When I was a kid, Forgeworld was churning out Imperial Guard tank variants and other vehicles in all sorts of delightful flavours. At the time, I wasn’t collecting Guard, nor did I have the money, but I always looked at them with great envy. By the time I finally started collecting Guard, many of those kits had become plastic GW models (Baneblade, Valkyrie, Hydra,...) but alas some of them disappeared from the lineup. My all time top favourite of them, perhaps of any Forgeworld kits, is the Destroyer Tank Hunter. And now I have one.
Ethics
Ok, let’s be clear, this is not a Forgeworld original. I have looked, and I can see on eBay they go for £200-300 painted and I’m pretty sure those are also fake. I could have converted my own out of a Leman Russ, I’ve seen people do it, but in general you don’t get that unique Destroyer Tank Hunter shape. Freddy Mercury put it best: “Fat bottomed girls, you make the rockin' world go 'round.”
I’ve also seen plenty of people, selling legally distinct “counts as” of varying quality but I’m particular and wanted it to fit in with my other tanks and look like it’s made from the same STC patterns, not just a vaguely similar shaped sci-fi tank. So I left it. But I always wanted one.
Then one day by chance I saw one on eBay for a reasonable price. It looked too good to be true, and it kind of is. With a bit of back and forth I established that it was a 3d print. Someone has lovingly recreated an incredibly accurate model of this tank I love so much and whilst it’s not perfect, it looks absolutely fine alongside my GW tanks.
But is it legal? I actually don’t know. It’s not a product GW is selling, but they used to, so… they still have copyright? On the other hand, this is being sold openly on eBay so… maybe it’s ok? Probably not though, I kind of assume that it is technically illegal. But on the other hand, since GW isn’t actually selling it, and shows no sign that they will again, I do think it’s reasonably ethical. I’m not cheating GW out of any money here. If GW would sell it legally, even though it would probably be more expensive than this 3d print, I’d buy that instead.
That seems to be my line with 3d printing, and that of most of the others I’ve talked to about it. I have no intention of buying 3d prints as cheaper alternatives to GW products. I love this hobby and I love the models GW produces. But I also enjoy customising my stuff, so I buy 3rd party bits like shoulder pads and doors and stuff to enhance my GW models and make them my own. This feels slightly different, this is a whole 3rd party model, but since GW won’t sell it to me, I don‘t feel bad about going to someone else who will.
Building and Painting
Was incredibly easy. It came in 5 large pieces and a small hatch. There was very little clean up required, most of the support scars are either inside or on the bottom tracks where they will get covered in mud, so I didn’t waste effort cleaning them to perfection. There were almost no print lines visible, and in particular the barrel, the thing I was most worried about, looked great. The top hatch weird lacks a split down the middle, despite very clearly being designed as a pair of hatches that have to split to open, so I have to carefully cut on in myself with a razor saw. There were also noticeable gaps where the two hull pieces join at the front and the back, which I had to cover with some plasticard.
I also couldn’t help but customise it. I do think tanks look better with track guards, so I had to get a few of them. As with the Hellhound, the hull kind of gets in the way of the tank guards so some careful trimming was required, always tricky with resin. I also felt a heavy stubber was compulsory, since the tank would otherwise be completely vulnerable to infantry. It may not be designed for fighting infantry, but you’d absolutely want the ability to fight back if you do run into them. I also slapped a wrench on one flat plate that showed print lines, just to hide them a bit, and a tool box and ammo drum on the back to indicate the sort of independence I’d expect from what is essentially the tank version of a sniper.
Overall I’d say not advised for beginners, but in some ways much lower effort than a GW kit (so many fewer parts). Not much to say here about painting though, I just followed the same recipe I posted previously. I left the front aquila in camo, didn't feel right to have it all shiny, and kept the chipping to a minimum to reflect it being not a front line fighter.
Using it in-game
Well, here’s the rub. It has a Legends datasheet of course, but the problem is it’s just a worse Vanquisher. It gets one more shot than the Vanquisher, albeit at lower strength and damage. But the Vanquisher is likely to be equipped with an additional Lascannon and perhaps a pair of multi-meltas. Also the Vanquisher rule applies to Vehicles and Monsters, whereas the Tank Hunter applies only to Vehicles. Finally, as the last nail in the coffin, it’s 180pts compared to the Vanquisher’s 150pts.
One option I considered was simply using it as a Vanquisher (and sucking up the loss of sponsons), but that’s kind of dull, I do want it to be functionally a little different. So chatting it through with Charlie and Harvey we decided to try it out by adding the Monster keyword to its special rule, and dropping it to 150pts. That makes it pretty comparable to a Vanquisher without sponsons. So a little worse, but not so openly punching myself in the nuts for taking it.
I’m going to play like that for a while and see how it goes, but ideally I’d want it to function a bit more uniquely to convey its specialised design and role. Just spitballing here but as an independent sniper tank, I’d probably say it loses the Squadron keyword (so can’t receive orders), but if it doesn't move it can order itself to Take Aim. Going further I’d maybe also suggest that if it has not moved in its last turn it gets the benefit of cover. I think that would give you the right kind of vibe for a tank that wants to operate independently, fight from ambush, and because its weapon is hull mounted, instead of in a turret, really benefits from a stationary firing position.
Actually if you took it further then maybe the gun should be quite a bit more powerful than the Vanquisher cannon, but it cannot shoot if it moves? To be honest that would probably be borderline unusable in the current cover-dense 40k game, but something to think about.
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