Games Workshop’s release cycle of new Space Marines characters for the Codex chapters continues! This weekend marks the preorders for two new characters – Caanok Var of the Iron Hands and Suboden Khan of the White Scars, each with new models and rules. In this article we’ll be talking about the new kits, how they fit together, and tips and tricks for painting them. If you want to know about the rules for the new models, you can find them here:
- Detachment Focus: Hammer of Avernii and Caanok Var
- Detachment Focus: Spearpoint Task Force and Suboden Khan
Before we dive in, we’d like to thank Games Workshop for sending us preview copies of these models for review purposes.
Caanok Var
Caanok Var is the Iron Captain of Clan Avernii, who’s more or less a Terminator captain. His big claim to fame is that almost his entire body has been replaced by bionic components, many from other fallen brothers, and some created during the final days of the Heresy. He sits on a 50mm base.
TheChirurgeon: This model wasn’t too bad to build and paint. It’s a big Terminator model, and his arms are far enough out from his sides that he doesn’t end up with a lot of hard-to-reach bits you have to struggle with. There’s a bit of a weird spot in the way the cabling from his head goes up to his armor, but it’s not bad to work around. I think you’d be fine assembling this guy completely before painting him.
That said, the biggest pain point with this model are those dangly servo skulls. Each has two attach points to the model and while the lower one feels more stable with its peg attachment to the tetsubo, they both feel pretty flimsy. That peg attachment is a double-edged sword in that it means there’s a big hole in the tetsubo if you don’t want to attach it. They otherwise can be ignored pretty easily if you already have anxiety around them snapping off just from looking at them. I think it’s only a matter of time, but I’m never going to travel with this model.
Otherwise, Var painted up fast. He’s black armor. I used Black Templar and Corvus black for the armor, then Reaper’s Ghost White and Pure white for the white parts. Mechanicus Standard Grey and Celestra Grey for the edge highlights, and Leadbelcher for the steel parts. It’s a pretty solid model, but I’m not sure I’d ever run his detachment.
Keewa: I was a bit skeptical when they announced this gentleman, coming as he did among other, more interesting Champions of the First Founding; poor Caanok surrendered most of the limelight to Suboden Khan and his rad bike and Aethon Shaan and his whole… deal.
This model is actually quite cool, however; in particular, the power kanabo is absolutely sweet, the classic Oni weapon – I can’t believe they’ve never made one before! Though why’s he toting a storm bolter in the other hand? That’s clearly a two-handed club, Caanok! Couldn’t you have got a wrist-mounted storm bolter like a Grey Knight or Sanguinary Guard? Come on now, get it together, Iron Hands, you’re supposed to be the technical whizz-kids. If he’s wielding it one-handed then I suppose it’s technically a tetsubo either way you cut it (smash it?).
I admit to you, reader, I’ve never been a big fan of the Iron Hands and their focus on bionics, but perhaps I was mistaken; the sort of bare pistons and weird mechanics of his augmetic leg are pretty cool and flavourful (the all-black colour scheme is still a bit boring, sorry, when I paint him I might go for a rust-red colour instead).
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though; there are two very spindly elephants right in the middle of the room, some fragile little flies in our ointment – the servo skulls. Whenever you have an element of a model that sort of “flies away” from the main figure, it’s always a breakage risk, and in this case, it’s a very, very annoying one. Listen, I have big hands, I can’t hide it; putting together things that are so spindly with contact points that are so small and delicate is something of a bête-noire for me, fumbling as I do. I don’t see how anyone’s going to transport this fellow without at least one of the servo skulls going ping and detaching itself (particularly the one with the little satellite dish that’s just sort of hanging out there in the air).
It’s a fun idea, but it very rarely works, and in this case it just doesn’t. Fortunately, the places where the servo skulls are supposed to connect to the main body of ol’ Caanok are pretty minor, and you could probably fill them with Miliput and no one would ever know.
Suboden Khan
Suboden Khan is the Khan of the White Scars’ first company and is currently being groomed by Chapter Master Jubal Khan as his successor. He rides a Grav-Bike named Thunder, equipped with an Onslaught Gatling Cannon, into battle and swings a lance named Stormtooth.
Keewa: Well, one thing you can definitely say – this guy whips. What an incredible centrepiece model; it’s no surprise at all that when the Champions of the First Founding were announced it was Suboden Khan on his super-cool jet bike that’s bombing through some kind of open steppe, with the wind in his hair (no falcon at the wrist though). I guess he’s on his way to crush his enemies, see them driven before him, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
The big glaive (Stormtooth) is a very fun weapon and perfect for a futuristic-jet-bike lancer to have, coupled with a very fun nose-mounted minigun; the cloak whips in the wind as you’d expect, even if riding a bike while wearing a cloak is very questionable. Hopefully, it has some kind of point-of-failure so ol’ Suboden doesn’t find himself doing the Isadora Duncan. There’s more than a little of the Akira in the way he’s wielding his weapon out to the side like that.
MasterSlowPoke: The model has quite a few pieces, and it is one you’re going to want to take your time assembling. I had, incorrectly, assumed that there was going to be some sort of piece that goes on top that would cover the central seam that is endemic to all of Game Workshop’s biker models. I had a fairly sizeable gap at the end near the headlights/lenses, and it required some greenstuff and sanding to get smooth.
The other area to watch out for are the rear grav plates on the port (left from the driver’s perspective) side. It is pretty easy for those to get misaligned, and these plates also double as the connection point to the base. You don’t want this to be too off, as it would unbalance the whole model. It is kind of hard to tell where it should be, as the model is supposed to be tilting hard, so be sure to do plenty of dry fitting.
I can never stop myself from doing sub assemblies, and luckily this model takes them very well. most of these friction fit on well enough, especially the strap with the heads and the stowed shield/sword.I had first thought that I should leave the cape separate as well, but you get plenty of brush clearance with the guy as assembled – as long as you don’t glue him to the bike. Suboden’s feet are great for a pin – his leg holes basically come pre drilled.
I’m going to be running mine as a Rainbow Warrior
Keewa: This model took me quite a long time to put together; there are a lot of parts, plus I found that the outer cowling of the fuselage didn’t fit together seamlessly, so my poor rider has a rather noticeable gap on the top of his steed. Maybe I can fill it another time with some thinned-down Miliput. The two parts of his cape also created a gap that I’ll have to hide with some filler before the primer goes on; oh well. Skill issue for you, Mr. keewa.
The scenic base piece is actually really cool; even though it covers almost all of the base, it’s very flavourful and really gives a fine impression of movement.
One thing I didn’t like so much is the cape; it has this weird thing where a sliver of it is attached to one of the shoulder pads, while the other half sort of attaches to and covers part of the other shoulder pad, and they’re then joined by a chain that goes across the front – this causes a problem because the instructions say you should paint the cloak prior to assembly. So far so good, but since the cloak is attached to both pauldrons and the chain that goes around the front, plus needing to go on before the backpack, I’m not entirely sure how it’s supposed to work if you paint it separately; unless you want to paint the cloak separately, the shoulder pads separately, join those together when already painted and *then* attach the chain (that you presumably painted separately) around the front, and once you’ve done that, then you can finally attach the backpack. That’s an awful lot of subassemblies for a space marine. Baffling – does not make sense to me.
Very cool model though, despite those few (perhaps skill issue) related foibles. This is a man who knows what is best in life.
MasterSlowPoke: Keeping him in pieces definitely helped with painting him. The connection point to the small tree/rock that holds him up would have probably snapped if I tried to paint it on the base. Sometime in the future, I would not be surprised if I have to stick an old flight stand near the front to help keep him upright.
Otherwise, he’s not much of a different beast to paint than any other biker – you’re getting two models for the price of one. Be sure to look at what parts will mostly be covered on your sub assemblies – his fur-lined collar is mostly covered by his head and backpack, so don’t go too hard on it. Same with his belt buckle – it’s pretty much completely obscured by his bike console, so I didn’t have to think to hard about what I would put there after removing the White Scars logo.
Speaking of hidden details, there’s some interesting petroglyphs on the rocks on his base:
There is a traditional non-uma-musume-style horse, and one that I think symbolizes the Emperor, alon gwith a couple geometric shapes. I’m not sure why they were included, but they’re certainly more interesting than the old presculpted grass. They’re essentially unviewable once Suboden is in place, so they’re a hidden bonus for us sub assembly sickos.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
