5 Minute History: Vindicator

Unlike most other Space Marine vehicles, the Vindicator did not originate in the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game. The first conception of the tank was in 1989 with the 1st edition of another Games Workshop tabletop game, Space Marine. In the same year a Vindicator conversion using the Space Marine Rhino plastic kit was featured in White Dwarf Magazine 118, published in October of 1989. The article showed how to use cardboard and plastic pieces to modify a Rhino MKI into a Vindicator in addition to presenting rules for its use in Warhammer 40k. The first actual Vindicator kit for Warhammer 40,000 would not be released for another 10 years until the height of the 3rd edition in 1999. This kit is based on an original plastic Rhino body with metal components for the frontal Demolisher cannon and the extra armor plating on the sides between the exhaust stacks.



First Vindicator kit released in 1999



Previously, the only Vindicator model based on the MkII Rhino chassis was a resin kit released by Forge World. Games Workshop has since released a plastic version of the Forge World kit for its' Apocalypse expansion. The MKII version has a large bulldozer blade in front, now a 'siege shield', protecting the tank's smaller demolisher cannon.

In game 'fluff' the Vindicator made its appearance during the Horus Heresy and was adopted by both sides although the latest background states that the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion makes it a point to scavenge these for their own use whenever possible and often field entire squadrons of Vindicators. Like the Razorback, the Vindicator has not been featured in many other derivative games outside of the two tabletop games in which it has miniatures for. Vindicator squadrons are usable units in the PC game Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000.