Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Medusa and Basilisk Batteries

We are doing a double feature for the Solar Auxilia today, covering a kit in both Legions Imperialis and Horus Heresy scale. We're building the Medusa and Basilisk, once as a battery and one time as a single miniature.

For Legions Imperialis it is a set of 8 models, covering both Medusas and Basilisks in a single box.

You might be irritated to see a Basilisk on a Leman Russ chassis. The variants we know from Warhammer 40k are much younger, based upon the chimera chassis that wasn't around during the civil war. The Leman Russ was the work horse of the Imperial warmachine and thus provided for vehicles in its weight class the base for example the self-propelled-gun variants, we talk about today. And in addition to the the many, many different alterations of the Leman Russ himself, there were further derivations for example tank hunter variants, with hull mounted weaponry as well and even recovery vehicles like the Atlas.

Beyond that, we have the regular setup for side games like Legions Imperialis: two identical mid-size sprues, a small decalsheet and instructions in black and white. There are enough parts in this set to build 8 Medusas or Basilisks at a RRP of 41 EUR.

The sprue itself is properly used. Minimum space left within the frame and as you can see each sprue gives you enough parts to build either all of the vehicles as Medusas or Basilisks. Mould lines are minimal and easily cleaned.

In this set the regular Solar Auxilia vehicle decal sheet is included and covers 8 different cohorts of the Solar Auxilia:

Arkadian Janissaries, Cthonian Headhunters, Manachean Bulls, Saturnyne Rams, Lord Marshal's Own, Ash Scorpions, Bormanite Devils and The Deathless.

All of these are black and white, without the addition of further colours. But at least we have all insignia in both variants, so you can use them on darker as well as lighter colour schemes you come up with.

As the lower and upper hull are two massiv pieces, the hull itself is quickly build. I am still amazed to see how they managed to cover all the small rivets and separated armour plates in that scale.

With the hull finished, only the sides are missing. The tracks are solid pieces on each side and quickly added. Removing the mould lines along those parts might actually be the most labour during the entire build, as it goes really fast.

The pen-ultimate step is the addition of the barrel. You might be able to magnetize these or make it a pin connection, or just don't be to strict with WYSIWYG on these. And last but not least, the addition of the crew, which comes with either a closed or opened hatch. No further options like pintle mounted weapons.

It is a neat detail that you can build the barrel in different positions. And to give you an idea where the Medusa/Basilisk fits size-wise, a brief comparison.

It is nifty little kit, and I like the box crew cabin that you see on a lot of SPG and fits the design here as well.

Conclusion

As mentioned further above, this kit is quickly build and in no time you have all eight of them on the table. At a price of 41 EUR RRP it might not be cheap but still in that reasonable priced window and with a bit of discount, there is nothing against adding one or two boxes of these to your battle force.

In my opinion these would benefit from some further added stowage, like adding a camouflage netting or some sandbags. I might take a look into one of the older White Dwarfs and maybe share a tutorial on how to do that in this scale. With 3d printing you could even add scaled down sand bags, if sculpting with green stuff isn't your thing.

With these available it is going to be interesting, if we will see the Legion Basilisks at all in this scale (the Astartes Forces had their own variants of these tanks).

The Horus Heresy and Legions Imperialis are brands by Games Workshop.