Hi everyone! As part of WIPWednesday, I thought I would do an article on my traitor Solar Auxilia commander squad.
Concept
I love my Solar Auxilia and have put some effort into creating fluff for the force as loyalists (which you can find here and here). The problem is most of my friends also play loyalists. As such, I do not enjoy playing with my Solar against them as it is not easy coming up with a narrative reason for them to fight other than it being a ‘training exercise’ or one of the armies is actually Alpha Legion in disguise. So I decided to do something about this as I’m desperate to play more games with my Solar.
Where I ended up was converting an alternative HQ for my army that was clearly traitor. I would paint them to match the rest of the army, just chaos-ify them. This way, I can bring essentially the same army with me, but by changing out the HQs I can play traitor or loyalist without compromising the fluff!
Plan
I was inspired to some extent by Imperial Armour Vol.5 which says that, at the start of the war on Vraks, most of the low level soldiers in the Renegades and Heretics did not necessarily know who they were fighting for, they were doing what they were told by painting on various symbols.
Given the traitor factions are mostly in their early stages of the chaos influence, I thought a similar thing could work here – the leaders of the army had been indoctrinated into the Primordial Truth and so were more corrupted, but the line troops had yet to be subject to the same level of influence and so would look outwardly the same as loyalist auxiliaries.
I wanted to make them look clearly traitor and followers of chaos but I didn’t want them to look overly mutated or possessed. They might be fanatics, but I still wanted them to look like soldiers. My fear otherwise is that they would stand out too much against the rest of the army – save the tentacles, claws and other bits for the Tainted Flesh Militia army!
So, armed with the new Solar Auxilia Tactical Command Section, the Dark Commune set and my bitz box, I got to work.
Lord Marshall
My Lord Marshall was a relatively straightforward conversion and I mostly built him out of the box other than his head and hands.
I wanted to give him more of a ‘command’ pose than an overtly combaty one. The pointing hand comes from the vehicle kit. Combined with the bare head I think it gives him a nice overseer feel, like he is directing the troopers to their deaths, all to further the Primordial Truth’s plan.
One of the main inspirations was the staff from the Dark Commune set. It looks so cool and I thought it would work well as some kind of fancy power weapon for him, with the squid/bird thing ‘charging’ the weapon. Now I need to come up with an explanation for why he has such a weapon – perhaps a gift from the schemy Word Bearers?
I also thought it would be cool to have him un-helmeted. Whilst this technically means the suit isn’t void sealed, I figured it would allow me to try out some tattoos or markings on the model.
Auxilia Captain
This was the last model I built. I may have been an idiot and missed it, but I could only find 5 of the filter systems. Luckily I was building a basilisk at the same time, so pilfered a filter from the internal crew there so I could do the sixth man.
I wanted the Captain to look more like an enforcer – the Marshall gives the orders and this Captain makes sure people obey! Being the only helmeted model in the unit helps make him look a little more menacing – who knows what face is behind it?
I toyed around with a number of different arms and weapons here as I was desperate to use the axe from the Bloodied set. However, I couldn’t get it to work and sit naturally, so in the end I went for the mini cleaver you see on this model. The look is still pretty menacing from my perspective and suits the more ragtag weapon look.
Cohort Standard
This was a straightforward conversion, I built the banner bearer pretty much straight out the box but replaced the Solar Auxilia banner with the one from the Dark Commune set and added an auto pistol. I figured their equipment would be a bit mismatched. The banner is huge and I think will help signpost the allegiance on the battlefield!
I also added a bare head from my bitz box. I think it is from the Blooded Kill Team set, but it might also be from one of the Cadian sets – the downside of snipping out everything is it’s hard to work out where it all came from!
Command Vox
As with most of this unit, I built the command vox character as is, but then added the weird floating head thing from the Dark Commune set. I thought it might be some warp shenanigans to boost the signal and allow for better communication amongst the traitors – like the flasks used by the Word Bearers and their allies on Calth.
I need to add some more cabling to tie the floating head into the model more, but overall I think it’s a fun combination of technology and mystic that suits the traitors nicely.
Companions with Plasma Guns
These were the most penikity to convert. I used plasma guns from the marine kit, carefully carving away the trigger and grip sections. Then I took lasrifles from the command set and cut away as much of the rifle as possible before slotting into the plasma guns. They still need some green stuff to cover up some of the work but I’m happy with how they look at the end.
I finished these both off with some heads from the Blooded kit, again I think they look quite menacing.
Conclusion
Overall I am really happy with this squad and feel like they have fulfilled my original goal. They definitely look like traitors but they also don’t look like they have lost themselves to the warp quite yet either.
Now it’s time to paint them up and see how they fit alongside the rest of my Solar Auxilia.
Jamie
Mutant Snake Eyes 