The humble box-nought

[The Lost Son]

So between a few topics on the boards and a few too many sleepless nights with a teething baby my thoughts have been returning to the greatest of dreadnoughts the castra ferrum. 

The big one that started this is @Grotsmasha's brilliant upscaled grey knights and the fact that the new Saturnine termies are more or less the same size as a venerable dread.

Now to get to my actual point, I'd love to see a rescale of the old box, I'd assume it would realistically be under the umbrella of the heresy given 40k's new love for the redemptor chassis but how big should it actually be? The original fluff had them created for zone mortalis operations, tight confines of cities, space hulk's and the like so would a slight leg extension be all it needs in height (obviously a big upgrade to detailing etc or just remake the forge world mk4s)

Another tangient thought from this is imperial architecture must have some excessive internal volume and structural strength seen as space marines never seem to have trouble moving around. But that's a whole different thing, any thoughts would be very welcome 

[Grotsmasha]

I think a slight increase to the same height as a Contemptor, or between Contemptor and Leviathan would feel right.

[The Lost Son]

Yeah when they first made the contemptor in resin I remember thinking this is how big a Dreadnought should be, that and the legs making sense.at that size it would read well with both scales as well 

[Tacitus]

I think the old Box is going to fade away.  To be honest, I was surprised to see it still in the app when I was talking to someone about 500 point lists.  We already have replacements for the gunboat Dread, the Furioso, and the Gun + Dread CCW default.  The only thing we're missing, and I think the only thing keeping the box dread around is they haven't created an Upgrade sprue for the Deathcompany and Bjorn/Murderfang/Wulfen Dreads (though I didn't see their preorder windows so maybe they are there now, and Box Dreads go away in 11th)

[W.A.Rorie]

15 hours ago, Tacitus said:

I think the old Box is going to fade away.  To be honest, I was surprised to see it still in the app when I was talking to someone about 500 point lists.  We already have replacements for the gunboat Dread, the Furioso, and the Gun + Dread CCW default.  The only thing we're missing, and I think the only thing keeping the box dread around is they haven't created an Upgrade sprue for the Deathcompany and Bjorn/Murderfang/Wulfen Dreads (though I didn't see their preorder windows so maybe they are there now, and Box Dreads go away in 11th)

 

I would love to agree with you but they did add it to the Grey Knights Combat patrol and in the codex it is an HQ, which makes me wonder if it is going to be gone.  I would rather use the Redemptor chassis for my Grey Knights anyway but it is not so... I'm gonna do it anyways.  A decision to keep it or let it go needs to be made, either way. It is an old kit and showing its age.

[Tacitus]

Grey Knights are not yet Space Marines in the model line.  Very little overlap.

[Evil Eye]

I will be very, very sad when the last Castraferrum goes OOP. To me it's the quintessential 40K unit, and the scale/scope creep that has left it in the dust is IMO a failure of modern 40K rather than any poor reflection on the Dreadnought. I'd even argue that the small size is a good thing given it was explicitly described as being more compact in the fluff to be able to operate in confined spaces such as buildings or even boarding actions.

[Beef]

I hope they dont get rid of the box nought.  Its another classic design, having gotten back into the hobby after years i picked one up and was shocked to see how small these chonky boys looked compared to a redemptor dred.  I was left shocked thinking at some point 15 years ago i used to think the box nought was quite a big impressive model.  I think a re fresh on size is all that's needed.

[Marshal Reinhard]

40k now has the Redemptor and 30k has the Leviathan. Obviously different, but i think that's where GW are with boxnoughts.

[Tacitus]

14 hours ago, Marshal Reinhard said:

40k now has the Redemptor and 30k has the Leviathan. Obviously different, but i think that's where GW are with boxnoughts.

I think the design inspiration for the Redemptor chassis, and the Ballistus + Brutallis weapon options put the writing on the wall.