Review: Legio Custodes Battle Group

The Emperor’s golden guardians march to war in plastic, forged anew in a new generation of plastic kits. We’re reviewing the Legio Custodes Battle Group, the first major wave of new Custodes models for The Horus Heresy. This substantial release brings 15 models including a Shield Captain, Custodian Guard and Sentinel Guard infantry, a magnificent Contemptor Dreadnought, and the imposing Caladius Annihilator grav-tank. In this comprehensive review, we examine all the kits and explore their build options with high-res sprue images and an unboxing video.

The Legio Custodes Battle Group, along with the Liber Custodes book and the Legion Glaive tank, will be available for pre-order starting Saturday, 21 March 2026. The pre-order period lasts two weeks, with the official release date set for 4 April 2026. Please note that there will be only one production run, so the box is available only until stocks last, and might sell out fast with independent retailers.

Legio Custodes Battlegroup unboxing

The Legio Custodes Battle Group contains 15 brand-new plastic models. The RRP is £160 / 206 € / $255.

Included are:

• 1 Legio Custodes Dreadnought transfer sheet, 1 Legio Custodes Vehicle transfer sheet
• 1 Shield Captain
• 6 Custodian Guard
• 6 Sentinel Guard
• 1 Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought / Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought
• 1 Caladius Annihilator

Here I go through all of the box contents, inc. a page-by-page flip-through the assembly guide:

Legio Custodes Shield-Captain reviewed

The Shield Captain comes on a medium-sized sprue and a 40mm base. The model is monopose, armed with Eternity Blade and Praesidium Shield. The Captain is clearly modelled with feminine features, which can be seen in the shape of the chest armour. The only build option is the choice between a helmet with imposing topknot (parts 20 and 21), or a female bare head with hair tied up (22 to 24). The “tactical rock” is a separate part and can therefore be swapped with something else from your bits box.

Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of these sprue images (and backsides of the sprues) can be downloaded here.

The level of detail on the Shield Captain’s armour and tabard is crazy. Lots of details create texture and make a model well-suited for Contrast or drybrushing. But if you want to paint the model with classic techniques, you should plan plenty of time. Nevertheless, the model is an eye-catcher, despite the fairly classic pose, and I’d be surprised if we don’t see this model at the next Golden Demons.

Custodian Guard Sodality reviewed

The new Custodes kit consists of a two-part sprue with one medium-sized and one small segment containing 6 bodies, included twice in the Battle Group box. For the Custodian Guards, there is an additional sprue which contains the two-handed Custodian spears; for the Sentinel Guard Sodality, there is a sprue with Sentinel warblades and Praesidium Shields. The base size is the same as with the older models, 40 mm.

Let’s first look more closely at the sprues with the bodies:

• With the two-part sprue you can build a total of 6 bodies: three male and three female.
• Interestingly, unlike with the new Cadians, the decision was made not to make the bodies unisex. Instead, the male bodies are somewhat more broadly built, whilst the female ones are somewhat slimmer and have subtle “boobie” armour. Similar to Stormcast Eternals.
• Additionally, this sprue contains 6 different helmets that can be freely combined with 6 different plumes. There are also 6 bare heads (1 female with braid, 1 female with mohawk, 2 male with mohawk, 1 shaven male head, 1 male head with curls). More helmets and heads can be found on the weapons sprues.

Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of these sprue images (and backsides of the sprues) can be downloaded here.

Then we have the weapons sprue for the Custodian Guard. This contains:

• 6 arm pairs with Custodian spears (they each only fit a specific body/pose)
• 1 alternative right arm with Magisterium Vexilla (parts 98 to 100)
• 6 shoulder pad pairs (according to instructions intended for specific arm pairs, but largely interchangeable)
• 6 more helmets (without plumes, which you need to add from the body sprue), as well as 5 more bare heads (male with short mohawk: part 110, shouting male shaven head: part 109, female shaven head: 112, shouting female head with small topknot: 113, female head with large topknot: 111)

Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of these sprue images (and backsides of the sprues) can be downloaded here.

I think the new Custodes are a real upgrade over the old models. Those weren’t bad either, but the new Custodes stand more upright, have slightly smaller shoulder pads, and taller but slimmer helmets. The difference isn’t huge, but I think they match better in proportions with the “nu-scale” Horus Heresy Legionaries and the new Cataphractii Terminators that I reviewed here.

The level of detail and the sharpness of detail has also increased (for better or worse). The only thing I could criticise about the sculpts would be that the legs still appear somewhat too chunky in my eyes, especially when it comes to the poses with wide stances. I find the proportions on the Stormcast Eternals in Thunderstrike armour or the similarly heavily armoured Annihilators more balanced.

Assembly advice

Assembly of the new Custodes can be somewhat tricky, as the cloaks have one half of the shoulder moulded on, and you then need to click the arms with the other half of the shoulder into the cloaks. Therefore, each arm pair only fits one specific body/cloak, so read the instructions carefully. You should also take your time aligning the arms and Guardian Spears. The hip armour and Misericordia daggers can be freely attached to the hip. These don’t click into predetermined positions, so dry fit first before gluing. But once everything fits, the kit’s engineering makes total sense, as the models are wonderfully three-dimensional with almost no undercuts.

Custodian Sentinel Sodality reviewed

Alongside the 6 Custodian Guards, you’ll also find 6 Custodian Sentinels in the box. These combine the identical Custodes body sprue with an alternate weapons sprue. This contains:

• 6 arm pairs with Sentinel warblades and Praesidium shields (they each only fit a specific body/pose)
• 1 arm pair with Magisterium Vexilla (which design differs from the Custodian Guard’s) and Sentinel Warblade or Misericordia in the left hand
• 6 shoulder pad pairs (according to instructions intended for specific arm pairs, but largely interchangeable)
• 1 additional bare head (shaven male head: part 108)

Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of these sprue images (and backsides of the sprues) can be downloaded here.

Please note: the Warhammer Community article suggests that both the Custodian Guard Sodality and the Sentinel Sodality each have 12 helmeted and 12 unhelmeted head options. This is incorrect. They’ve probably miscounted the total number of all heads in both variants:

• The Guard Sodality kit has the 6 helmeted and 6 unhelmeted heads from the body sprue, plus 6 more helmets and 5 bare heads on the weapons sprue. So a total of 12 helmeted and 11 unhelmeted options.
• The Sentinel Sodality kit has the same 6 helmeted and 6 unhelmeted heads from the body sprue, plus 1 additional bare head on the weapon sprue. So a total of 6 helmeted and 7 unhelmeted options.

Caladius Annihilator Grav-Tank reviewed

The Caladius is a faithful plastic recreation of the resin predecessor. The kit comprises two large sprues for the chassis, as well as a smaller two-part sprue for the gun turret with Arachnus blaze carronade. The base size is 150mm oval. Additionally, you get a small transparent part that holds the tank in the air, plus a Legio Custodes vehicle transfer sheet with gold print (you can see it in the unboxing video).

Since the weaponry is outsourced to a separate sprue, for the variant with twin Iliastus accelerator cannon announced in the Warhammer Preview, only one sprue needs to be exchanged.

Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of these sprue images (and backsides of the sprues) can be downloaded here.

During assembly, you can choose between a twin Lastrum bolt cannon or a new weapon option, the twin neutronium cascade projectors for the front armament. The guns can be tilted up and down and rotated left and right. The gun turret rotates, but the carronade itself is fixed. There are no interior details, nor can the hatches be opened.

Te kit’s complexity is on the same level to that of the other Horus Heresy tank kits. It’s really a quite large piece, and then the Coronus Grav Carrier, which will also appear in plastic at a later date, will be even larger.

Contemptor-Achillus / Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought reviewed

The Contemptor kit comprises three medium-sized sprues and a 60mm base. Additionally, a small transfer sheet with gold printing is included. The model can be built either as a Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought with Achillus Dreadspear, or as a Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought with a Galatus warblade and Gravis Praesidium shield.

Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of these sprue images (and backsides of the sprues) can be downloaded here.

These are the build options:

• The legs can be built in two poses, with either the left or right leg forward.
• As with the Legiones Astartes Contemptor Dreadnought, you can also cut away the small positioning nubs and choose a free pose. The hip joints are ball joints, the knee joints can be angled, the ankle joints are ball joints, and there’s a flat-footed right and left foot as well as a right and left foot that step on the balls of the feet.
• The torso sits on a ball joint, as do the head and shoulders. The forearms are rotatable and the elbow joint can be angled, making the arms very freely positionable.
• For the Galatus, forearms with warblade and shield are included. These are quite easy to magnetize.
• For the Achillus, forearms with spear in the right hand and a closed and open left hand are included. Two-handed poses are not possible. For the arm weaponry, you can choose between Lastrum Storm Bolter, Infernus Incinerator, and Adrathic Combi-Destructor. You can attach an optional decorative cord (part 127) to the spear.
• You can chose between 2 forehead pieces with slightly different ornaments (60 and 61), attach 2 optional pteruges leather strips (40 and 41) to the groin armour, as well as a Crux Terminatus with cord (64) or a medal (71) to the chest eagle. On the left shoulder pad you can choose between two insignia (84 and 85).

Everyone loves Contemptor Dreadnoughts, and the Custodes Contemptor Dreadnought is a particularly handsome piece. It’s just as poseable as its Legiones counterpart, but filled with Aquila reliefs that have been sharply captured in plastic. A very beautiful plastic recreation of the resin predecessors, which combines both the Galatus and Achillus variants in one kit, and also contains some small optional decorative parts. Fantastic. Magnetizing the different weapon options is easy, as the forearms for the Achillus and Galatus are all separate assemblies and don’t share any parts with each other.

Where to get

You can find the latest GW releases at our 🇬🇧/🇪🇺 partner stores Wayland Games, Element Games, and Firestorm Games, at 🇩🇪 Taschengelddieb and PK-Pro, and at 🇺🇸 Noble Knight Games with a welcome discount of up to 20% over RRP. Using our links helps to support Tale of Painters at no additional cost to you, so thank you very much for using them!

I hope you found this review helpful, feel free to leave a reaction or comment below, or post your questions here or discuss on our Discord channel.