Trixie Warpfist, Slaanesh Commander, powered-down her Lightning Claws and surveyed the scene. They were in the ruins of a bunker in one of the few clearings on the heavily forested world.

The defeat from the Catachan ambush, still burned inside, and her face was red and flushed. "So where are we then?" she barked.

A pile of mechanical parts spilled and a small blue creature crawled out. It looked like a two-legged horse, or at least a small blue horse that had suffered some sort of accident involving a threshing machine...

"Ssss. Ssssome sssort of ssstore," it hissed around its disturbingly long tongue. "Thessse are machine partsss. Maybe we can fix the Queen?"

Trixie looked over to the corner. The 'pilot' sarcophagus was all that remained of Evil Queen, the warband's Dreadnaught. The stumps of articulators and hydraulics twitched angrily - it's only expression of the rage it still felt.

"Maybe," she mused.

"Hey over here boss," came a cry from an adjoining building. This building had three walls and a canvas roof. The roof was pulled back to reveal one of the warband's bikers and a large black metal leg. "I think we've got a new Dreadnaught body," he continued.

Trixie and the small demon ran over and helped clear the canvas. Below it was a battered robotic body. Square and squat, it sat upon eight segmented legs. Where the head should have been, were it a spider, was just a ragged forest of wires and cables.

Trixie glanced at Evil Queen's remains, then at the new find.

"Do it!" she said to the biker.

The Fuchikoma robots in Ghost in the Shell (graphic novel not movie) were rather nifty, as was the 'think tank', which sort-of appeared in the film at the end. The design was in my mind when I sat down to design an agile close combat dreadnaught for Warhammer 40,000.

After a bit of work the design was there, then I had to make it. My current spider walker is made from cereal packet card with some bits and bobs, including some biker bolters. The Lamenter's Whirlwind is also a scratch-build.

The below design is made using the vehicle design rules from White Dwarf, but not the updated rules.

The troop transport of 1 was a bit of an after thought - My Chaos Lord is always getting herself into trouble when I don't take a retinue, so I wanted a way to get her into close combat safely. The spider can get her in and help out. Its autonomy without a 'pilot' also adds to the Fuchikoma feel.

The Spider Dreadnaught 226 points

Type: Agile Walker

Size: Normal

Unit Type: Heavy Support

Armour: 12 on all facings

Weapons: Four Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons (front four legs); Two combi-bolters (mounted on the head); two flamers (in the two front arms).

WS:4 BS:4 S:5(10) I:4 A:5

Special: Transport=1, May mount one of the following on the 'shoulder': Twin Heavy Bolter (+30pts), Twin Las Cannon (+53pts), Plasma Cannon (+60pts).