Tyrants legion Astral Claws Legion Cohort update, two thirds complete!

I thought I had better put in a quick update as I don't think I'm going to get much painting done in the run up to Christmas. I have thirteen of the fifteen squad assembled. And have run out of bits! I'm not going to buy another tac/combat squad box for two marines so I'll have to see what washes up on eBay I can salvage. Here are the ten astral claws I have painted so far. Apologies for the photo quality, I'm at work during weekday daylight. After reading the advice from readers comments making myself a better setup is definitely on the cards in the new year.First up then. Five veteran Astral claws including the sergeant with combi melta, and battle brother with heavy bolter.

Next five neophytes, including missile launcher.

A few closer shots...

I've been thinking about the twenty auxillia I need to take as a compulsory troops choice. The default option would be to use twenty of my imperial guardsmen. But I'd quite like to do a proper tyrants legion unit. I really don't want to use the plastic cadian or catachans, I've already painted a shedload of these for my imperial guard armies. And also there's a question of scale, stood next to a cadian plastic your average space marine doesn't really look imposing. I've looked at a few options. Including the dystopian legions fsa infantry (again probably too large and quite pricy as metal) another option are the pig iron kolony militia, with are nice miniatures. However, warlord sell a box of 25 multipart plastic Germans in true 28mm for 25 quid. With is a bit of a bargain compared to a box of ten cadians. Having read up on it it seems the general consensus is that the bolt action range is too diminutive to work with 40k, but then I saw this photo on t'web.

Now to my eyes, that doesn't look half bad, the space marine is about a head taller, which seems fine considering he's supposed to be a genetically modified power armoured angel of death. The best bit is... looking at the sprue, the arms are all separate from the weapons, I've got loads of plastic Lasrifles and metal necromunda autoguns/lasguns so I reckon I could give them a 40k flavour. It's just a case of taking the plunge, any comments and suggestions much appreciated!