Halovox 450th Armored Regiment

The Xhroik 6th Armored Divison consists entirely of armored regiments of battle tanks, mechanized infantry and mobile artillery. The Halovox 450th is one such regiment, drawn from the mecha-nomads that migrate with the extremely slow rotation of their planet, also known as Xhorik Secundus or Aeternum. They come from a people eternally on the move with their vast caravans of vehicles, harvesters, and even mobile cities complete with factories and refineries. So it is no surprise that they favor a doctrine of warfare similar to their lifestyle: slowly rolling heavy vehicles always moving forward. The nomadic people formed an instant bond with the White Scars who helped to bring their planet into the new Imperium during the Great Crusade. The White Scars took recruits, but also enlisted many armored regiments into the Crusade armies they led, pleased to find a force capable of fighting mobile warfare. Although the lumbering mechanized Halovox armies were not fast or able to assist the White Scars in their lightning hit-and-run strikes and feints, they could keep up a steady, grinding pace night and day. The armored divisions were able to cover ground much faster than the typical infantry regiments of the Imperial Army or militias and cuold provide a mighty hammer blow where and when it was needed. Because of their history of fighting alongside the Vth Legion during the Crusade, the armored regiments of Halovox were given badges consisting of a red lightning bolt on a white sky, an honor indicating their alliance with the White Scars.

The first batch is painted. I was going for a big unit of riflemen for a Horus Heresy axulia unit, but there are only 19 because one of them was the test model I did in Contrast paint that needs to be stripped and re-primed as part of the next batch. I used a base coat, wash, dry brush approach. Drybrushing always gives me a sort of dusty look, but in this case, I think it is fitting since they should be rather dusty from their environment. I was not feeling the blue visor. I felt the blue gave a more techy sci-fi look that worked for the drop troopers but not these grunts. I tried one with a red visor and didn't like it, either. I felt a brightly colored visor doesn't work when it is not covering the face (like most of these models have) since it pulls the attention unnatrually away from the normal focal point. Ultimately, I went back to a black visor like the official models have, just representing normal sun shades. I really like the look of the white and red badges on the shoulders. They add some much-needed pop to the otherwise bland and dusty color scheme without throwing off the look of the faces and helmets. I spent about a month on these guys (although I was out of town one weekend) so the pace was not as fast as I had hoped but they are pretty simple to paint and I should be able to get the entire force of them done in a few more big batches likes this (I have six ten-man squads in total so I am one third done already). The next thing I will be doing for these guys is painted a few Chimeras so they get their rides. But now that I finally have some black undercoat, I may go back to the Sons for a bit first.