and had clouds of vehicles to support their operations.  To add to the more exotic and cool flavour of the Legions (as opposed to the 40k Chapters), "lost" vehicles appeared, with the idea being such vehicles were around and available by the boat-load in the "good old days".

Twin "Herakles Pattern" auto cannons in the turret will make mincemeat of most so-called "loyalists". 

The Sicaran tank is one such design.  An altered take on a classic Land Raider chassis, the Sicaran is meant to be a faster-yet-still-tough tank design.  It carries no troops, but between its powerful auto cannons in the turret, and sponson weapon options, it provides solid armoured support.  And it just looks awesome - the slope of the armour, etc.  As Byron has often remarked, the design just looks menacing, and fits the Space Marine legions very well.  It fits right in with the Land Raiders and Rhinos, but also looks a little different, a little exotic.  The sculptors at Forge World hit a home run with this vehicle design.

Heavy bolters on the sponsons, and another on the front hull, provide some additional anti-personnel firepower. 

Not only does the Sicaran tank look cool, it performs well on the table.  The GW designers conferred impressive performance stats on these vehicles.  The auto cannons in particular are quite potent weapons. These tanks are so tough that you see them constantly pop up in the 40k forces at tournaments, supposedly as a relic remaining in the 40k chapter armoury (one more reason I laugh at tournaments, but anyway).  When it comes to 30k games, this vehicle will fill the obstructionist terrorists known as "loyalists" with all sorts of high-velocity slugs for the betterment of the galaxy, and I look forward to a game where this joins a Sons of Horus armoured column.

Forge World has gone on to add a number of variants of the Sicaran chassis to the product lineup over the years.  One such, the Sicaran Venator, looks pretty cool, and I have some of those lined up to join my collection at some point. The other variants look...well, not as cool. YMMV.  But for now, one Sicaran is enough. This vehicle will join my already pretty-large XVI Legion motor pool for operations on the Fawcett Avenue gaming tables.

Lovely angles on this model - great design by Forge World.

Byron has had one of these beauties for his Death Guard for a long time, and I have been impressed each time I have seen it. I was keen to add one for my Sons of Horus - it sure took me long enough, but at least I got it done eventually!

Up next, more 30k...but back to "Epic" scale!