solar auxilia Archives - Felix's Gaming Pages

Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport

These Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport were on display at Warhammer World.

Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport with Leman Russ in background

The Dracosan Armoured Transport is a heavily armed personnel carrier, manufactured to the highest standards and configured with systems that allow the Solar Auxilia to traverse the most hazardous battlezones. The Dracosan is large enough to accommodate a full strength section of 20 Solar Auxilia infantry, protecting them from all but the most intense enemy fire while using its own weaponry to pound enemy positions to dust. 

Solar Auxilia Shadowsword

The Shadowsword is the sister tank to the Baneblade, a super-heavy vehicle employed by Solar Auxilia cohorts to engage and destroy enemy macro-engines with its volcano cannon. The same chassis has also been adapted to mount different primary weapons suited to their own modes of destruction, like the bunker-busting Stormsword siege cannon or the versatile plasma blastgun of the Stormblade.

Solar Auxilia Medusa

The Solar Auxilia’s Medusa artillery tanks are behemoths of destruction, their Leman Russ hulls cloaked in heavy armor. Their devastating guns, protected from enemy fire and hazardous environments, can reduce enemy fortifications to rubble. These mobile fortresses, capable of shattering mighty walls, advance alongside the Auxilia cohorts, softening enemy defenses and paving the way for the main assault.

Solar Auxilia Leman Russ

The Solar Auxilia use the Leman Russ Strike Tanks in various roles. The tanks have been upgraded with solar-pattern survival systems, this allows the tank and the crew to fight in any harsh conditions on different planets.

It is usually armed with one of four primary weapons – a battlecannon, twinned heavy lascannons or autocannons, or a long-barrelled Vanquisher battlecannon with a co-axial autocannon.

Solar Auxilia Shadowsword Super Heavy Tank

This is a Solar Auxilia Shadowsword Super Heavy Tank on display at Warhammer World.

The Shadowsword is armed with a fearsome array of weapons – none more so than the mighty volcano cannon on its turret. It can also be equipped with a pair of sponsons sporting a twin heavy bolter or twin heavy flamer, each capped by a lascannon turret! The Shadowsword is the sister tank to the Baneblade, a super-heavy vehicle employed by Solar Auxilia cohorts to engage and destroy enemy macro-engines with its volcano cannon.

A single super-heavy tank is a dominant presence in the Solar Auxilia battle line. As it ploughs inexorably forward it lays down a wide path of destruction. Enemy ranks shatter long before it reaches their position, and those unlucky few who are able to maintain their defensive formations are ground to paste under the slab-like plates of its tracks. The Shadowsword is equipped with one of the most fearsome primary weapons – the dreaded volcano cannon – and is capable of taking down Titans at extreme ranges. Nothing short of the most powerful energy fields can hope to stop a direct hit from its blasts.

The same chassis has also been adapted to mount different primary weapons suited to their own modes of destruction, like the bunker-busting Stormsword siege cannon or the versatile plasma blastgun of the Stormblade.

Solar Auxilia Medusa

This Solar Auxilia Medusa was in the display cabinets at Warhammer World.

The Medusa artillery tanks employed by the Solar Auxilia are armoured bombardment platforms, their heavy guns mounted on a hull derived from the Leman Russ. Enclosed against enemy fire and protected from the hazardous atmospheres of toxic or alien worlds, these mobile siege batteries can keep pace with the cohort’s advance, pummelling the foe’s positions even as main line units move to engage any survivors. The Medusa’s mortar fires munitions heavy enough to shatter mighty walls.

I much prefer the original Imperial Army Medusa, however that model appears to have been retired.

Solar Auxilia Aurox Armoured Transport

The Aurox Armoured Transport is an armoured troop transport tank primarily used by various arms of the Imperial Army to carry veteran grenadier units to battle or to protect their commanders while dictating the course of battle.

A further variant of the Aurox is used by the Solar Auxilia, re-fitted for extreme environmental conditions.

Legions Imperialis Support Weapons

Two packs of Legion Imperialis support weapons will be going on pre-order this Saturday. One pack for the Solar Auxilia, and one for the Legion Astartes.

The Solar Auxilia pack includes Rapier batteries, Tarantula platforms w and the Cyclops remote-controlled bomb.

While the Solar Auxilia are famed for the quality of their infantry and tanks, their fire support companies are invaluable when confronting tougher targets. The Solar Auxilia Support set includes a total of 40 weapons platforms and auxiliary assets loaded with firepower, including Rapier batteries mounting quad launchers, laser destroyers, and mole mortar arrays, Tarantula platforms with lascannons and Hyperios missile launchers, and the dreaded Cyclops remote-controlled bomb.

The Legion Astartes pack also has Rapier batteries, Dreadnoughts, and Tarantula platforms.

The Space Marines of the Horus Heresy also adopted the Rapier platform for their own support firepower, and deployed talons of dreadnoughts for long-range fire and close combat. The Legiones Astartes Support kit contains 24 miniatures, including Leviathan Dreadnoughts with storm cannons and cyclonic melta lances, Deredeo Dreadnoughts with Anvilus autocannon batteries and Hellfire plasma cannonades, Rapier batteries with quad launchers and laser destroyers, and Tarantula platforms with lascannons and Hyperios missile launchers.

I like the Legion Astartes pack.

Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport in Plastic

The Las Vegas Open had quite a few previews. One that caught my eye was the announcement of plastic kits for the Solar Auxilia for The Horus Heresy.

The Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport was available as a resin kit from Forge World.

The Dracosan Armoured Transport is manufactured to standards only usually required of war machines destined for service with the Legiones Astartes. It is large enough to accommodate a full strength Solar Auxilia Infantry Section of twenty auxiliaries, and heavily armoured enough to protect them from intense enemy fire.

Dracosan Armoured Transport Miniatures Gallery

Legions Imperialis Solar Auxilia

Over on the Warhammer Community site they have showcased Legions Imperialis miniatures painted by community painters.

One force caught my eye, and it was a Solar Auxilia force painted by Gadge.

Legions Imperialis models are incredibly detailed despite being in epic scale, so it’s really important not to lose this detail with overly thick paint or too many layers. Drybrushing and Contrast paints are the key to this ‘sand and spinach’ scheme that will look good on both desert and temperate battlefields. I started off with a base coat of Zandri Dust Spray undercoat, which was drybrushed up with Flayed One Flesh, where the tonal difference helps pick out every hatch and rivet. To avoid swamping the model with excessive paint, I used Creed Camo Contrast paint to apply the camouflage bands and blotches, as the translucent quality of Contrast paint allows the existing highlights on the base coat to surface. Other parts were painted variously with Black Legion, Blue Horror, and Evil Sunz Scarlet, before being outlined lightly with Agrax Earthshade. Lastly, I applied weathering by giving the tracks a light drybrush with Terminatus Stone, before dipping a brush in Ratling Grime, wiping most of it off, and dabbing it all over any areas where I felt the tanks would be either well-oiled or getting in contact with a lot of grime – the vents, grills, gun barrels, and wheels.

I did like the scheme and it reminded me of the Aeronautica Imperialis Valkyrie Assault Carriers that I painted.