Review: Horus Heresy Land Raider Proteus

Put on your nostalgia glasses, the plastic Land Raider Proteus kit finally arrives for us to review. Based on the proportions and design of the original plastic Land Raider from 1988, the new plastic kit offers a faithful recreation of the Forge World resin model. On top of that, you can also choose between building a Land Raider Proteus Carrier or Explorator. Find out more in this review.

The Land Raider Proteus will be available for preorder starting Saturday, October 8 2022, and on sale one week after. This kit builds either a Land Raider Proteus Carrier, or Proteus Explorator with or without a hull weapon.

Land Raider Proteus model review

If you read the review of the Spartan Assault Tank in our Age of Darkness launch box unboxing post, you probably know what to expect from the Land Raider Proteus kit. Thanks to the ingenious modular design, the Land Raider Proteus shares four sprues with the Spartan, namely sprue B for the side parts, sprue C for the tracks, sprue L for the lascannon sponsons, and of course the generic tank accessory sprue (A) that is included in all plastic Legionary tanks kits.

The Spartan’s sprues E and F are replaced with a new Proteus exclusive sprue D, which builds the Land Raider Proteus’ hull and shortened side sections.

The model has quite a few customization options. You can choose to build either a Land Raider Proteus Carrier with an assault ramp and hull weapon on the front, or an Explorator, which trades the ramp for an augury web and dozer blade. The Explorator can also choose to have a hull weapon like the Carrier, or go without. The hull weapon can either be a twin-linked Heavy Bolter, Lascannon, or Heavy Flamer.

The kit also has three Eye of Horus icons, three loyalist Aquila icons, plus a scroll and iron halo icon, that can be used to decorate the side doors or the assault ramp.

Last but not least, the tank accessory sprue adds a wealth of equipment options and covers all the options from the army list, like various pintle-mounted weapons, smoke launchers, hunter-killer missiles, and more, and also builds an optional tank commander in MkII armour, for whom you find two more dataslate-holding arm pairs on sprue B.

Assembly & size comparison

Assembling the Land Raider Proteus is straight-forward, as the fit is excellent like all of the Horus Heresy tank and Dreadnought kits. However, because of the modular nature of the sprues, there are quite a few seams that require filling, especially on the side pieces. If you have a Spartan, you will know. You can see all the liquid green stuff used on my Land Raider Proteus Carrier below.

The Proteus has the same height as a Spartan, as they share the same chassis, with the Proteus being shorter of course, as its transport capacity is only 12. Compared to the plastic MkIII Land Raider from Warhammer 40.000, the Land Raider Proteus is slightly bit taller but shorter, the proportions are inspired by the original MkIb Land Raider plastic kit from 1988.

Value

With a price tag of £52.50 / 65 € / $85, I think the Land Raider Proteus kit has a decent value for the amount of sprues and plastic you get. It’s the same price as the 40k version currently, and cheaper than the Land Raider Crusader kit. The price sits in between the Sicaran and Spartan Assault Tank, which fits well with the relative size of the respective models.

If you plan to pick up a Land Raider Proteus for your collection, I recommend our partner stores Wayland Games, Element Games, and Taschengelddieb, from which you can order Warhammer and Horus Heresy products with discounts of up to 20% over RRP: