The battlefield shakes with seismic reverberations with each of the Saturnine Dreadnought’s mammoth steps. As Space Marine fights Space Marine, brother fights brother, the towering presence of a war machine inspires confidence in its Legion and terror in their foes. The walking sarcophagus raises its enormous Heavy Plasma Bombard, its coils glowing as it prepares to fire. A flash of light, an ear-splitting boom, the deafening silence that follows.
The centrepiece of anyHorus Heresyforce and the star of the new Saturnine box, the Saturnine Dreadnought ushers inWarhammer: The Horus Heresy 3rd Edition. While the box also includes no fewer than 40 Legionnaires, six Saturnine Terminators, two characters and an enormous gun emplacement, the Dreadnought is the standout miniature for me.
I am a Certified Dreadnought Enjoyer, who has builtan army of Dreadnoughtsin the past.
There’s one problem. Games Workshop doesn’t want you to use this Dreadnought.
Separating Systems
Games Workshop has decided that the best way to maximise its profits is by separating all of its game systems. No army appears in both Warhammer 40K and its prequel set ten millennia prior, Warhammer: The Horus Heresy. The same goes for Age of Sigmar and Warhammer: The Old World. And poor Chaos Daemons, the original system-spanning army that could be played in both Warhammer and Warhammer 40K, don’t even exist any more.
Therefore, there is no crossover between the Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40K, despite the fact that both include Space Marines. Games Workshop has introduced a bunch of new special weapons to the Horus Heresy, including the most recent addition, Disintegrator Rifles. AP 3 and Damage 2 means they tear through opposing Legionnaires, but also that they can’t be used in 40K.
That seems silly to me. I’ve got an army of Dreadnoughts for 40K (not just the tiny one linked above), and I want to add a Saturnine to its roster. But I’m also being drawn into the Heresy hype train, and would love to build my first 30K army. Why shouldn’t I be able to use this behemoth in both?
Enter the saviour of hobbyists worldwide: magnets.
How To Magnetise The Saturnine Dreadnought
There are four parts you need to magnetise on the Saturnine Dreadnought. The two arms, which can be magnetised below the shoulders, and the two smaller weapons mounted at the bottom of its carapace. I would recommend magnetising this model even if you don’t want to use it in 40K, partially so you can swap out weapon options as rules and metas change, and partially because it’s so goshd*rn easy to do.
The Specialist Design Studio, which designs the miniatures for the Horus Heresy within Games Workshop, clearly has a different idea of what wargames should be to the larger company. These models still come in hundreds of tiny pieces. They’re still customisable and hot-swappable. And the Saturnine Dreadnought even comes with existing magnet holes.
I’m not kidding. On all four of the Dreadnought’s weapons, there are indents that leave small, circular cavities inside the mini. This can only be an intentional design in order to accommodate magnets. Grab four 2mm x 1mm neodymiums for the smaller weapons, and four 5mm x 1mm magnets for the arm cannons. Drop in some superglue, double check your polarities, and have fun. No drilling, no mess, just magnetised weapons in a couple of seconds.
Of course, I’m going to take it a step further. Because I’m an insufferable show-off and slave to the Adeptus Convertorum, I want to make this Dreadnought able to be played as a Loyalist or Traitor. ‘But you already can, they look exactly the same!’ you shout, scream, holler. But I’m wearing Airpods. And this Dreadnought needs a daemonic arm.
Because my 40K army is made up of corrupted Iron Hands (it’s a whole What If… style AU, if you’re really interested), there’s some daemonic influence. My Bladeguard Veterans have exposed flesh and extreme bionics. My vision of Ferrus Manus (still alive and… not quite well, but certainly alive) is a fallen Primarch, polluted by the whisperings of monstrous deities. A regular Dreadnought just isn’t going to cut it.
While the Plasma Cannon just needed a new joint making – my bits box and some Green Stuff work came in handy here – the right arm will require serious work, and probably freehand sculpting. I’m thinking a crab claw, but all my Tyranid bits are far too small. This will require more time than I had before this embargo and a more complicated magnetisation situation, but the goal for this project is not only to have this Dreadnought serve two different game systems, but two different forces. Both Space Marines, both Iron Hands, one loyal and the other traitorous.
I’ve only flicked through the rulebook thus far, but the Horus Heresy rules take me back to crunchier editions of 40K from years gone by. It has proper AP and vehicle armour facings and blast templates and all that good stuff we knew and loved. The kits are old-school. They’re finicky and small and perfect for converters and customisers like me. But they’re modern, too. The mould lines are easy to remove, the sprues are well laid out. And there’s even room for magnets. The Horus Heresy is quickly becoming my favourite Warhammer system, and I haven’t played a single game yet.
