September | 2014 | Keptain Kayak

I bought this as part of my big $120 order to get the Web Exclusive Space Marine Captain. The Taurox is a new vehicle for the Astra Militarum that isn’t getting a lot of love. I was looking forward to building and painting it during my vacation a couple of months ago.

I’m was agonizing over whether I want to play it as a regular Taurox or a Taurox Prime, and after fielding it once as a Prime, I’ve decided to make it a regular Taurox.

As a regular Astra Militarum Taurox, it’s a cheap transport with the ability to transport a 10-model squad. It also comes with twin-Iinked autocannons. However, it has no fire points which is a bit of a drag, and it lacks the Chimera’s capacity to add a couple independent characters and also lacks the chimera’s special rule of mobile command vehicle, so I won’t be placing a command squad in it. Imperator Guides has a really good blog post talking about the Taurox.

For only 30 more points, I can upgrade it to a Taurox Prime. That adds a nifty battle cannon and it becomes a fast vehicle which can move 12″ per turn and fire both weapons. However, it can only be taken by Militarum Tempestus Scions, which I find very expensive to field.

Construction

Since I bought this vehicle new, it started as merely a collection of sprues.

Collection of sprues that would become a Taurox

I spent a lot of time making a detailed interior. I probably shouldn’t have bothered because it wound up being completely enclosed and hidden anyways.

It was a fun model to build. The instructions were clear and

Its first iteration was as a Taurox Prime with the gatling gun.

As I discovered in the battle against Andrew, the Taurox Prime didn’t do much and neither did the mandatory Scions that had to go with them. So, I converted it to a regular Astra Militarum Taurox.

Astra Militarum Taurox with Twin-Linked Autocannons

Taurox “Lechon” with Chimera “Dauntless”

Why did I call it “Lechon”? Well, Lechon means Roast Pig in Spanish and many spanish-based languages, including Tagalog. And apparently, it’s also the national dish of the Philippines! Many early reviews referred to the Taurox as a “Spider-Pig”. And, when I played Pokémon W2, I started with a Tepig which I named Lechon.

So, roast pig seemed appropriate.

Grumpy Guardsman seems to think that the Taurox is pretty good, while Imperator Guides does not. I’ve run it in a couple of battles and I’m not sure yet. It is a nice cheap transport, and the Twin-Linked Autocannon is quite versatile, but I don’t think it’s not good as the Chimera.

Many more vehicles to be posted soon!

I’m finally getting through my backlog of vehicles and able to share some finished pictures.

The first tank I recently completed was a Space Marine Vindicator. Imperial Fists are considered to be siege masters, so the Vindicator seems thematically like the most appropriate tank for them to start with.

The Vindicator is a brutal tank overall. It is a Heavy Support option for 125 points and has AV 13 11 10 and BS 4. . This tank is based on the Rhino chassis but replaces the transport capacity with a ridiculously devastating Demolisher Cannon. That cannon is ordnance and has a rather limited range of only 24″, but is S 10 and has AP 2! In my battle with Andrew about two months ago, he used a Vindicator to vaporize a whole squad of my guardsmen with a single shot!

I got this particular model from eBay. I like to think I got a pretty good deal on it. It was primed black, but I could see that there were some traces of blue on the bottom. It’s an older version of the model, which I don’t mind at all. It doesn’t have the dozer-blade/siege shield, which would be thematically appropriate, but I decided to save some points and go without it.

I started by priming the whole tank skull white, and then did a dirty base coat of Averland Sunset. I highlighted the black and metal parts, but unfortunately some wound up on the yellow. Those are hard to clean up!

Base colours applied to the Space Marine Vindicator

After reviewing the codex, I realized that smoke launchers, smoke light and a storm bolter are included in the 125 points. I thought it would be useful to have the pintle-mounted weapon, and since it was already included, I decided to add it. I had to make some modifications to the tank commander. It was surprisingly hard to cut off the pewter arm, but I think the final product looks convincing.

Space Marine Vindiciator, now with pintle-mounted storm bolter

As I mentioned earlier, covering dark spots with yellow was tricky. It took several coats of Yriel Yellow to get a nice even colour, but I’m pretty happy with the end product.

Side view of my Imperial Fists Space Marine Vindicator Tank

I like how many of the paint features turned out. The leadbelcher metallic really shines nicely and gives it an industrial feel. There were other parts I highlighted with Averland Sunset and then covered with Auric Armour Gold, and it looks really sharp, shiny, and golden.

The wooden boxes in the back look pretty effective too.

Rear view of my Imperial Fists Space Marine Vindicator Tank

Front view of my Imperial Fists Space Marine Vindicator Tank

Why did I name it “Subtlety”? Well, it’s meant to be ironic. A bright yellow tank with a monstrously large gun is probably the most unsubtle thing imaginable.

My bright yellow tank with a huge cannon is ironically named "Subtlety" — My bright yellow tank with a huge cannon is ironically named “Subtlety”

I look forward to fielding this some day with my Imperial Fists allied force.

It's bad news time when you're staring down the barrel of a Space Marine Vindicator's Demolisher Cannon — It’s bad news time when you’re staring down the barrel of a Space Marine Vindicator’s Demolisher Cannon

And I imagine my opponents won’t look forward to staring down the barrel of the Demolisher Cannon!

Keptain Kayak

Monthly Archives: September 2014

Astra Militarum Taurox “Lechon”

Space Marine Vindicator “Subtlety”

My Warhammer 40,000 Blog featuring Imperial Guard, Space Marine and Inquisitor Models