Horus Heresy – Preview on the Solar Auxilia

During the Las Vegas Open Air Games Workshop previewed the release of the Solar Auxilia in plastic - in full scale! We had the chance to toy around with them in the Legions Imperialis scale, and I wrote an introduction on mustering the Solar Auxilia.

The new plastics are up against some pretty well done older models, as the resin models are dynamic and you have a lot of different poses (with no doubles, from my understanding), so it is going to be interesting to see, which options the new plastics will cover. But certainly, they will make it more accessible, as the price for an army that uses (or at least can use) such a huge number of infantry will come down. Regarding the Veletari, I am not sure how big the impact will be there, as the previewed set, does not show the axes and they might be a Forge World upgrade, as we saw with the Astartes in some cases and that stacked up the price quite a bit.

The real eye candy of the announcement are the new plastic (!) vehicles. The resin kits were well made and designed, but assembling something of this size in resin can be quite the challenge and I won't be the only one prefering plastics. We saw the new Dracosan, who shares the Malcador chassis, where the plastic will be very welcomed, as you want reasonably priced transports. But plastic Malcador chassis opens up the door for Infernus and Valdor kits as well.

And we see a new pattern of Leman Russ tanks in plastic, as there are some different details, not only the absence of sponsons on this.

I am really looking forward to the broader update the Solar Auxilia will receive and the hopefully deeper insights into the lore, as of current, there is not much to begin with. Neither with the Liber Imperium nor the Legion Imperialis lore. I posted, basically every scratch that I found, in here.

With me being an Imperial Fists player, I kept an eye on Inwit and found this side note in the Legion Imperialis rulebook, about the 789th 'Ice Bears' Solar Auxilia Cohort and the 79th Auxilia Armoured Cohort. No further information, just this.

So I opened up Photoshop and got going, shifting colours, adding masks etc., I started with the Ash Scorpions and gave the "jump suit" a greyish-blue colour, with dull metallic for the armour plates, that have been covered in a worn winter camouflage. Along with signal yellow markings, tying in the connection towards the 7th legions. A slightly different try on the painted miniature, I prefer the one on the left.

Regarding the vehicles, I would pick up the winter camouflage, that I tried out on some of my Bolt Action vehicles, and the signal-yellow and black stripes for markings. I like the mock-up, it is entirely different from what we've seen so far. Neither Manachean nor the recently quite heavily used Cthonian Headhunters.

I hope that I get my hands on some of these for reviews, and if time allows it to put the mock-ups into reality.

But the army needs an update. The army list from Liber Imperium is not that broad, and especially compared to the Astartes it feels second class. And I don't mean that regarding the meta, but from the aspect of lore and individuality. Yes, the army rules, give you options to make it an armoured list or even include some AdMech units, but beyond that not that much. The Astartes have their 18 different flavours and even within that, you have a long list of praetors and consuls, a lot of different vehicles and infantry units, to cover various gaming styles. I have looking through that army list, thinking about what would provide me a framework to include remembrancers, navigators, maybe Imperial governance from Inwit, just something to add a bit of colour to the project. I'm eager to see where this army list is going, and hope for a lot more content and lore.