XVI Legion Veteran Tactical Squad

A Veteran Tactical Squad for the Sons of Horus. 28mm figures from Forge World

Some more reinforcement for the XVI Legion Astrates - a Veteran Tactical Squad, wearing Mark II power armour, carrying later model bolt guns. The squad includes a meltagunner and a heavy bolter, and the Marines themselves enhanced with a number of small accent bits from different packs of GW and Forge World bits.

Trooper carrying a meltagun, flanked by Marines carrying fancy bolt guns.

Lots of intricacies on the power packs - you also can see the handy chainswords carried by the veteran troopers.

I have painted a fair bit of Horus Heresy stuff over the years, but this is the first squad I have painted wearing the Mark II armour. I do like the look of the armour design, but I have to say, from a subjective point of view, the Mark III variant armour is probably still more appealing. Like the Mark III variant, The Mark II power armour has a very segmented look, with lots of seams and rivets, but it does not look as heavy as the Mark III. One other feature I find a bit defining for the Mark II plate is the "monobrow" look to the helmet visor, which has just a single vision slit. On the whole, it is a very sort of proto-medieval sci-fi kind of look - well done by the sculptors.

Vox operator on the left, Vexillary on the right.

More detail on the backpacks - I quite like the bizarre little details on the communications pack.

The squad sergeant's ominous "power claws" and plasma pistol point, while in the background you see the trooper with the heavy bolter, a support weapon.

A lot of rivets and segments in the Mark II power armour...a bit of a challenge to paint, and I was pretty rusty in terms of painting these guys, but they still came out OK.

These marine may be wearing "early" pattern armour, but carrying "later" patterns of bolt guns, with box magainzes. The chainswords they are carrying are spares from the plastic Mark III marine figure set, as are the special weapons seen on the officer. The heavy bolter is a plastic accessory from the plastic Mark IV marine figure set. So a lot of different component packs came together here, which was great. Besides, I figure veterans would be the sort to keep the older armour, but ensure they got their choice of the nicest/newest weapons :)

Horus for hope!

You may see that the transfers are still quite glossy in these photos - it has not been "safe" to spray the final coat of matte spray on these figures - it has somehow managed to be at once too cool and too humid outside to safely spray on the Krylon, so that may wait for some time - it is something I will get to at a later date.

The embossed shoulder armour plates are great - not the cheapest thing to decide to like, but I do love them. Once you put them on one squad, however, you find yourself making excuses that you need them for every squad...oh well :)

Like the Moritat I posted earlier, these figures had been sitting primed for a while before finally getting under the paintbrush. It is always good to get these "pending" projects finished with! And now that I've opened up the 30k supply box, I find I am suddenly working on a bunch of new 30k projects for this summer, as we continue to stagger through this interminable pandemic.

Thanks for reading, I hope everyone is doing well out there.