Sons of Horus Command Squad

Command squad for the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus.

Well, "spring" is here - or at least it is on the calendar - and so while another edition of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has concluded, the paint brushes continue to bash away. For me, there were a few things I "meant to paint for the Challenge", but never got to in time before the cut-off on the first day of spring. This post is one of those "supposed to be for the Challenge but didn't get to it in time" things - a command squad for the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus.

One of the main project streams during this most recent AHPC was to create a Sons of Horus force based around the new range plastic "Age of Darkness" figures that GW has been producing over the past year. 

"Sure we are all wearing power armour, and carrying terrifying weapons, but this banner will be the thing to crush the will of our enemies!"

"Wait" I hear you asking "didn't you already have a large Sons of Horus collection?" Well, yes. But, I absolutely love the new "beakie" figures, and I have as a collection goal the idea of creating a force in Mark VI armour which somewhat mimics a complete set of "detachments" from the original "Space Marine" rules from all those years ago...yeah, it's bonkers, but...you know...

Not so much to see here, but I do continue to be addicted to the embossed legion symbols on the shoulder pauldrons.

Anyway, during AHPC XIII I finished a bulk of this - 40 tactical Marines, ten Tactical Support Marines and five heavy support Marines, as well as a few different command elements. The Challenge is over now, but I still want to conclude some elements for this sort of "phase II Sons of Horus" group, and the Command Squad is part of that.

"Chosen" Marines to protect the banner bearer in battle.

Command Squads in 30k are, at their base, a dude carrying a banner (as one does, of course) and a couple of bodyguards. GW has not released a banner-bearer figure in Mark VI armour yet, but there are, of course, great piles of plastic bits from earlier 40k eras which are available for conversion purposes, and that is what I went with here (just as I did with the Apothecary) - a combination of a core figure from the new Mark VI plastic sets, with bits from much older plastic Space Marine characters in GW's fading and older Space Marine range.

This combined pool of plastic bits allowed for the creation of these figures. We have a fellow hauling a banner, and two bodyguards ("chosen" Marines), who are equipped with fancy-looking bolters  (sourced from "Sternguard Veterans" - I love these bolt guns with big scopes and big box magazine). These guys will help "The Axehole" have much more of an obnoxious status/presence in the collection and on the gaming battlefield - and that Praetor seems just like the kind of guy who would focus on that kind of thing...

That's all for this post, but we'll have a couple of additional "accent pieces" for this XVI Legion command group to share soon - until then, thanks for reading!