The Painter: Andrew_N
The Game: Horus Heresy
Points: Roughly 3500, likely 4500 once the backlog is cleared
Collecting Since: October 2015
Instagram: amnhobby
When I fully returned to the tabletop wargaming hobby from hiatus in 2015, my local gaming group introduced me to the Horus Heresy game, then in its first edition. After playing a few games with loaned armies, I was hooked! But I was not sure what army to play. Having played Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum since the late 90’s in Warhammer 40000, I was intrigued by the Solar Auxilia, the spiritual predecessors to the Imperial Guard of the 40k setting. The idea of an elite horde army, where large blocks of well-equipped but still inferior-to-Astartes troops, backed up by some of the most gorgeous tank models ever made by Games Workshop, sucked me in.
But, the cost of building a full army of the then all-resin range was too high, so I ended up starting an army of my favorite Astartes force, the Salamanders, instead. I kept slowly accumulating random units of Solar Auxilia on the side, hoping to eventually build a playable force of the amazing-looking RayDark (Raypunk/Grimdark?) troopers. I had collected a small force of Auxilia odds and ends by the end of Heresy’s first edition, but they didn’t get much play time. But that changed with the second edition of Heresy, and the release of a plastic model range for the army.
My local Heresy community, looking to expand interest in the game, started a slow-grow narrative campaign run by fellow Goonhammer contributor RealsNice early last year. Seeing an opportunity to expand an army I had a real connection to, I decided to use the narrative campaign as an excuse to actually paint the Auxilia models I had acquired over the years, and use the new range to fill the gaps in my roster to make a fully-playable army.
Army Background
I had always liked the fact that the more human factions in all of GW’s games let you really make your mark on the setting – you could play as Your Guys instead of The Guys from the established lore. Enter my Solar Auxilia cohort, the 519th “Sunborne”.
The background for the army only started to coalesce early on in the narrative campaign last year, even though I had painted assorted units in a striking dark orange and green scheme since my early days collecting the army almost a decade prior. The Auxilia’s lore has always been a bit nebulous, especially in the first edition of Heresy, so I had a lot of leeway with creating the 519th’s background. I came up with a force raised from void clans living in a solar system that had once been the center of a small space empire, only recently brought into the Imperium. The people of these clans live deep within the asteroids, with only those that could find their way to the void-facing surface of their asteroid habitats and survive being inducted into their clans’ warrior caste, and receiving the title of “Sunborne”. When first asked to raise troops for the Great Crusade, a Solar Auxilia cohort was founded to build on their void warfare expertise. Attached to the 1819th Expeditionary Fleet, the cohort often served alongside the 164th company of the XVIII Legion Salamanders (my Salamanders army).
Painting the Army
When I first began painting random Solar Auxilia units, I wanted to give the infantry a striking color scheme that was outside the color palettes of existing Horus Heresy forces, while also tying them in with my Salamanders. So I went with dark orange armor and green undersuits for my infantry, and a blue-grey scheme for my vehicles. When I pulled out existing models from my collection to start building out my army for the narrative campaign last year, I decided to also repaint everything to my current painting standard, but with the existing paint scheme. How many orange armies do you see in Heresy, or in any Warhammer game, to be honest?
For the tanks and vehicles, I decided to go with a more standard blue-grey and brass trim scheme, similar to the Auxilia tank schemes shown in the rulebooks for Heresy’s first edition, but with orange accents to tie them in with the infantry.
The Units
First up is my Legate Marshal, Cohort-Domina Selora Kalvian. I converted her years ago using the body of Sir Hekhtur from the Canis Rex Knight kit. I added a sword hand from an Escher kit and a head from a now-OOP Stormcast heads kit Forge World used to make. Really happy with the conversion, and the paint job! Special thanks to fellow Goonhammer contributor Meltabombed for the help with her head – link to his phenomenal faces tutorial article here. After she had been blown up multiple times by disintegrator-toting Night Lords during our narrative campaign, I am working on building Selora a new mini using Mad Donna from Necromunda as a base.
The first models of the new plastic range I had ever built, this command section pulls double duty as either a Tercio command section for my rifle sections, or as a Lifeward section providing cover for my Marshal. The standard is one of my favorite bits from the new range – I could see it being used by Astartes as well!
A mix of some of the first Solar Auxilia models I had ever painted, and some of the most recent! I had figured when first starting the army to include at least one section of las-riflemen, and as I have expanded the army I figured I would go for a full tercio of them, three sections of twenty auxiliaries each. Two of the sections are the old but gorgeous Edgar Skomorowski resin sculpts released by FW almost a decade ago, and the third section is made up of twenty of the new plastic auxiliaries released last year. I have to say, I usually would find painting twenty infantry models a pain to do, but these were a joy to paint up. That could also have been the insanity creeping in after having painted over a hundred infantry in less than a year…
Some of my favorite models, the Veletaris storm sections! I have two of the volkite squads, and a large axe section that I often run in a Tercio along with the support section shown below. They are lovely models, just dripping with detail.
My beautiful BRRT boys, and probably the conversion that came closest to breaking my hobby spirit, the Veletaris Support section with rotor cannons. I had bought the parts to convert this squad years ago, and was so terrified of potentially botching it that I did not even attempt it until last year. I am absolutely thrilled with how they look – it took alot of cutting, filing, fitting, bending, and sculpting to put them together, but it was worth it in the end. They haven’t done much in games, but I run them in every game I can – they look too cool not to!
Some very large, very scary lads. Essentially Big Daddies from Bioshock in space, I never realized just how large these models were until I put them together. They’re almost as tall as some of my Dreadnoughts!
Providing some infantry-based ranged firepower to my armies, these Rapiers are some of the coolest models I own. They are a lot of fun to paint, as you can combine both infantry and vehicle painting techniques into the same model. I do plan to eventually pick up a third Quad Launcher Rapier, just to balance the two batteries out.
The Solar Auxilia’s answer to the Rhino APC, these Auroxes were an absolute treat to paint. They are solid little battle taxis!
Strangely one of my favorite tank models I have ever painted. While this is the old resin model, it is definitely very similar to its plastic replacement. Never thought a vehicle could have so much metal trim outside of a 40k Chaos army….
The Predator to the Auroxes’ Rhino, these Carnodons are a surprisingly fun take in my army lists. They are fast, they are versatile, and they seem to always be constantly underestimated by my opponents.
The old standbys, the Leman Russes! Two are the old Mars Alpha variants from Forge World, and the third is the absolutely lovely plastic kit released last year. These are my workhorse tanks – they are some of the most consistently reliable vehicles on the table for me, and I have variant turrets for some of them that allow me to tailor their loadouts depending on what narrative I am trying to play through.
Future Expansion
I do still have more models to build and paint for this army. I had impulse purchased some Cyclops demolition vehicles back in 1.0 and never painted, and also have a FW flamer section I picked up when those models went Last Chance to Buy. For additional armored support, I have another Dracosan to paint, as well as one of the new Valdor tank destroyers, waiting patiently for their turn to be pulled from my pile of shame opportunity. And of course, I would love to eventually add a Stormhammer to the army for some Lord of War support!
If you are curious about starting a Solar Auxilia army, or are like me and finally able to put it together, and have questions, feel free to post a comment below or contact me on my Instagram page. Feel free to also @ me on the Goonhammer Discord if you are a member!
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