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Hmm, perhaps you could try to create little stories around each figure. I know you are already doing that, but perhaps you could go more detailed, kind of like how Apologist seems to describe his units and equipment.

Perhaps the continuation of your project could also be the continuation of the storyline itself?>

I expect the stories to be in the gear. In what they wear. In the scars and bandages they sport.

With everyone seeing even a LITTLE greenstuff, you'll really get a feel for each members history.

Guard are the best force for a project with this much personality. I fully expect Migs to fully capitalize on that diversity with every figures details.

I think I need a box or two of the new guard now...

26/March/09 Shapers

Today, little progress shots of Alpharius and Bulldons captain and an Ad. Few weeks ago, good friend CMDante shared showed images of his sculpting tools, including “shapers” that are like brushes with a shaped silicone head that doesn’t stick to gs at all. BUY THEM! They revolutionised my sculpting - mostly the feel, where it came an absolute joy from something of a chore! So each guy in the project will get sculpted detail.

Here’s a pic of the guys and the shapers.




At the front you see a 40mm wip base that I intended for a heavy weapon team. I try to put some of them on 40mm bases for more intense little situations and better integration to a squad on 25mms.

I will be taking a special interest in how your guardsmen work out. Good luck, I trust that this will be above and beyond what we normally expect of you. That Alpharius looks frankly terrifying.

Happy Hunting.

sA

Some nice progress. The double belt on the guardsmen is a bit off looking, maybe just making the buckles look the same will fix that.

I feel like all heavy weapons teams should be on large bases. The goal being mini-dioramas. And since they hardly ever move, making them all 'dug in', as you mentioned, really worksfor them.

BTW, what thicknesses of plasticard are you working with on Alpharius?

Cheers guys,

Grey,

The plan is to put TWO guys on the 40mm base, in infantry squads! Using a smaller base shouldn't be a problem and I feel it ties them much more into a unit on 25mm bases. These units and their accompanying heavy weapons will be moving about, so likely to be missile launchers. The plan is to use 40mm for squad teams and the heavy weapon squads get the large 60mm ones and a more dug in look as befits their battle field role. ps. the goal with all my bases is mini-dioramas.

The belts, I want a wild west style, one belt for ya trousers, one for the weapon. Paint will fix it nicely, the trouser belt will be dark, and the strap the color of the weapon holster.

I agree with grey_death, the two belts looks a bit weird at the moment, though I look forward to being proven wrong.

I think for the wild west style a few should have "slanted" belts, sort of hanging low at one hip gunslinger style.

The upper body looks a little bulky on the trooper at the moment, could be the angle, not sure how you could sort this easily en masse though. I think its cause by the fact the trousers are a bit tighter to the leg than the regular cadian ones. Sculpting some extra "baggy bits" might work but would be a hell of a chore on so many troopers.

It will probably all look fine once the arms are on mind. Which arms are you using?

Cheers,

Dante

I second Dante's ideas.

27/march/09 Discussing Miniatures as art and emotions.

Based on a discussion I had today with one of my gaming buddies.

Nico wrote:

Reading though your blog I realised I haven't seen miniatures as art, which they really can be. I'm not saying they should be, people enjoy putting up an army to play with and are happy with it. That's the biggest part of hobbyists around.

Minis and art is quite interesting now that the thought poipped in my head. This project of yours is also quite defining of it. A clear vision, not just technically, but specially with the feeling and atmosphere of it all. A sense of true existence of another world, place and time.

....

. Legion is a good book since it took the aspect of love and caring into the 40k universe, making it much richer. That then again is difficult to potray on a mini of a warrior blasting away with a heavy bolter.

Thanks Nico! I'm happy to add a perspective to your mini thoughts.

I think you are right about the feelings, but the difficulty is the challenge and to me the enjoyment. I hope to express a lot of different emotions through the project. And I thank you for bringing it up so explicitly. I think it's here were the juxtaposition of a Space Marine who shall know no fear and the Common soldier becomes such a gem. When you add in a Legion who has seen the end and who have deep, hidden motives; and humans who are sworn to these marines, in a code of martial honor and duty, secrecy and lies, not comradeship and warrior brotherhood THAT's when it gets really interesting!

And when all of that happens visually under the pale moonlight - in Rhisianne's case it had to be twin moons, for the story line alone, but also so there was moonlight in abundance - that strong vision starts to have clear and different parameters.

Do you mind if I quote our conversation at dakka? This is a great blog entry for the day.

m

Mini's are art. No way around it. But it's only when you accept it and understand what it means that you really start to cross the mental boundries of 'the hobby' and really start to create something extraordinary.

Amazing work as usualy Migs!
Is there anychance I can get a how to for your "true scale" marines?

Thanks Foda, when the hassle of preparing my TWAR for war is done, I'll post the progress shots from the first Alpharius that are pretty self evident

We might just as well reinforce our keyboards with metal plates so the wont break of falling jaws. Thats how much potential I see in this.

02/April/09 Raging Bulldons

I'm starting to get seriously excited about the new Guard. MUCH more variety and much more tactics involved, with a good deal more dynamics. There’s a brilliant discussions going at news and rumors about the upcoming book - for once an intelligent debate prior to a new book launch.

Overall the variety will be brilliant for Legion.

I just have to find/design the stats/rules for the few Alpha Legion. If I made a squad, it'd be simple to use death watch or grey knights, but since I am not going to make a full squad... Obviously it’s much more fun to design them as a special character, much like Ursakar Creed and his sgt. Thankfully our group is just brilliant for this kind of things, and it’s quite easy to get the pts costs right by balancing against existing rules and costs.

Yesterday I went through my bitz warehouse and collected and sorted a good deal of usable and needed bitz for the project. I now have an ample supply of Horns for the Renor “Raging Bulldons” - a Grenadier unit. Each Raging Bulldons brigade has three companies of infantry: two surface mechanised companies and one air mechanised company, riding in valkyries; and an armoured support company with it’s own artillery elements. It is one of Rhisienne’s most famous regiments, eve if technically not from Rhisienne itself.

10more days of TWAR and I get to totally unleash myself on this project.

Legion

(The wh40k.lexicanium.com/wiki/alpha_legion has a brilliantly compiled body of text on the modus operandi of my Legion that I find very inspiring and in line with what I'm after. This is a direct quotation from there.)


02/April/09 Alpha Legion
(The wh40k.lexicanium.com/wiki/alpha_legion has a brilliantly compiled body of text on the modus operandi of my Legion that I find very inspiring and in line with what I'm after. This is a direct quotation from there.)

The Alpha Legion is the Chaos Space Marines Legion about which the least is known. They are experts in infiltration and their armies contain numerous Chaos Cultists in addition to regular Chaos Space Marines. Unbeknownst to all but a few outside the legion, the Alpha Legion had two primarchs; Alpharius and his twin Omegon (sometimes referred to collectively as just 'Alpharius Omegon').
Summary

History
Pre-Heresy
Pre-Heresy Alpha Legion Space Marine.
The last Legion created during the First Founding, work on the XXth Legion was begun only some few decades before the discovery of their Primarch, Alpharius. As a result, when Alpharius Omegon took command of the Legion, it was young, zealous and completely committed to embracing the primarch's directions.

Alpharius believed that secrecy and fluidity brought success, and taught his Legion to apply all such military techniques to both their training and their operations. The Legion's victories in the Great Crusade all feature some form of subterfuge, misdirection or rapid, unexpected movement. Such victories required great skill and dedication to achieve, and the Alpha Legion quickly became an insular and proud formation.

After Alpharius' disagreements with Roboute Guilliman, the Alpha Legion threw themselves even further into their preferred method of operations, largely cutting themselves off from standard Imperial practices and orchestrating greater and greater victorious examples of their approach to the Crusade, even when more conventional attacks would have been more efficient. The most notorious example of this took place on the world of Tesstra Prime, where the Alpha Legion, instead of taking the opportunity to capture the planetary capital and force the world's surrender, allowed the enemy to dig in and defend it so that they could then expertly take the defending forces apart in a number of different ways. After a week of suffering seemingly random mishaps as well as brutal ambushes, the defenders were forced to capitulate, having taken 90% casualties. When asked why the Legion had not taken the simpler strategy, Alpharius is reported to have replied that they avoided it as "it would have been too easy." This campaign brought him censure from almost all of his brother Primarchs; only Horus, always impressed by Alpharius and his work, praised the Alpha Legion's skill.1

With such examples existing in the Imperial records, it is perhaps easy to see why the Alpha Legion sided with Horus when the Warmaster made his pact with Chaos; their martial pride and Alpharius' avoidance of all his brothers apart from Horus seemingly led to their downfall. However, another given reason is that, a scant two years before the Horus Heresy began, Alpharius Omegon was contacted by a Xenos organisation known as the Cabal, which presented the primarch with visions of the Heresy to come and other predictions of the future as well as knowledge about the nature of Chaos. They were shown that the only outcomes of the Heresy were that, if the Emperor won, humanity's existence would be ensured for ten or twenty thousand years of decay before they and the galaxy were consumed by Chaos and that, if Horus won, humanity would perish inside two generations, taking the Chaos powers into oblivion with them, thus saving the rest of the galaxy. The Alpha Legion was asked to take on their greatest challenge; to use all their skills of subterfuge, misinformation and sabotage to destroy Chaos from within. Secretly still loyal, they were challenged to defect to the side of Horus and ensure the final destruction of Chaos. Alpharius Omegon appeared to accede to this request, but like nearly all actions of the Alpha Legion, their true motivations are eminently unknowable.2

The Horus Heresy

Legionnaires during the Heresy
After the virus-bombing of Isstvan III, the presumed loyal Alpha Legion was one of the legions sent by the Emperor to destroy Horus at his base on Isstvan V. Assigned to the second wave, the Legion instead turned on the loyalist first wave. It is thought by many that much of the traitors' Isstvan V strategy was planned by Alpharius and the Alpha Legion.
During the Heresy, the Alpha Legion split off from the main body of Horus's forces early and did not attack Terra, instead embarking upon a series of delaying actions in an attempt to hold Imperial reinforcements in place. They also engaged in smaller actions, defeating a White Scars force on Tallarn and a Space Wolves unit at Yarant. Despite their contributions, however, Horus was defeated.1

Post-Heresy
The last time the Alpha Legion was known to be active on any large scale was immediately after the Heresy, when instead of retreating to the Eye of Terror like the other traitorous Legions, they moved on into the Galactic East, apparently seeking to fulfill mysterious objectives of their own devising. Whether or not being brought to battle with the Ultramarines was one of these objectives is unknown, but it occurred all the same.

On the world of Eskrador, the Alpha Legion was assaulted by Ultramarine forces. Alpharius was reportedly happy with such a development, as it allowed him to demonstrate the superiority of his flexible, multitudinous and unexpected military strategies on the notoriously precise, methodical and perhaps even moribund Ultramarines. However, the Alpha Legion primarch was apparently taken by surprise when Gulliman departed from his own strictures and led a surprise assault by his elite units on the Alpha Legion headquarters. In the resultant personal combat between Alpharius and Guilliman, it is believed that Alpharius was killed. The Alpha Legion responded, not by breaking and fleeing as Guilliman expected, but by turning on the Ultramarine detachment and harrying them so mercilessly that by the time they had returned to the main body of the Ultramarine force their casualties were almost total. The Ultramarines were driven from the planet in the subsequent battle.

Since then, the Alpha Legion has rarely been seen, and in fact has been declared wiped out by the High Lords of Terra no less than three times, in M31, M32 and M39. These claims have always been disproved by a subsequent sighting of the mysterious Legionaries, who continue to operate against the Imperium for reasons of their own.1

Recently, the Alpha Legion was active in the Kaurava system, fighting the Dark Eldar on Kaurava IV.

Organisation
Pre-Heresy
All Space Marine legions set arduous tasks and trials for potential recruits, but prior to the Horus Heresy the Alpha Legion set these initiation tests for squads, not individuals. Squads succeeded as a group or not at all - foolhardy heroics were frowned upon. The overall plan was paramount and more valuable than any one Space Marine.1

The first batch of Alpha Legionaries were notably tall and strong even for members of the Astartes, physical attributes which suited Alpharius' focus on misdirection. For the Primarch put into place a directive that, as far as possible, all Alpha Legion marines had to attempt to look alike; and the visage they patterned themselves on was that of Alpharius and Omegon. As a result, all Alpha Legionaries were at the very least shaven headed, with many going so far as to have cosmetic surgical alteration. Their height also made it easier for them to be confused with the Primarch, although the twins were still the tallest in the Legion. When asked by non-Legion members, all Legionaries gave their names as "Alpharius", even when more than one was present.

This was an extension of the Legion's philosophy that they were a body of one that could strike in many places at once. This complete solidarity with each other expressed itself in other ways. Decisions within the Legion were made in a fairly open and reasonably democratic way, with all ranks - including the Alpha Legions' non-Astartes operatives - allowed to interject and comment freely during planning sessions. This freedom was allowed not just on military matters - the Alpha Legion internally discussed matters of philosophy and galactic policy that would have been forbidden or frowned upon in other Imperial institutions. Later recruits for the Legion were selected by the Primarch primarily based on high intelligence and personal initiative.

The Legion also made a habit of recruiting non-Astartes specialists in every theatre and campaign they entered, commonly members of the Imperial armed forces, though almost any human could be approached by the Legion for his knowledge or skills. These operatives often remained in their original position, ready to respond to Alpha Legion commands. Compromised operatives were not discarded if it could be avoided, and Alpha Legionaries would go to great lengths to retain them or hide their existence, lengths that included the fatal silencing of other Imperials. Operatives were tattooed with a small hydra symbol.

Whilst known to have possessed Terminator and 'stealth' squads (who appear to have worn blackened or dulled armour), the majority of the Legion appears to have armed and equipped themselves in a similar fashion unless tactically imprudent. The Alpha Legion were known to operate behind enemy lines and even mingle with enemy civilian populations. In such situations they were apparently able to pass unnoticed with a combination of appropriate dress and psyker mind-clouding.2

Post-Heresy
Even less is known about the internal organisation of the Alpha Legion since the Heresy than was known before. On occasions there have been successful assassinations of members of the Legion thought to be high-ranking officers, but their removal has had little visible effect on Alpha Legion operations.

The Legion's symbol, the hydra, is a multi-headed mythical beast which could keep fighting even if one of its heads was cut off. This legend seems to reflect the Alpha Legion's command structure, as well as echoing its doctrine of multiple attacks.

Alpharius believed in planning and co-ordination, he always sought alternatives and multiple solutions to any given problem, with different elements working together for the end result. These doctrines, thoroughly embraced by the Legion as a whole, have apparently been continued by the traitors and have proved effective, especially in the disparate and secretive way they now operate.

Extensive preparations are made before actually attacking, including using spies and corruption to weaken an enemy's resolve. Not only is an enemy attacked from every angle, but every attack is often coordinated to achieve the most destructive results. Often, cults and traitors will be employed as a support network to Alpha Legion actions. Many actions are planned to utilise and support local cultist activity. These cults go to considerable effort to spread propaganda, perform sabotage, and carry out acts of unrest and rebellion, providing a distraction and weakening the enemy before the Alpha Legion strikes. In this regard, they are similar to the specialist operatives once employed by the Legion, and who may still exist as the leaders of these cults.1
Notable Members
Alpharius - Primarch
Omegon - Leader of the Effrit Stealth Squad / Primarch
Ingo Pech - First Captain
Mathias Herzog - Captain of the 2nd Company
Sheed Ranko - Captain of the Lernaean Terminator Squad
Arkos - Lord 6
Bale - Lord (dec.) 4
Firaeveus Carron - Lord (pres. dec.) 5
Sindri Myr - Sorcerer, Daemon Prince (dec.) 4
Sources
1:Index Astartes IV
2:Legion by Dan Abnett
3:Inquisitor (game system)
4awn of War
5awn of War: Soulstorm
6:Imperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks - Part One

There's now a super detailed compilation of the new rules at dakka news if someone hasn't seen it yet..

I must say the Vendetta (Valkyrie with 3 twin linked LC for 30pts more) looks to be the legion ride Too bad the parts aren't included in the valkyrie kit, so I gotta do a duplicate convert which are always a slight chore.

I want at least 3 Vs in the list, maybe more in the future. Few Chimeras and a griffon, maybe a new russ variant or five And have already started collecting bitz for my version of the "tank ace" shadow sword.

Brilliant are we going to see Raging Bulldon nose art?
I can just imagine the Alpha Legion deliberately luring the loyalist fools onto the guns of the Shadowsword.
What does a Raging Bulldon look like a kind of bulldog/armadillo thing or something so much cooler? Are the horns for the helmets or for something more subtle?

migsula wrote:I want at least 3 Vs in the list, maybe more in the future. Few Chimeras and a griffon, maybe a new russ variant or five And have already started collecting bitz for my version of the "tank ace" shadow sword.

I want it now. Yes.

Oh, an I'm doing some Grenadiers for my guard. However, I'm looking at doing the Mitre style 18th Century caps for them -- inspiration from a picture in the Humor Thread. Go Grenadiers!

sA

Llamahead wrote:Brilliant are we going to see Raging Bulldon nose art?
I can just imagine the Alpha Legion deliberately luring the loyalist fools onto the guns of the Shadowsword.
What does a Raging Bulldon look like a kind of bulldog/armadillo thing or something so much cooler? Are the horns for the helmets or for something more subtle?

Yes!

I don't know exactly yet but a cross between a pitbull and a real bull that has evolved on a dead world - and nothing subtle now, I want to be totally gothic in a 40k way so plenty of Horns!

Oh and you need an overkill of bionics if you want to make it truly gothic in a 40k way!

But first...FINISH YOUR TWAR STUFF MAN! UPDATES UPDATES!

Yeah I second Malika. Finish the damned TWAR, stop dreaming.

Then do the Bulldons

I'd like to see you Migsulify the vehicles... Haven't seen that before.

sA

It's been great reading over all these I-Munda borne threads of yours Migsula, having lost track of your work for a long while. I used to browse Dakka awhile back (years) and keep up to date with various folks online galleries, ended up forgetting the site name and thus.. coming across it anew and finding your projects was a nice surprise.

Couple of years on and it's great to see the work of folks I admire. Even more, I've been able to read through the process and ideas for the first time.

Always enjoyed your visceral style and eye for remodelling pieces. It's been a real find tonight discovering your threads and seeing these projects.. such as Legion. The enlarged Marines are, too me, singularly better than the Crescent Guard which are 'upscaled'. Whilst a great collection.. these Alpha legionnaires carry that God-of-War bearing you aimed for, the aesthetic the Crescent lack.

Sure, I'm old school, learned in the fiction of Astartes rarity, living dreadnaughts of muscle and sinew. So these models speak to me as the best interpretation of a Marine in 40k scale.

Referring to an earlier post of yours on the Ages of Painting, I cannot help but agree on your thinking. I garnered some serious cash painting for Ebay sales, but soon the market thinned as folks only spent money on pieces of art, that would never see a tabletop. The Age of Perfection. Your word usage entitles similar thoughts of my own experience towards miniature painting over the years (since 1993). I even entered GD in Australia, placed.. but.. it was a hollow experience as I didn't like the attitude of my peers or the culture of competitive painting. The constriction of technical perfection, in my eyes at least, invariably compresses expression out of the art.

A well modelled piece, painted with an engaging style is far more interesting to me. Which brings me back to your latest work and why, I always enjoy it. Having recently read several of your blogs, I could tell just in your commentary what would lie ahead, invariably becoming an impressive model.

Looking forward to the continuation of the Legion indeed.

~ Tael.

Thank you Tael! I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts - with which I agree. Crescent Guard in particular was always just going to be a betterment of a sad excuse of the Space Marine Plastic. At the same time it was doable at army scale and the plastic termies weren't even out yet. The best part of that army is essentially that it looks that much better than non reworked marines, while Legion Marines look quite close to how SMs should look in this scale.

And welcome back to dakka.

Completely follow your rationale, the displeasure with Marine plastic design (anatomy even) and improving upon it with your builds and the feasibility of upscaling in number. So my passing comment doesn't imply a lack of care for the work.. I was mainly hurrying to my point over the completeness a Legion marine has.

As for joining Dakka, cheers

~ Tael.

Gotta agree with Tael here. I spoke with Jes Goodwin at last years Conflict Scotland and he got quite defensive about the marine plastics when I brought up the issue of scale. He actually suggested that many of the other designers are sloppy in their measurements when sculpting, hence the reason IG are the same size as marines and that BL writers and fluff writers over embellish their size, but realistically, the marine mini's are way too small for what they should be.

I too enjoy your "free" artistic approach to this project, looking forward to the results. I have attempted to emulate your painting style over white undercoat but I think it is just too big a jump for me to drastically change my painting style like that.

Still, it's something I admire and one day aspire to be able to do.

Cheers,

Dante

CMDante wrote:

I too enjoy your "free" artistic approach to this project, looking forward to the results. I have attempted to emulate your painting style over white undercoat but I think it is just too big a jump for me to drastically change my painting style like that.

Thanks mate! That's prolly because you are way too accurate, careful and talented to go with the free flowing, painterly, "lets see what happens style" that seems to be the direction I enjoy the most and where I feel at home.

CMDante wrote:I spoke with Jes Goodwin at last years Conflict Scotland and he got quite defensive about the marine plastics when I brought up the issue of scale.

Not surprised. Must be hard for someone whom 90%of the hobbyists consider a god, to at least in part know how he's supposedly greatest piece of work, was simply flawed from the birth. And then have someone tell him as much, even if in polite terms. As talented as Jes is, he possibly remains a bottleneck for the next true leap in turning the imagery into 21st century quality models. Don't get me wrong, he's a great talent and we owe him a LOT! But at the same time, the SM plastics and their lack of courage to change the design is one of the biggest missed potentials in the whole of the company IP.

Also you've got to wonder how much of it was technical/ marketing constraints, he could well have been told to make them at a size where 10 could fit on an XbyX sprue and therefore couldn't make them truescale even if he wanted to.

Perhaps at the original time of making but nowadays, with the current kits that GW produce, loaded with unessecary amounts of extras and variations, I don't think it would be a constricting factor. When I asked Jes if they or FW were likely to produce pre-heresy or true-scaled marines any time in the next 10 years he outright said no.

To be fair, it doesn't bother me too much. The marine plastics are fantastic models and a truly great display of design and sculpting quality. Sure they are under scaled, but if they weren't all these great true-scale logs wouldn't be around and wouldn't be in the least bit original as they are.

As it is I have seen at least 10 different approaches to making true-scale marines, all fantastic and showing true creativity and skill. Part of the reason I frequent these and other forums is to see these logs and long may they continue.

If they inspire at least a tenth of the people who view them to try their hand at getting creative with their modelling then it can only be a good thing. I know I keep saying it but the creativity Mig's has shown in his logs on these forums reinvigorated my love for this hobby and took my modelling to a whole new level. I hope more people get as inspired.

Cheers,

Dante

Perhaps at the original time of making but nowadays, with the current kits that GW produce, loaded with unessecary amounts of extras and variations, I don't think it would be a constricting factor. When I asked Jes if they or FW were likely to produce pre-heresy or true-scaled marines any time in the next 10 years he outright said no.

Unnecessary? How so? I think it great that these kits include all sorts of little extras which could be used for other conversion.

As it is I have seen at least 10 different approaches to making true-scale marines, all fantastic and showing true creativity and skill. Part of the reason I frequent these and other forums is to see these logs and long may they continue.

At least 10? Damn...now you got me curious! I only know the upscaled tactical marine (small bits of plasticcard in between everything), the chaos warrior version and the terminator version.

Where are the other (at least) 7?