Dropping in ahead of the main Heresy release, we’re reviewing the brand new Tarantula Sentry Guns and Tarantula Missile Batteries kits from Games Workshop. As ever a big thank you to Games Workshop for sending us these copies to review.
Appendix units rock. You know the ones. The really bizarre resin kits you only used to get rules for in Imperial Armour campaign books. Vehicles and units that aren’t explicitly weapons of war, but representations of the vast support forces surely present in all major conflicts of the far future; pure expressions of logistical verisimilitude, complete with janky-ass rules. I’m talking about Atlas Recovery Vehicles. I’m talking about Cyclops Demolition Vehicles. I’m talking about Tarantula Sentry Guns.
These lil’ guys have a weird history. Tracing their origins back to the earliest days of Imperial armour, they’ve been a strangely consistent appendix unit. A classic Forge World resin kit available alongside Imperial Armour Volume 1 (2003) they were originally described as portable rearguard assets employed by Imperial forces, defending vital supply routes. They originally came in two flavours (Heavy Bolter or Lascannon) with Armour Values (like vehicles and dreads), automated firing modes (either Point Defence or area suppression) and a terrible BS of 2. Eventually these broadened into a Melta variant and an anti-air variant, the Hyperios Air Defence Battery, in Imperial Armour Volume 2 (Second Edition – 2013), but bigger things were yet to come.
With the release of Horus Heresy Book 2: Massacre (2013), Tarantulas gained a whole new function, leaving their rearguard roots behind and now becoming forward deployment assets used by Astartes forces in the Crusade era. Their rules also went through a bit of revamp as well, emblematic of the boundless enthusiasm for customisation (and jank) of 1e Heresy: Moving to the Fast Attack slot, they lost their AV: gaining Toughness (6), Wounds (2) and a save (3+); and gained a variety of new weapon options (from Rotor Cannons to Heavy Flamers). They could even be upgraded with wargear that gave them Scout or a Turn 1 Shroud. Their unit entry takes up two whole pages; it was a purer time.
With the new edition in 2022, Tarantulas didn’t quite make the cut, missing out on a Liber profile and scraping by in an incredibly diminished state through inclusion in the Legacies pdfs. They lost most of their cool stuff (no wargear, less weapon options, and even the twin-linked rule for some reason) and, at least at launch, they’d even lost their playability. For the first time since their creation they’d been given the Leadership stat. As this was boldly set at 5, this meant they were very likely to route (brick?) at the first whiff of bolter fire. Luckily some bright spark in SDS caught this error and fixed it, patching in Fearless and also helpfully dropping their points (but only in the Astartes legacies pdf; Mech players have enough cool robots already I guess?). Despite this Tarantulas have remained a pretty rare sight on the table, with far more interesting (and cheaper) options fighting in out for people’s Fast Attack slots. Until now?!
meltabombed: I concur; these guys always seemed like a really cool idea but never seemed worth the money or effort, and always struck me as the “gigachad flex” for a collector to have a set for, or built into, their Forge World Zone Mortalis table. I am very excited for them to make their triumphant return in glorious plastic!
So let’s talk about the new boxes:
Tarantula Sentry Guns
This is another lovingly designed, modern kit from the Design Studio, with a much more streamlined silhouette that feels distinctly more Heresy than the rather boxy 40k version, though they’re also another victim of the ubiquitous Heresy scale creep. Each Tarantula Sentry with all weapon options comes on a single sprue (Lascannon, Volkite Culverin, Heavy Bolter and Melta array). If you wanted to run them in anything other than multiples of 2, this means it should also be easy to pick up/sell the odd sprue on the second hand market.
The weapon options should be familiar to anyone who’s built sponsons, coming in a few pieces with a reasonably flush fit. Each weapon is attached to the body by a plastic knob meaning you can keep them interchangeable without needing to even look at a magnet.
meltabombed: I also did not mag my Tarantulas; the standard ones friction fit in there well enough. If you go this route though, you’ll want some kind of storage solution for the extra guns so they don’t go missing when not in use, and you may want to add some extra varnish on them so that your oily fingers don’t rub off the paint when you’re swapping them out.
The only things to watch out for in the kit construction come from how you attach the legs to the base; when you’re in the flow of construction, not looking at the instructions, it can be easy to glue them on upside down.
meltabombed: I, uh, built my Tarantula bases upside down. I was a little too excited and got a little gung-ho with the plastic cement and by the time I realized, it was too late. It’s not super obvious, and they look just fine (honestly they just kinda sit a little flatter to the ground), but…just don’t be like me; build your Tarantula bases right way up, with the cool little mini drop pod base looking thingy on the bottom. Just goes to show that even decade-long and award winning hobbyists can still screw things up. It happens to the best of us…
For painting it’s pretty easy to keep everything in sub assemblies, keeping the turret, legs and guns all separate. I left my visors off (Lie: I snapped mine off, after priming) so I could do them in a separate colour, but this’d also be helpful if you wanted to do any fancy stripes like on box art (hazard or otherwise).
meltabombed: I painted my Tarantulas up in a very similar series of sub-assemblies and did them up for my Blood Angels. I opted for the classic yellow muzzled weapons that I adore and that feature heavily across my army (showcase coming soon!) I have no idea how these things will function in the new edition, but when the dropsite preview hinted that they could be dropped in like drop pods, I knew I had to go with the melta-up-someone’s-ass route. However all of the weapon options seem viable and cool and will eventually get painted up I’m sure. Plus, the yellow melta muzzles with the heat scorching effect just looks too cool, don’t you agree?
It’s worth noting here that neither kit comes with bases; given their history as quasi-fortifications it’s easy to see why, so feel free to model how you wish. If you fancy doing these on scenic bases they just about squeeze onto 100mm citadel bases or, you could also just use the turret on a smaller base size and kitbash it as part of a concealed position.
Andrew_N: Love the idea of concealed basing – reminds me of the old Forge World turret emplacements!
Meltabombed: I passed on the bases for mine as well, as I felt it would take up too much real estate in the army case. However making them part of a terrain piece for your gaming table would be ace, especially if you are working on a themed table for your army like mine!
Tarantula Missile Batteries
Similarly to the Sentry Guns, the missile batteries are all on a single sprue with both weapon options, with an almost identical set of legs.
Assembly is a little harder with a couple of seams that weren’t quite as flush as you’d want them to be. This is probably to accommodate the movement of turret arms and the visor, which is a fun little bit of functionality.
Andrew_N: In addition to the seams on the main body of the Tarantula, you will likely also want to keep an eye on the seams of the Orias Frag Missiles; the missiles are one to a side of the launcher, and the gaps run the entirety of them. A little bit of sanding after gluing will help out quite a bit with hiding the seam.
Another thing to keep an eye out for – the two sides of the Hyperios launchers are not next to each other, but next to the second half of the opposite side, for some reason. So part 11 is next to part 16, and 12 is next to 15, despite the sequential parts going together.
Whilst you might be able to get away with a friction fit for attaching the missiles to the turret once everything’s primed, I’d recommend magging. It’s a little fiddly, but straightforward enough, requiring 2x1mm magnets to get a consistent fit.
Andrew_N: As far as magnetizing goes, it is pretty straightforward. For where the missiles attach to the main body, aim to drill in the center of the little T-slot. I used 2x1mm magnets as well. If you are crazy like me and also wish to magnetize the turret body to the legs, there are convenient little circular casting marks in the bottom of the body and on the base that are perfect places to drill for 2×1 magnets. I also added 5×2 magnets into the convenient openings in the bottom of the feet of the model, to allow me to carry the Tarantulas in magnetic carry cases. All in all, these were a straightforward build for me. Including drilling and gluing magnets, building both missile tarantulas took roughly two hours, with coffee breaks.
For painting, again it’s pretty easy to keep everything in sub assemblies (legs, turret and missile systems). I found the Hyperios missile launchers trickiest to paint, with the interior of the missile systems being quite hard to reach if you’re painting the rocket segments in different colours. You could potentially keep these apart for easier access if you wanted, but it might not be worth the effort.
Andrew_N: Sub assemblies are your friend here – I found the Hyperios missiles to be pretty frustrating to paint after assembled, so if I pick up more of these in future I might try to paint the launchers in two halves and glue them together afterwards. Otherwise, this was a fun, quick paint job! Like my older Forge World tarantulas, I kept these in a generic grey scheme so that I could use them across different armies.
Final Thoughts
Truly third edition promises to be the golden age for the Turret Stans amongst us, with two plastic versions of Tarantulas and the new Araknae Quad Accelerator Platform hopefully littering the battlefields of the 31st Millennium. Like a lot of Heresy releases, this is a kit I didn’t think I wanted, but has really surprised me with how much I’ve enjoyed putting it together and painting. Also running more Volkite is always fun.
And if that wasn’t incentive enough to pick up one of these kits, a little teaser image from the Dropsite announcement did hint there might be some more diverse roles for kits in future. I don’t think it’s a coincidence the Tarantula Missile Battery turret just so happens to fit on the Scorpius turret mount. If that’s the direction the Design Studio is taking this edition, it promises to be an interesting one.
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