Drop Troops - New Additions and Full Army Recap

After buying the Imperialis Militias and Cults army list, I realized I was going to need a lot more men to make my units legal for Horus Heresy. So I painted up enough riflemen to give me a full squad of 20, plus a few medics to add into my units as needed. Here are the new models and a look at the full army so far. It just needs a commander to be FOC-legal for Horus Heresy or 40k.

First up, some converted Auxilia Medicae. Grav-chute strikes are extremely dangerous so these guys will be in high demand and given no shortage of opportunities to apply their arts.

I love this conversion. Does this medic have his knife out to defend himself in melee? Or to do some rough-and-ready field surgery? Or just to recover the flak jacket off a soldier who already received the Emperor's Peace? 

Conversions are tough for the Drop Troops because of the way the hands are built into the gun sprues and the lack of extra arms from Forge World. These guys use a few third party bits to make them unique. 

Bundles on their backs contain additional medical supplies. 

Three more bullet sponges, er... brave riflemen to fight for the fledgling Empire of Man.

In addition to their grav-chutes, they are loaded down with survival gear for survival behind enemy lines, such as packs, pouches, canteens, ammo, grenades, and knives. Assuming they survive the initial drop!

This conversion turned out good, not great. I think he looks like he is telling the men to get down or maybe advance quietly. What do you think?

"Get dooown!"

Finally, the demolition team.

These guys have the big explosives for taking out tanks or bunkers, at least in 40k. Since demoing a bridge or key target building would be a huge part of the role of drop troops, I'd like to add some rules for these in Horus Heresy. Otherwise, they just look cool and could be used for special missions like the Raid on Outpost Genden battle we played.

Here is the full squad of 20 Imperialis Militia Infantry.

Here are the leftovers, ready to form the basis of future squads: (left to right) melta gun, grenade launcher, medic, sergeant. 

The Grenadiers. Next up will be a few special weapons troopers for these boys since they aren't too threatening without their 40k hotshot lasguns.

They wear the heavier carapace armor.

A shot of the sentinels with a different magnetized weapon option: autocannons this time.

The Xhorik 87th uses sentinels not only because they are transportable by Valkyrie, but because their legs can navigate the rocky terrain better than tanks.

The main rear grav-chutes must be pretty powerful to allow these things to drop from a flying Valkyire without smashing their legs to bits when they hit the ground!

And here is the Tauros, which I haven't posted yet. Brand new and clean, right from the factory!

Now that I weathered the sentinels as much as I did, I need to do some weathering on the Tauros, too! Maybe when I paint the Tauros Venators, I will weather them all together.  

Strap in and hold on!

There is just something inherently fun and bad ass about dune buggies with guns! Even if this thing never makes a kill, it is just too cool not to have on the table.

I'm excited that this army is coming together. The models have great character and dynamism, and I love converting and adding my own feel. I have a commander modeled and ready for paint. After that, I need to add some special weapons to my Grenadiers and maybe build a melta gun squad around the one melta gun trooper, sergeant, and medic that I already have done. I just need to decide if I want to continue with these guys right now or go back and give my White Scars a little attention first.

Thanks for looking!

-Phil