Mastodon Super-Heavy Siege Transport

 From Tom McBride:

So I'm sure some of you have been wonder where I've been for the past couple of months.  Well I wish I could tell you I spent the entire time somewhere warm and sunny drinking margaritas. But, alas, that was only the first two weeks.  The rest of the time I've been working on this secret project: The Mastodon Super-Heavy Siege Transport!

Some time ago I got a request to build something unique for a client's custom Space Marine army known as the Emperor's Knights.  The tank had to be big, have transport capabilities, and he wanted it to reflect the chapter’s unusually close relationship with the Ordo Malleus.  This dovetailed well with a build I had been wanting to do based on a super heavy tank seen in the background of the Black Templar’s pic on the 3rd edition rule box set (sorry, can't find a good pic of it).  In the pic there was this HUGE tank just bristling with weapons.  

As life would have it this commission ended up turning into a secret gift from his fiancé and so I had to keep it under tight wraps until the surprise could be unleashed.  That time is now.....

The return of the Indomitable Resolve to the armies of mankind is a recent one considering the war machine itself is over ten thousand years old.  It’s discovery occurred during the early days of the Harper Crusade on the planet of Chicaron in the Corvus system, which had fallen to a heretical uprising that plunged the entire human population into civil war.  It was also here that the Imperium decided to establish the beachhead in their quest to reclaim the system in the name of the Emperor.

And so it was on the day of Saint Nathanial’s Ascension that Inquisitor Salvator of the Ordo Malleus along with the entire Emperor’s Knights space marine chapter descended from the heaven onto Chicaron to bolster the few remaining imperial troops held up in an ancient and long abandoned fortress known as the Crow’s Nest.  Within a few short weeks the combined effort of the Emperor’s Knights and Inquisitor Salvator’s forces quashed the rebellion and reinstated the rule of imperial law to the planet.  With Chicaron now secure Salvator returned to the Crow’s Nest intrigued by the potential secrets hidden within its catacombs.  It was there behind a vault sealed since the time before the Horus Heresy that Salvator made his great discovery.

Indentified as a mastodon super-heavy siege transport this design dated back to the Unification Wars on Terra and had once accompanied both the Imperial Army and the Adeptus Astartes during the earliest days of the Great Crusade.  It eventually fell out of favor as the more versatile Baneblade chassis became more available and now only a scant few remain after ten millennia.  How and why this massive siege engine arrived on Chicaron so long ago remains a mystery.

Although it was strip of much its pre-Heresy weapons and technology Salvator saw its potential and pressed the techmarines of the Emperor’s Knights under the watchful eye of his Adeptus Mechanicus to rebuild the mastodon to his specifications. Rechristen the Indomitable Resolve the ancient war machine returned to war.  

At first it acted as the mobile command center for the crusading forces but after being the devastating spearhead in a number of attacks at the hands of the Emperor’s Knights the Indomitable Resolve was reassigned to the chapter for the remainder of the campaign.  

Once order had be restored in the Corvus system and the Harper Crusade had come to an end Inquisitor Salvator gifted the Indomitable Resolve to the Emperor’s Knights in honor of their valiant service to the forces of mankind.  However, the seal of the inquisitor is still boldly displayed on the front of the tank as a reminder to the enemies of mankind, and to the Emperor’s Knight, that the Inquisition is ever watchful.

Tom posted preliminary rules here.

Make sure you check out Tom's stuff on his eBay sale page too.