Space Marine Dreadnoughts - The Honored Few

 Today we are looking at Space Marine Dreadnoughts!
Dreadnoughts are machines constructed to be both walking tombs and mobile battle stations for a mortally wounded Space Marine.

Generally if a Space Marine has provided exceptional service to his chapter and is seriously wounded the chapter may elect to bestow upon that Space Marine the honor of continuing to serve the chapter in the form of a Dreadnought.


This is considered a great honor and Dreadnoughts are feared and respected for the extensive combat experience and expertise they can provide to the chapter, having honed their skills through both life and death.
















 The interred Space Marine is housed within what is known as the Sarcophagus within the Dreadnought, which is basically a giant life support system keeping what is left (it might not be much) of that Space Marine functional and connected to the rest of the machine. The space marine literally becomes one with Dreadnought


When Dreadnoughts are not needed in battle or for other duties such as advising its chapter on issues related to its expertise, Dreadnoughts are typically left to sleep away the years, decades or even centuries until they are needed again....


The above picture depicts a Dreadnought from the Black Templar Space Marine Chapter tearing apart a Chaos Space Marine and holding the rest back with its Auto Cannon. The bottom picture is a Dreadnought holding of a group of Tyranids with an Auto Cannon and a Claw.



It should be noted that although these two dreadnoughts have very similar weaponry dreadnoughts can be outfitted with all sorts of members ranging from heavy flamers to laser cannons, extra armor and the list goes on.

In my next couple of post i am going to take the Dreadnought further and look at the various load outs chapters employ to their Dreadnoughts and how they fit in with the Codex and the various chapters methods, as well as venerable dreadnoughts.

Alpha Legion - Before and After the Heresy

This is an Alpha Legion Space
So today I wanted to start looking at the Traitor Legions, specifically how they looked before and after the Horus Heresy.

This is a Pre Heresy Alpha Legion Space Marine. The Alpha Marine pictured is in the Alpha Legion traditional colors and heraldry, purple armor and  a big A with chains through the middle on their right shoulder as heraldry.

Although the "Alpha" Legion the Legions traditional number is 20 and is unique amongst the original Space Marine Legions in that they had two Primarch's, Alpharius and his twin brother Omegon.

This picture is taken from the cover of  "Legion - Secrets and Lies" by Dan Abnett.

These are Alpha Legion Marines Post Heresy. Their colors have changed to blue, their backpacks and (some) members helms have changed and their heraldry is now a Hydra, which amongst other things is symbolism regarding their combat tactics.

Recently the Alpha Marines have appeared in several book and computer games, most notably the Dawn of War series where they have played the Antagonist on multiple occasions.

The legion is devoted to Chaos Undivided which makes it well suited to sowing the seeds of Chaos throughout the Imperium of man, why limit yourself to the corruption of a single Chaos God when you can branch out and corrupt with power of all four!

Rubric Marine

This is a Rubric Marine from the Thousand Sons traitor space marine legion. The Runic Marines of the Thousand Sons are easily identified by their uniquely shaped helms.

The Rubric Marines themselves are but suites of armor which can follow orders, having lost their bodies and free will during a failed incantation meant to purge the marines of mutation, cast by the Chief Sorcerer Librarian of the Thousand Sons Ahriman.

Their Armor and lore is one of my favourites in Warhammer 40k due its uniqueness, these marines make being a soulless husk look damn good indeed.