Ork Great Gargant and a plastic Thunderhawk

At GamesDay 2003 there were a lot of Forge World Warhound Titans which has just been released. Amongst all that Imperial heavy armour was this lone Ork Great Gargant.

Ork Great Gargant

This was from Armorcast in the days before Games Workshop took large scale resin models back in house and created Forge World. It was only (in theory) available in the USA and was very difficult if not impossible to get in the UK.

Ork Great Gargant

If I could find one, afford one and have the time to paint one, I really would like to get hold of this model, but alas I think everything is against me!

With the release of the plastic Stompa you can  compare the detail of the Armorcast Gargant versus the well detailed plastic Stompa now available. Large plastic kits are now certainly achievable technically from Games Workshop, of course the business case has to be made. It is this business case which I suspect means we may never see a plastic Gargant. The main problem will be having such a large kit in the stores. Taking up a large amount of shelf space, means that less space for smaller (probably more profitable) kits. Games Workshop have already started to
reduce the space taken by particular models, by combining all variants into a single box. So no longer do we have separate boxes for the Land Raider variants such as the Crusader, but now have a single box containing all variants. This has made room for the larger kits such as the Baneblade, the Shadowsword and the Stompa.

However to make room for a Gargant kit would mean removing more than just the variant boxes.Interestingly we could see a Reaver, though just as tall as a Gargant, certainly does not need such a large box as it is not as big as a Gargant (in terms of girth).

So what will be the  next big plastic kit?

My view is that we will probably see a Space Marine Thunderhawk.

This has been rumoured for many years, it’s not a matter of if, more a matter of when.

One tidbit to think about with the release of the Skyshield Landing Pad is the following description.

Landing pads are launch bases used by flight-capable craft to unload or evacuate troops and vital personnel. The Skyshield landing pad used by the Imperial Navy, though originally purpose-built to accommodate Valkyrie and Vendetta gunships, is robust enough to serve even the Thunderhawks of the Adeptus Astartes, and has field generators that protect the craft and its crew from incoming fire.

Note my emphasis. Now obviously this could be referring to the Forge World model, but why note this in a kit description. In the rules yes, in the marketing for Games Workshop mainstream, generally they don’t mention Forge World models as part of describing other products, normally as a separate page or link.

The Skyshield landing pad is a very nice model, perfect for the Valkyrie.

So no plastic Gargant  but maybe a plastic Thunderhawk…. perhaps…

2 thoughts on “Ork Great Gargant and a plastic Thunderhawk”

  1. nice little write-up!
    It’s a lovely great gargant you’ve photographed there, like the paint scheme, makes it look more modern than others i’ve seen. if you want to get one, keep your eyes peeled on Ebay, they go for £400ish.

    In terms of a plastic gargant, no way. the cost of such a kit compared to the number that would be sold means it would be out of the question for GW, the stompa was a push.

    however.. forgeworld will likely have a market to produce a Gargant, as with a strong market for the stompas, more consumers will be inclined to buy a resin Gargant should it be produced.

    plastic thunderhawk? thinking about it, that’s a STRONG possibility. i’ve heard no rumours, yet with the market for space marines being so great, it would be very unusual (and foolish) for games workshop not to produce a large scale apocalipse vehicle to match. while i would not use that extract from the landing pad as any kind of comfirmation, i’d say that it’s likely about 70% purely for fluff, but 30% possibility for linking in to a future build.

    keep us posted 🙂

    Goblin

  2. Hi I have one of the Ork Gargants sitting on my desk! He came to me a few years ago and I don’t think that I would part with him as he is so much part of the family now and apart from being a great model is such a talking point. I can send you pics if you are interested but he is undergoing a re-paint at the moment

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