The Solar Auxilia are on their way to the Warhammer: The Horus Heresy in glorious plastic, with a massive Battle Group box available for pre-order on Saturday. The studio staff and Warhammer Community team have been busily mustering their own battle groups, and now have a variety of cohorts to show off on the parade grounds, along with explanations of the work they’ve put into them.
Andy: My Lasrifle Section and Dracosan Heavy Transport are drawn from the 4621st Solar Auxilia Cohort, one of the 'Arkadian Janissary' cohorts. These units have an association with the III Legiones Astartes, the Emperor’s Children. I've intentionally kept the colours in line with my Legion force, but stayed away from too much ornamentation as I'm sure the haughty sons of Fulgrim wouldn't be too keen on their mortal auxiliary forces competing for attention!
Ben W: My Dracosan and Lasrifle Section are painted in the royal blue and magenta of the 87th Cohort, ‘Star Reavers’. The 87th are a standard Solar-pattern Cohort and as such, use a Mechanicus Standard Grey base with the Cohort colours alongside.
Dom: I've also decided to create a Cohort to ally with my Emperor's Children – so I named them the 66th Cohort, ‘The Phoenician's Chosen’. The colour scheme is meant to evoke similar themes to that of their Legion, a proud, if not arrogant, army with a tendency to show off, hence the golden armour and burgundy fabrics.
Quinn: For my Solar Auxiia I painted the 1128th Solar Auxilia Cohort, aka the ‘Necromundan Coursers’. When painting my Solar Auxilia, I relied heavily on Contrast paints, building from a Mechanicus Standard Grey undercoat with Terradon Turquoise, Ratling Grime and Black Legion to quickly establish my predominant colours, with Targor Rageshade and Castellax Bronze adding a hit of warmth to an otherwise very cool palette.
Ben L: For my Solar Auxilia I chose to do the ‘Selucid Thorakites’ Cohort. I chose these as they have close ties to the Iron Warriors, one of my other armies for The Horus Heresy. The paint scheme has several similarities to the IV Legion such as metallic armour and the use of hazard stripes. The dark green for the fatigues adds a touch more colour to the palette and helps give them their own personality.
James G: My Cohort is the 477th ‘Atlantian Sciritae’, raised in the Atlantian Cluster Shipyards. Usually deployed in Zone Mortalis actions against orbital stations, they favour massed infantry deployments backed up by Sentinel walkers and large numbers of Veletarii elites.
Because I am planning to paint over a hundred Auxiliaries to make up my army, I deliberately chose a more simplified paint scheme than I would normally use. Looking to evoke the appearance of 19th-century brass diving suits, I utilised subtle drybrushing on the void armour and Contrast paint over the red of the undersuit with a few contrasting spot colours. I also wanted to keep my Cohort's allegiance ambiguous, aiming for a reasonably clean Loyalist appearance but utilising dark colours like Gal Vorbak Red, often associated with Traitor forces.
Luke: I chose to paint my Dracosan in the colour of the Cthonian Headhunters. With this Traitor Cohort being associated with the Sons of Horus for a long time before the start of the Horus Heresy, I decided to paint mine in a condition to best represent a unit in regular and continuous operation – weathered and damaged to show its experience and trials in combat. I also chose to paint it without any of the later Chaotic embellishments, to better represent their earlier place in the Horus Heresy timeline.
Adam: I envisage my Solar Auxilia as being a force in their own right as well being an allied attachment to one of my Legion forces, so I kept the colours fairly neutral. They can work with either one of my Loyalist forces, or more than likely the Death Guard I will be working on soon.
James K: I'm planning a new army of Thousand Sons Space Marines this year so thought I'd try painting these as a potential allied detachment. I know the Prosperine Spireguard exist, so after a bit of research, I set on colours that I thought would be along the right lines. I'm pretty pleased with the result!
Rich: I used this opportunity to add some, shall we say, 'expendable' resources to my fledgling XX Legion force. So let me introduce you to the 405th 'Lepsinite Score', Legiones Auxilia. They’re raised from the planet 'Lepsis', which was brought into compliance by my Alpha Legion force during the Great Crusade. The Auxiliaries from this planet staunchly believe they are fighting for the Imperium alongside the XX Legion.
Another quirk of the compliance of Lepsis is their adoption of some elements of the Alpha Legion iconography and colouring. The metallic turquoise was achieved by starting with a Runefang Steel basecoat, followed by a glaze of Akhelian Green, Aethermatic Blue, and Contrast Medium (1:1:2), then another glaze on the lower third with a mixture of Akhelian Green, Ultramarines Blue, and Contrast Medium (1:1:2) thinned with water, followed by Stormhost Silver edge highlights and panel lines washed with Agrax Earthshade.
Owen: I have created this Cohort as a variant of the 'Calth High Guard', the 225th Solar Auxilia Cohort 'Calth Wardens' present on the surface of Calth during the muster. This Cohort fought alongside the Ultramarines Legion when the treachery of the Word Bearers was revealed. Very few records remain due to their near-total obliteration on Calth. The models will be an addition and allies to my Ultramarines force, with bases to match the surface of the bombarded planet of Calth. The colour scheme is similar to the Calth High Guard, consisting of metal and blue armour panels, but they wear white instead of a grey undersuit.
The metal was basecoated with Stormhost Silver, then glazed with Ratling Grime. Thinned Abaddon Black was washed into the recesses, with a final glaze of Agrax Earthshade applied. Chipping was created with Stormhost Silver. The blue and gold were painted the same as my Ultramarines colour scheme, to unify the army.
Charlie: My lads are from the Lord Marshal's Own, a Loyalist Cohort from the world of Agathon. I love their bold green-and-bronze livery and their history – the Cohort was led by a crotchety old war hero who came out of retirement, rallied old veterans, and raised new troops to take up arms against the Traitor Mechanicum. I tend toward Traitors on the Legiones Astartes side of things, so these guys will be the start of a small but proud Loyalist force, perhaps with some Knight Household back-up.
I went for a simple Battle Ready colour scheme, which will be easy to replicate and touch up with highlights on more important officers. The green cloth is just two coats of Warp Lightning Contrast paint over a Grey Seer undercoat, while the bronze armour used a variation of our Warhammer painting video guide – a Castellax Bronze base with a Wyldwood wash, followed by Runelord Brass highlights and another, thinned Wyldwood wash focused on the recesses.
Feeling inspired? The Solar Auxilia Battle Group is available to pre-order on Saturday, and is the first place you can get new plastic miniatures of the Imperium’s finest un-augmented soldiers.