Painting Challenge Wrap-Up, Part 2 of 3 - Solar Auxilia Lord Marshal

Lord Marshal for my 30k Solar Auxilia...what an outfit

The second entry from my sprint to the finish in Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is a Lord Marshal for my Warhammer 30k Solar Auxilia Force.

Nice cloak - and note the power cables connected to his snobby staff

The Lord Marshal is a supreme HQ figure for the Solar Auxilia.  Of course, Forge World has yet to release a figure to represent one in the range, but astute 40k types and Imperial Guard fans will recognize this miniature as the special character "Solar Macharius", which I think GW issued seven or eight years ago.  This is a 28mm metal figure (remember those?) from GW.

Remember metal figures?  I sure miss them...I guess I'm a grouch

"Solar Macharius" was intended to be a super-duper senior command special character for the GW Imperial Guard faction.  His backstory is not particularly imaginative and easily forgotten - basically he was really good at spending the lives of his men in well organized attritional military action, and through this capacity is thought of as a "great" commander.  I would chalk this up to Warhammer 40k's dystopian setting, but real history is littered with many such "great" commanders.

Cloak made from endangered space caribou pelts, no doubt

When Forge World released the Solar Auxilia, I immediately thought of this figure as a suitable senior command model, and tracked one down on eBay (it took a while to find one with a suitable price).  I quite like the douchebag aspect of this figure - super ornate armour, a staff with a freaking bust at the tip - which is "plugged in" to something no less, implying a possible use as a weapon or force field.  The prissy cloak, the big sword, the heavy pistol, the whacky helmet - I love it.  I doubt he could even lift the sword!

Waiting to be cut in half by a Traitor Legion Marine

In the 30k rules they try to talk up the "Lord Marshal" as some kind of bad-ass commander, but I imagine him to be much more of a politically-connected REMF-type figure from the Imperium's pre-Horus Heresy era.  While his Solar Auxilia regiment makes a grim last stand in the face of assaults by Traitor Legion Marines, this asshat is preparing PowerPoint servitor presentations about "Force Paradigm Shifts" and worrying about getting the proper leave codes entered into SAP. After all, what sort of twonk would dress like this anywhere ever in any era, much less near a battlefield?

Watch for some "blue on blue" fire to catch this fellow by "accident", assuming a Sons of Horus assault marine doesn't gut him first...