Sons of Horus Assault Marines

Onward for Horus, humanity's last hope! Just watch that plasma pistol...

Our last outing against the dupes of the false Emperor didn't go so well, so I have been trying to add reinforcements in order to avoid further shame to the cause of Horus and his revolt against the Imperium bold plan for the future of humanity.  First step is to get some vehicles moving - a new Land Raider is just the ticket, but that was really the only tank model I had waiting around.  More are en-route from Forge World, but until then I thought I would keep going through my pile of Horus Heresy infantry.

Embossed shoulder pads - an expensive addiction

With this in mind, here is a squad of 10 assault Marines from the XVIth Legion - the Sons of Horus.  These are Legion marines in Mark IV power armour, equipped with jump packs, chainswords and bolt pistols.  Two of the marines are carrying plasma pistols.  

Veteran sergeant on the left, plasma pistol trooper on the right

Very lean jump packs by Warhammer 30k/40k standards

The officer (with the whacky comb on his helmet - I love those silly things) is carrying an extra silly weapon - a "heavy" chainsword, useful for those times where you wish you could hit your enemy with an armoured chainsaw using a two-handed strike, I guess.  It looks hilarious, and I think it fits the setting and the certain je-ne-sais-quoi of the Sons of Horus.

Lots of rivets on a few of the models - this guy looks particularly ominous

Jump packs in the Warhammer 30k/40k setting are often enormous contraptions, but these Mark IV jump packs are relatively small and efficient looking.  No doubt whatever Adeptus Mechanicus magos who came up with such an efficient design was banished and tossed into an isolated reactor furnace for his affront to the design standards of the far future... 

Something went awry with the chest decal for the fellow on the right - I have been having a lot of problems with these decals lately!

With the jump packs these troops will be able to close rapidly against the enemy.  For example, let's imagine some enemy Legion Marines are, oh, I don't know, say, hiding behind a line of Solar Auxilia - just for the sake of argument.  These fellows should be able to power over the meat shield and tangle with the foe straight away.

Stay clear of that Sergeant...

These squads can be as large as 20 models strong - I don't know if I will go that far, but I think I will try and add another five to make a 15-man unit.  The buildup towards our Heresy mega game continues...