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...

Painting Challenge Wrap-Up, Part 1 of 3 - Solar Auxilia Velataris Storm Section

For the Emperor! Solar Auxilia Velataris Storm Section troops from Forge World

The latest Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has wrapped up.  Most of the participants tried to crowd several entries in under the wire - and I was right there with them.  Here was the first entry from my dash to the finish line - another batch of Solar Auxilia figures from GW's Horus Heresy story. This is a Solar Auxilia Velataris Storm Section. The figures are 28mm from Forge World. These figures are slightly heavier Solar Auxilia troops, meant to provide some "oomph" to bolster the basic lasrifle troops.

The Storm Section poses for propaganda photos

The Velataris Storm Sections represent a slightly more elite level of Solar Auxilia soldier.  Their armour is a little bulkier, and their weapon selection is a little more bonkers.  This section is equipped with Volkite Chargers, a type of energy weapon that is moderately useful in the game but, more importantly, looks pretty cool. 

Rear photo showing the crazy back packs

In the game you have the option to equip these models with flamethrowers ( all of them - 10 flamethrowers - insane) or heavy "close combat" weapons.  I find the overuse of flame weapons to be an irritating feature of the 30k/40k setting, and I love the look of the Volkite guns so opting for these guys was a no-brainer for me.  The "close combat" versions of these models haven't been released yet but I assume someone at Forge World is working on them right now.

Two Storm Section troopers

I just love these sculpts - amazing work by Forge World

As with the regular Solar Auxilia troops, these sculpts are another figure design home run from Forge World - they look the part of sci-fi heavy infantry without being Space Marines, which is what the Solar Auxilia are supposed to be.  They maintain many of the neat little steam punk-ish/VSF features from the other sculpts, but the armour is a little more involved.  The helmet looks heavier, like a deep-sea welder, and there are larger armour plates on the knees, shins and forearms. 

Storm Section leader; hard to see in this blurry photo, but he is chomping on a cigar; a nice little character feature; if you are going to wander around the battlefields of the 30k setting with your helmet open, you might as well enjoy it

The command figure of this group looks like a bit of a nutter - helmet raised, chewing on a cigar!  He seems to enjoy his job.  When he runs into the Sons of Horus, I expect he will wish he had his helmet sealed, but I do like the look of the figure.

Rear view of the Section leader

There is also a vox-caster figure with this group, and I like the look of him very much - nice animation.  On the one hand it seems silly to have a communications system that would require him to open his helmet (?), but I love the active feel of the sculpt, like he is ducking down behind cover to shout something along the lines of "We can't hold much longer..." before a Traitor Legion Marine heavy support squad renders them all to particles.

"Get us some help!!"

Great animation on this figure

These troops also have little lights on the shoulder section of their packs - a nice touch, although I wish they had not sculpted a grate over the bulb, as it would have been fun to add a lens effect there. Oh well - a small quibble.  Overall, I love these figures.

Two more Velatarii

You can see the grenades hanging from their belts - lovely details on this sculpt

With this section finished, my first Solar Auxilia "Tercio" is completed - 50 troops in all, two 20-man lasrifle sections and this 10-man storm section.  I'm feeling very pleased to have this bunch completed - the figures arrived in December 2014 so that is not too bad in terms of turnaround time.

My first Solar Auxilia Tercio - sorry about the crap photo, but that's iPhones for you...

The Solar Auxilia comprised a pretty big chunk of my entries (and points) for Curt's Painting Challenge this year, and I'm looking forward to getting this bunch into a game sometime on the Fawcette Avenue gaming table. 

12th Painting Challenge Entry - More Solar Auxilia

Solar Auxilia from Forge World

Well it has been slower going these past couple of weeks for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, but I haven't stopped painting yet. I'm still aiming for my 1500 point target.  To help me along, my 12th submission is another 20-man Solar Auxilia Lasrifle Section, 28mm resin figures from Forge World.  These figures are part of GW's "Horus Heresy" setting.

Command group - officer a back left, comms fellow kneeling in front, vexilla on the right

Another view of the command group

This unit is practically identical to the first one of these units I painted for the Challenge, part of a budding force of Loyalist troops who will make a stand at some point against Horus and his pretenders. The Solar Auxilia are deployed in platoons called "tercios" in the game (I think a "tercio" was a type of unit used by Spain back in their Imperial heyday?).  Each "tercio" has three sections of troops - either 20-man groups of these regular troopers or some veterans.

A selection of individual troopers

Rear view of the same three fellows

With the exception of the officer, all of these fellows are armed with lovely baroque-looking lasrifles.  The Forge World game writers went through a lot of trouble to give an appearance in the rules that these lasrifles might amount to something in the game itself (you can augment them with a "collimator" - sounds more like a medical procedure, but I digress).  But don't fool yourself - these guys will die by the bucket-load, particularly going up against Legion Space Marines.

Officer on the right, with comms guy assisting in direction of the section

Another view of the firing line

They will not do much on the table, but they look great! And when you ditch the 7th edition rules and play Rogue Trader instead, they are a lot of fun on the table top too.

Love those wonky back packs, with the pulley/bellows thing (respirator is my guess, but who knows or cares?)

I like the little "canteen" (at least I think it is a canteen) hanging on the hips of many of the Solar Auxilia

Is he changing the "collimator" perhaps?

Many lovely poses in the package

As before, I am totally smitten with these figures.  The sculpting is tremendous (even if the casting quality, as usual with Forge World, can be a bit uneven).  The mix of themes influencing the sculpting is fun and pulled off perfectly.  Even better, these figures are refreshingly free of the stupid skulls and other childishly gloomy iconography which have come to plague nearly all of GW's figure designs over the years.

Here are all of the Solar Auxilia painted so far - 40 troops

This represents 2/3 of a "tercio" for the Solar Auxilia

Each Solar Auxilia "tercio" has three units, and the third one is up in the painting queue.  However, a sudden painting diversion has appeared as I attempt a "crash" project for a completely different period, game style and scale...stay tuned for more on that (and lets hope I can get it done in time...)  In the interim, these 20 fellows got me past the 1000 point barrier as the end of the Challenge comes in sight.

Ninth Painting Challenge Entry - Solar Auxilia Lasrifle Section

The Solar Auxilia, 28mm figures from GW's Forge World

This submission is a Solar Auxilia Lasrifle section.  These are 28mm resin figures from Forge World, the small subsidiary (or division or whatever it is these days) of Games Workshop. These figures are some of the most recent releases from Forge World's every-expanding (for now, at least) Horus Heresy range of figures.

I call this groundwork combination "Autumn on Rijel 7"

Introduced in the most recent Forge World Horus Heresy book, the Solar Auxilia are meant to represent impressive soldiers who are nonetheless still well short of the strength of ability of the Marines.  In this sense they are the precursors to the Imperial Army, the standing force that would represent the bulk of the Imperial armed forces. The Marines would do the rough work, taking out whatever recedivist/alien/heretic/democratically elected regime was in the way, and forces like the Solar Auxilia would follow and take up garrison and patrol duties, and defend in any attack, holding out until Marines came to help. 

Section command - officer in front, comms trooper at the back on the right, and vexilla at the back on the left

Comms trooper with helmet raised - that doesn't seem like a good idea in the Warhammer 40k universe, but I like to have one or two open helmets when the figure options allow, and you get a couple of these types of head in the package

Still a bit of a bend in a couple of the laser rifles...oh well...

The rules call for them to deploy in sections of 20 models (!), so they are sold in packs of 20.  This submission is a single pack, and with Forge World the quality of the casting is hit and miss, but fortunately more "hit" than "miss" in this case (I only had to straighten about five of the rifles under hot water).  There is one officer figure (with a sidearm and a sword), a figure with a comms-set on his back pack, and a fellow mounting a "vexilla".

Volley fire in the grim darkness of the far future...

There are a number of small little wargear blips and special rules for the Solar Auxilia, designed to incent the player to keep these units in large line formation blocks, firing away with their laser rifles.  It's sort of nice that they tried, but a "super charged" lasgun is still really just a lasgun and I don't see that these would be effective in any serious way on the table top.  A Solar Auxilia army will depend on vehicles to achieve anything, and in this way it is identical to 40k Imperial Guard force.

The fellow on the front right is reloading his rifle

The Imperial Army/Imperial Guard of Warhammer 40k is a long time favourite collection of mine in this hobby going back to the Rogue Trader days.  As I worked on my Legion project, I was waiting and watching to see when the "army" might appear in Forge World's Horus Heresy efforts. I have to say I was quite excited as soon as I saw these - a total dork about it, in fact. 

I love the bonkers back packs on these figures

The designer, Edgar Skomorowski, hit these out of the park in my opinion.  They seem part Victorian Sci-Fi, part Dr. Who, part Captain Nemo shock troop, and of course part Imperial Guardsman, all in the right balance.  They are armoured and impressive, but still appear slightly awkward.  They are futuristic and baroque. The laser rifles have a flintlock-style cut to the stocks.  The backpacks have some manner of bonkers pulley/bellows/system.  I love these figures!

Another shot of the packs...you can sort of make out the pulley/bellows thing on the back - ridiculous - I love it!

Example of a single trooper - you can hopefully see the grenade dangling from his left hip.  The uniform is a sort of space suit with padded/quilted sections, and armour plates hanging over

You can kind of see the elegant, baroque curves on the laser weapon - very lovely

 

The backpack has some manner of pulley-bellows contraption - I love the look of it.  Respirator maybe? Who knows...

There is a lot of excellent detail on these figures, and only a few skulls to boot! They are a lot of fun to paint.  Assembly was not quite so easy, even with only two "parts" - the body and the weapon - it was not always easy to get a clear match at the "cuffs", so there are a few figures where hoses mysteriously stop etc. because I made a mistake or was over-enthusiastic while trimming.  But those mistakes mostly hide in the mass of the 20-man section.
 

"Hey, those Space Marine guys can't be that tough, right?"

In the actual game these figures will be torn to pieces in no time at all, particularly if they go up against Marines.  But I don't worry much about that. I am very much enjoying painting these and I am planning to have a chunk of them ready to play in some games set during the Horus Heresy.  More have been primed, so I hope to see quite a few more finished during Curt's painting Challenge.