Here it is: The kit that’ll launch a thousand World Eaters armies. Deep Striking from reserves is the new MkII Assault Squad kit. As ever a big thank you to Games Workshop for sending us these to review.
What’s in the Kit
In this kit you get 10 MkII Assault Marines armed with Chainaxes, with options to run them with either combat shields or bolt pistols. There’s also a couple of Disintegrator pistols and Volkite Serpentas, a power maul, and four Heavy Chainaxes. Along with a variety of pouches, grenades and holsters you also get three new helmetless head designs per sprue (six in total).
This kit goes hard. The up-armoured MkII torsos look suitably brutal with lots of hard edges (whilst this might be a nightmare to individually edge highlight, it works great for weathering/drybrushing/sponge chipping). The turbine jumppacks are bigger than the older resin variants and now feel chunky enough to launch a power armoured warrior into the sky. There’s also a great sense of weight and motion in the poses, similar to the MkVI kit, though notably these are all unique sculpts and not just a straight port-over of the MkVI assault squad poses (unlike the 5 pose tactical kits).
Being locked to Chainaxes is definitely a strong choice, and whilst they’re inherently cooler than Chainswords, they might not be everyone’s first choice for Assault Marines (is +1 Strength really worth -1 Initiative?). The Heavy Chainaxes also look suitably brutal and whilst a bit pricey for what you get, you can take them in addition to any of your 1-in-5 power weapon choices to increase your combat punch.
The Shield design here is also really interesting, modelled in kind of Hellenic/Thracian crescent style, which whilst it isn’t for me and my knightly lads, feels very suitable for the two poster boys for this edition, and any other legion drawing inspiration from Classical Antiquity, which is err… most of them.
Assembly
These kits go together as well as any of previous marine infantry kits (well, not too fiddly, very few visible joins). If you like to paint things in subassemblies, especially pauldrons or jump packs, be wary; it’s easy to stick the pauldrons on in such a way that you block the harness piece from fitting to the torso – dry fitting ahead of time is your friend here. I’d also recommend painting any helmetless heads separately as the gorget lip is prominent enough that it’ll really limit your brushwork.
The new holsters, I do not like. They are oddly huge and also annoying to attach to the legs due to the prominent MkII leg “buckles”. The only way I found to get good contact points was to shave these off, though personally I’d just leave them off next time.
Painting
I followed my standard Dark Angels recipe on these boys; starting from a black basecoat, using an airbrush, I zenithal highlight using VMC French Mirage Blue followed by a really tight highlight of VMC Blue Grey Pale from directly above. For my reds, from a white basecoat (or primer for subassemblies), I’ll shade in from below using GW Talassar Blue contrast paint then a layer of Pro-Acryl Bold Pyrrole Red overtop which gives a nice gradient. Then they’re glossed, decaled, oil washed (Burnt Umber/Black), and satin varnished. I’ll then do sponge chipping on any exposed edges using my brightest highlight colours or a dark brown. I’m never super consistent with Metallics, but currently I’m enjoying a mix of Pro-Acryl Dark Silver and Silver for the trim. Wash that with Nuln Oil and maybe a quick drybrush with Silver to make it pop.
Convertibility and Magging
This kit is a great basis for all your favourite jump pack hauling units (Vets, Command Squads, and so on), but to my mind this kit is perfect for destroyers. The inherent brutality and dynamism of these sculpts is a natural fit for cadres of war crime committers. If you do go down this route you’ll need a good source of Chainswords though, as (currently), Destroyers can’t take Chainaxes (a Legion Melee Weapon Upgrade Set has you covered here + a few pistols you’ll want – I’ve used these in the examples below).
You can also keep these flexible between Mortalis and Assault variants; the backpack nub is exactly the same as on the newer plastic marines (MkVI, MkIII and MkII), so you can easily swap between jump pack and tactical packs. If you do, you might want to leave off the harness straps in construction as they’re a little fiddly to make sit flush without glueing.
As a self declared ‘Magnet Sicko’, I like to give myself options with the weapons, and these are as easy to mag as any other kit: For Arm swaps I use one 3×1 in the torso and one in the arm; for hand swaps I use 2x2s in the arm and 2x1s in the hand (this can be a little fiddly as they’re not much wider than this. You’ll need to make sure your pilot hole is dead centre to avoid ruining the hand).
For duel wielding poses, as all Heresy pistols are left handed you’ll have to do a little converting. If you’ve got leftover bolters from Saturnine (and a fresh sharp blade), it’s pretty straightforward to slice the trigger hands off them and your preferred pistol and swap them with a bit of sprue goo to cover up any seams. You’ll also need to trim the undersuit on these to get them to sit right against the arm.
Final Thoughts
Assault Squads (or their Elite Veteran equivalent) have basically found their way into every list I’ve written for 3rd. They give you a fast, mobile unit that can zip across the battlefield, harass pivotal line units, and now, with combat shields now granting a 5+ invulnerable save, even have some decent survivability. This is another really great kit from GW. If you’re looking to add some fast combat punch to your list, and the MkVI’s are a bit too sleek and shiny, then this is a perfect fit.
