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.

The Leviathan fit together nicely, with a host of additional optional parts.

Posing the dreadnought was rather difficult, as there were so many points of movement that had to get glued together.

Like the Deimos Rhino, the Leviathan went together really easily. Each of the pieces had really tight tolerances, making all the pieces fit together easily, without worry of any being misaligned. Furthermore, the leg pieces fit together so snuggly, that posing was made easier, as you could test some elements of it without using glue. Unfortunately, quite a few pieces are assembled in halves, such as the helmet, which is not ideal, as it creates a seam line that needs to be filled with modeling putty or possibly sanded smooth if enough plastic glue was used to fuse the pieces together completely. Additionally, I was surprised to see that they had predrilled magnet holes for the hull weapons, a nice touch to allow more flexibility in army list building. Interestingly, the tolerances are so tight, that I found the hull weapons do not even need magnets, and fit in snugly enough that they stay in place even without glue. They did not make the arms magnetizable, but I suspect that is because it would be much more challenging to allow magnets to work with the included cabling. Disappointingly, the kit did not include any of the ranged weapons. These have since been released in a separate box that  does not include the close combat weapons.

A traditional Space Marine Dreadnought, next to the massive Leviathan.

A resin Contemptor Dreadnought next to the Leviathan.

Even the Deredeo Dreadnought is smaller than the Leviathan.

From left to right: Space Marine Dreadnought, Contemptor, Leviathan, and Deredeo.

Overall, I am quite happy with the plastic Leviathan Dreadnought. Plastic is far more durable and easier to work with; gone are the mold shifts and warped pieces. Thankfully, the model retains the posability of the original resin version. With this new plastic release, I see no compelling reason to ever get one of the resin counterparts. Hopefully I can get some paint on this model soon, and let it join my growing Dark Angel force!

- Eric Wier