Review: Plastic Cerastus Knight Lancer

People may be waiting for more infantry, but first, the Horus Heresy setting is gifted with another colossal plastic kit: the Cerastus Knight Lancer (also playable in Warhammer 40,000). In our review, we take a closer look at the largest Imperial Knight to date.

The new plastic Knight Houses Cerastus Knight Lancer is available for pre-order starting Saturday, 5th August 2023, and appears in stores one week later. The recommended retail price (RRP) is set at £120 / 155 €.

The box is rather big, but has a lot of empty air the sprue with the main carapace section takes up a lot of room. Inside you’ll find four large sprues, one medium-size sprue, a 165mm oval base, an assembly guide, and two transfer sheets.

Cerastus Knight Lancer review

The model comes with a shock lance and ion gauntlet shield generator only, which means that the other Cerastus variants will be stand-alone sets. Unfortunately, only one head variant is included, but the pilot and the pilot’s cabin are fully realised and can be exposed if you do not glue the hatch down.

As cosmetic options, you can choose between two sets of greaves, one generic and one with the Eye of Horus, and two sets of knee pads. There are four icons that can be attached to the carapace above the head: An Aquila for Loyalists, an Eye of Horus for traitors, a gear for a Knight Mechanicum, and a laurel wreath for Questoris Households. Optionally, a tilting shield can be attached to the left shoulder armour, a pennant to the shock lance, and one of two different pennants placed between the legs.

The sprue with the leg pieces and leg and shoulder armour is included twice, as these parts are symmetrical. The legs have prefabricated poses, but can also be positioned freely at the hip, knee and ankle joints if the small pegs are removed. Thanks to the clever design of the Cerastus Knight Lancer kit, all the hoses and pistons move with you, at least to a certain degree. Furthermore, there are ball joints at the waist, the arms, and the “neck”. The left and right arms can be swapped, the elbow joints can bend and rotate. The only thing I would have liked to see was transparent parts for the energy field of the ion generator gauntlet, similar to the Van Saar from Necromunda. I always found the shield a bit “hollow”.

Note: A while ago, the Cerastus Knight Acheron sprues have leaked. So we will soon see this variant in plastic as well, trading the shield and lance sprue for a chainfist and flame cannon sprue.

The two transfer sheets are also fantastic, multi-coloured with gold and silver print and very fine details. Together they are larger than a DINA4 sheet. Included are icons for House Makabius, House Vyronii, House Perdaxia, House Krast, House Malinax, House Coldshroud, House Devine, as well as a variety of generic designs and decorative elements. Questoris Knight Houses from the 41st millennium, however, are unfortunately not to be found (except House Krast, but they had a distinctly different iconography at the time of the heresy).

Value

Priced at £120 / €155, the Cerastus Knight Lancer is not only the largest Imperial Knights kit to date, but also the most expensive. However, compared to the Knight Valiant and Knight Castellan, the kit has one more large and one more medium sprue, so you get a lot more plastic. The Forge World resin version last cost £225.

Expensive remains expensive at the end of the day, but the Knight Lancer is also available at our partner stores with a discount of up to 20% over RRP. If you want to add one to your collection, please consider using our affiliate links below, which will support Tale of Painters at no extra cost to you:

You can find the latest Horus Heresy releases at our 🇬🇧/🇪🇺 partner stores Wayland Games, Element Games, and Firestorm Games, at 🇩🇪 Taschengelddieb and PK-Pro, and at 🇺🇸 Noble Knight Games.

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