Eagle Knights Tactical Squad Malaiensis

This is the first in a series of posts to catch up on the progress of the Eagle Knights chapter that I have been painting in the background. Over the next couple of weeks I will run though all of the units that I have completed. 

First up we have tactical squad Malaiensis, the first of two tactical squads in the force. In the original 7th ed version of this force there were three 5 man tactical squads, to fill the requirements for Battle Demi-Company within the Angels Blade Strike Force, but with some rejigging and the addition of a couple of marines, there are now two 10 man squads. While the armament has remained fairly similar, there has been the addition of an extra flamer to one of the squads, to give each squad a flamer and a heavy flamer, in addition to the Sgts hand flamer. Can you see a theme here?

The complete Squad

Another angle of the squad. Ignore the lines on the paper, but the bairns got hold of the white paper that I use as the photo background and decided to colour it in! I need to find another sheet but every one I find had been attacked by the bairns!

Above and Below are the basic tactical marines. Some of these are from the starter pack, Dark Vengeance, some of them are Chaos models that I got in a bits sale. Personally, I like that mix in the aesthetics that the unit gives.

The other combat squad. The Sgt is in the middle with bolter and hand flamer, with flamer on the left and heavy flamer on the right. Technically, the heavy famer is a Cadian flamer, but it works well as a heavy flamer, as it has the back pack reservoirs.  

A close up of the flame units. You can see the differences between the flamer and heavy flamer a bit better here. 

In game the squad will usually act as two combat squads, with the bolter squad, from the top picture forming one squad and staying back, to support the other combat squad or even the Devastators, while the second combat squad with all the flamers moves forward to rake the enemy with lots of flaming goodness. Flamers are more expensive this edition and are probably not the best option for a tactical squad, but the tactical squads have a very specific role in the army. They are there to take on the weaker units or hordes, as the other units, namely the death company and vanguard vets take on the tougher units. They will also be used to capture objectives thanks to there objective secured rules.

While the units is now fully painted, I still need to do some finishing touches, the same as with my completed Hjaltland LI, as I need to seal them, in this case using Army Painted quickshade soft tone, and then base them, probably using Army Painter battlefields basing. This will hopefully be done sometime over the next couple of months, as and when I get around to buying all the stuff.

Next up are the Assault squad(s).