Horus Heresy – Building the Solar Auxilia Battle Group

Here we are, I did the reviews on the contents of the Solar Auxilia Battle Group as you have seen, and now used some of the spare hobby time to assemble the remaining miniatures.

It is a bit bland, as there are some issues with the assembly instructions and limitation of options. You simply build them as they come, so I finished up the remaining regular rank & file troops, along with a second trio for the command, so I can use them as two sections (and will probably need some spares in case I want to play them as larger units).

The complete lack of any other poses for the riflemen is quite sad. No one throwing a grenade, no reloading, pointing, checking an auspex etc., but I tried doing a low-throw pose with a grenade using the spare parts of the officers options. Could be more dynamic, but worked with what I got.

And this is what the section looks like.

With a bit of elbow grease I managed to magnetise the Dracosan Armoured Transport. Would have been so much easier, if they just thought about it properly.

Have to say, I stumbled upon Vincent Knotley's Hobby Blog and his article on the Solar Auxilia, really impressive what he did with them. This is something, that I would expect from Games Workshop themself, and I really hope that The Battle for Beta-Garmon will feature something, as the lore on the Solar Auxilia is quite low, and one of the reason why my article on them is quite popular.

20 Horus Heresy Solar Auxilia Trooper Colour Schemes and Painting Recipes All In One Place

The second box I ordered through Radaddel just arrived, and I really hope that painting them will ignite some kind of passion for them, as currently ... I'm having a hard time with these. I like the idea, but the rather boring army list is one issue. I don't mean meta-wise, that is an entire problem of its own as about everybody told me, they don't do well around astartes, but the entire aspect that the list lacks depth. Space Marines can choose from a list of like 60 different consuls, add character, flavour etc., and have the range to go with that. And here? Well, you have a command section, and that is about it. The plastic range is currently still limited, but that wouldn't be the biggest problem as you could gather bits and pieces from the extended Imperial Guard range and such. It is more the lack of options in the army list to bring these ideas onto the battle field.

I am thinking of Imperial or local Nobility, of Imperial Remembrancers, Astropaths, variants of these hideous looking jump-suit ogryns, but all of this is rather limited by the army list and only do-able with proxies, without any impact. A bit is possible through the Allied detachment, which is already set to be an Imperial Fists combat patrol, to defend against the invaders of the Siege of Inwit, but I want more options for my Solar Auxilia.