WIP: Imperial Fists Mk.VI tactical squad

Horus Heresy: tactical marines in MK.VI armour

Lately I've been prompted to look again at the Imperial Fists in my modest but largely unpainted Horus Heresy era collection. Perhaps spurred on by the standard bearer I finished in February, and by the Alpha Legion that are forming a rival faction on the same shelf, I've looked again at the unpainted models I have to hand and decided to spend a little time on them. First among them are these offerings for a tactical squad in Mk.VI armour.

My squad sergeant (left) also carries the Legion Vexilla.

The majority of the models in my current Heresy-era Imperial Fists force wear some version of the much older Mk.III armour variant. I love the look of that particular variant, and think it really suits the Imperial Fists army—with its solid front armour plates—as siege specialists and defenders. I was drawn, however, to the Mk.VI variant through a mixture of nostalgia and by some of the Horus Heresy series stories from Black Library that mention it.

Side views. This one carries a legion vox.
(Apologies for the blurred photos.
My phone's camera has a superb knack of focusing on the bases.)

Some of the first space marines I ever bought—indeed the first ever full tactical squad I finished (for my original Ultramarines)—wore Mk.VI armour. These were the original RTB01 (Rogue Trader box one) space marines: the earliest of their kind ever released in plastic, from the mid-1980s. These were later phased out in favour of the Mk.VII armour sculpts of later releases, but I've always held a special fondness for them. Obviously the newer models are much better. The details are more crisp and the poses and aesthetic are more in keeping with the modern releases, but they still evoke that familiar feeling with the look of their conical helms and simplistic armour design.

I have a squad of ten of these to paint. These represent the first. Annoyingly I bought them in two halves (Forge World sell them in packs of five), and they fell either side of the re-cast that changed the way they hold their weapons, but hopefully that won't be obvious when the models are finished. Like all of my projects, this will be a slow burner, and one I'll dip in and out of while I work on other things, but hopefully, at some point, I'll be able to finish another Mk.VI squad for old time's sake.
Oh, and in case you're wondering what could possibly distract me from such a task, this was delivered the other day. Let's see how that plays out...