Unsure if he was going to enjoy Warhammer 40,000 gameplay as much as he liked the lore, Redditor LeeRoyWyt built a whole Astra Militarum army from Lego-style construction kits to save cash – and so that he could smash the whole thing back into bricks if he didn’t enjoy the game.
“I come from the lore side and wanted to try the gaming side”, LeeRoy says, but he was put off by the price of Warhammer 40k kits. “I did not want to spend hundreds of Euros for a game I might not like in the end”, he explains. When he stumbled across a Lego-style figure with a distinct resemblance to the Death Korps of Krieg from the Astra Militarum Warhammer 40k faction, it gave him an idea.
Building a Warhammer army from Lego isn’t usually cheaper than buying the official models, as the most expensive Lego sets give even the Warhammer Titans a run for their money. But LeeRoy’s rationale is pretty solid: once you’re bored with a Lego build you can smash it up, something we don’t suggest you try with a collection of Space Marines.
LeeRoy leaned heavily on “Asian firms like Quan Guan” that make budget Lego alternatives as the source for his tanks. Each of his new Guard tanks is a kitbash with parts from multiple historical tanks. It was challenging to match the 40k aesthetic, and the kits needed spraypainting to unify all the various brick colors into an appropriate army scheme.
“Everything round is the enemy”, LeeRoy says, citing the Basilisk gun shield as a particular headache. “The very distinctive shape of the Imperial tank tracks” was another problem that needed substantial modification from the base kits.
The finished force is quite substantial: a Sentinel, a Sentinel-riding Lord Solar, several squads of minifigure infantry, two Leman Russ, one Rogal Dorn, one Basilisk, and some supporting command staff. In total, the project ran to about $280 (€ 260), including the cost of paints for miniatures.
The army has had one outing, “against the Necrons of a work colleague”. “The game took forever since I had no idea about anything and obviously I got slaughtered”, LeeRoy recounts. But he “killed a transcendent C’Tan shard with a lowly Guardsman’s plasma rifle”, so he’s claiming a moral victory for the Imperium of Man.
He jokes that his next project is “building a shelf for all the stuff!”, before allowing that he’s seen “a kit recently that would make an excellent base for a Baneblade”.
If you fancy giving something like this a go, check out our guide to the biggest Lego sets to get your hands on a veritable ocean of bricks. Also, make sure you check out Yogscast playing WW2 wargame Bolt Action with Lego – it’s a hoot!
Source: Wargamer
