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Loving that 'White Knight' on the juggernaut!

Great job!

EDC

Thanks, evildrcheese! I'm glad he's getting such love (the paintjob was a bit of a gamble in my eyes).

Whew, been a little while, but the tournament is over and I am free to return to the Alpha Legion at last. It was a blast and quite the long haul, with five rounds spread over two days. The mighty Black Legion managed to make it up to the top third of the tournament in a contest of about 60 players. I kept getting players second-guessing my army. "What Legion are those?" "Black Legion." "You're counting them as Death Guard? World Eaters?" "No... They're Black Legion." "Oh, so Night Lords?"

Surprisingly few painted armies at the tournament, kind of disappointed by that aspect of it. Also some horrendous abuses of WYSIWYG (one Death Guard player was pretending his missile launchers, lascannons, autocannons, etc were all plasma guns...). Some armies were literally just grey (one Eldar power-gamer in particular, fortunately he did not do great). Some weird observations. For one, no necron players at all. Shocked at that one! Second, there were 5 chaos players (one Lost and the Damned (Who didn't even own his Codex and was playing purely off of Battlescribe... I'm using just a rapier and I brought IA13... That thing is not light!), two Chaos Daemons and two Chaos Marines). The Chaos Marine players were both playing Death Guard with their decurion. The daemons players both used Magnus and some variation of flying circus (one went disks/ bluescribes/ fateweaver/ etc, the other 4 daemon princes). Hilariously Magnus died to a Stomp attack from a Knight and a stomp attack from a Scythed Heirodule. Why anybody would ever NOT swoop with him I don't understand, but who are we to judge?

Another fun trend is that 4 Eldar players showed up, 3 of which were playing Ynnari. I'm very glad to say that the one player who had a BEAUTIFULLY painted Eldar army (free-hand cherry blossoms on all the bikes...) did the best out of them all. The Ynnari are disgusting beyond belief and I count it a blessing that I did not have to face their wrath. I went 2-3, although technically my third game should of been a win, and this is where we get into an odd story. An ork player showed up and started deploying his army. He hands me his armylist, I give it a read, and see his Warboss has both the Lucky Stick and the Warbike relic. I point it out to him and remind him that you can only have one relic per character. It's in an FAQ that was printed months ago. He retorts that the TO approved his list (the TO later admitted to having no idea how orks work...) and his first three opponents didn't care. I shrugged, told him it's fine, just throw the relic onto another character or swap out the points real quick (he had a boss in mega armor, a natural lucky stikk candidate). He started getting more upset, I said you know what, fine, don't worry about it, lets just play the game. He snaps that he 'doesn't play with ' and that 'his time is too precious for this ,' packed up his stuff and conceded. No problem for me, I'd already rolled psychic powers (invisibility twice, two psychic shrieks, and two terrify... I was in a pretty good place to rip his orks apart).

I go to the TO to tell him this, who then proceeds to declare that rather than getting the full points for a conceding opponent, I would have to face him and his Necron Decurion with a Wraith deathstar. I lost against that particular army pretty viciously.

Aside from that odd instance, I had a great time. My first three opponents were an absolute pleasure to play, the TO might of made some weird calls but he was a great person to play against. My fifth opponent was also nice, but we were all pretty burned out by that point so energy was running low. I'm happy to have gotten a fully painted army on the tables and definitely made some people double-take when they saw my list. Turned quite a few heads.

So without further ado, PICTURES!



The beautiful victorious Eldar army (he got both Best Painted and General, but they only gave him General to keep prizes distributed).







This last one is from the Horus Heresy tournament happening right behind us.








My annihilation force right after it took down a flying Hive Tyrant the turn before it could take off. Ignores Cover plasma is pretty nasty (thank you, Perfect Timing!). The Scythed Heirodule wanted nothing to do with my Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Force sorcerer lord.



Commander Dante getting charged by a monstrous number of troops. He managed to kill the bikes before succumbing to the many attacks coming his way.

Other notable moments is my three-man squad of terminators showing up from reserves turn 3 and wiping out a unit of Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard with a single plasma-gun volley, my Khorne Lord proceeding to charge into a second unit of SG and shrug off all 15 of their attacks with only 1 wound suffered before proceeding to butcher the shiny warriors, and one lone terminator fighting off a unit of Necron jetbikes for 4 rounds of combat before reinforcements finally arrived. Other funny happenstances are players laughing at stupid rules that don't matter and getting screwed by them. 3 Gargoyles charge through difficult terrain after the player makes fun of dangerous terrain being irrelevent. Proceeds to roll 3 tests, fails all 3, fails his saves, the unit impales itself on a bunch of girders.

The Necron TO laughed at having to take a leadership 9 test from terrify, proceeded to roll a 10 and lost a unit of 15 warriors to it. The Genestealer cult player laughed at having to take a leadership test at 9 because of terrify, rolled a 10 and proceeded to lose a unit of purestrains. Don't tempt the dice gods!

At last, back to the Alpha Legion... Betrayal at Calth, looking at you.

Cool. Some nice looking armies there.

EDC

I apologize for my absence, but after such a feverish time working for that tournament I felt the need to take a break. Until a stroke of good luck, bargaining and inspiration seized me and has seen the Alpha Legion grow tremendously. It began with a realization that my local Horus Heresy scene has a particularly hard to shift meta. A primarch, a Spartan, terminators, an apothecary, a chaplain. Flavor to taste, then put in the oven for 2 hours. So a friend and I sat down to devise a list that could crack this nut while still maintaining a suitably flavorful feel of the Alpha Legion. The first thing we asked ourselves is "what can the Alpha Legion do that no other Legion can?" We scoured the book and one particular combination struck me. The Coils of the Hydra and Alpharius himself. An almost guaranteed turn one. +1 to taking first turn with a re-roll, and seizing the initiative on a 4+ with a re-roll, is not a mathematical certainty but is as damn near as any army can get. So we posited, "what kind of army would benefit the most from turn 1 being a very likely outcome?" The resulting list is not hard-end competitive. Going to any serious tournament would see some favorable results but not ideal ones. But it can inspire a lot of pain, especially in the very boring, overdone local meta.



While this is the beginning of the army, it will lead to an experimental 3000 point list I'm working towards. This includes Seekers, Iron Havocs via Rewards of Treason, more tactical marines, and a few other toys and trinkets.

Without further ado, however, I have not been idle in the hobby side of things! The Lords of the Legion so far assembled. I have also reorganized some of my units into a more coherent army.

Arnyllus Dynat





Exodus/ my first vigilator. You'll notice that his bolter is a Deathwatch stalker bolter with a reaper autocannon barrel!





Iron Havocs (you'll note the front 3 are all WIP), the chap with the Deathwatch frag cannon is the unit's leader with an auspex (they get to keep their heavy weapon and the auspex)





Seeker Cadre


The first Veterans squad, they will be losing those combi-plasmas and running around with combi-meltas



And, at long last, a very rough place-holder Alpharius. I have a much more intricate and interesting conversion in mind.



The reason for the bigger base is because in 40k I use him as Guilliman in my Deathwatch. First game I took him out he got shot once, turn 5. It was a helfrost destructor on a gunship. He failed his invuln, and rolled a 6 for his strength test for the Helfrost rule. He was removed from the game, not slain.

Always good to see more Horus Heresy!
How will your Alpha Legion be painted? The FW blue? Dark metallic blue? None metallic blue? Not blue at all?

Cool list and the army is coming together nicely already, looking forward to seeing more.

EDC

I'm still trying to decide on definitive colors, but my goal right now is to paint them the Forgeworld blue.

Love your Alpharius great job! Also great idea for rapier

Thanks evildrcheese, I look forward to getting to throw the list around. Infiltrating, Scouting rhinoes with 9 meltaguns in them warms my atomantic core, let alone an 18 man tactical squad in range of Fury of the Legion turn 1 without moving.

Thanks ghostmaker! I stole the conversion idea from someone else, it's a popular one I've seen going around. The problem is that it's based on one of the snap-fit starter-set Paladins from Age of Sigmar, so there are lots of gaps to fill. My hope is to acquire the Dracothian Guard fulminators and use some of those incredible bits to make a truly formidable primarch. Primarily those beautifully scaled cloaks are what have caught my eye.

Next on my project list are some sculpted bases from the beautiful Rain City Hobby store. Not the finery or the sunlight of day for the Alpha Legion, but the dark depths of the abyss. The hydra, afterall, strikes from all directions.

I've been away for far too long, having allowed myself to be distracted with the matters of the warp. I return now to the realms of the P&M forum with renewed vigor. Inspired by the upcoming edition, I redouble my efforts on the Alpha Legion. For now, my efforts are subtle. I've created a test base for the army. I quite like it, although I'm debating a glaze. Tell me your thoughts!

The glaze looks ok, but it made me think of something. Why not do water-themed bases? Like rubble that's been covered by a river? It would fit the alpha legion quite well, I think.

Looks really good. So good my wife asked if it was a cake

EDC

A fantastic weekend is being had with more free time than I've had in awhile. With 8th on the horizon, my efforts are redoubled. First and foremost, I've begun work on my Alpha Legion heavy weapon team. I am a huge fan of heavy flamers and I'm doubly excited to see them perform in the next edition. Working on a budget and using a wide variety of bits, I've managed to convert a handful of terminator heavy flamers into power-armor friendly weapons. In the scenario that heavy flamers really don't cut it for me and a different heavy weapon is far more preferential, I've magnetized the heavy weapon team. I've also prepared a little step-by-step tutorial for how I managed my conversion! This one is my last heavy flamer for the Sergeant of my heavy support team. I'm a pretty big fan of the theory that there are Alpha Legionnaires in the Grey Knights' founding, and that if anyone would develop the weapons that the Grey Knights would use, it would be these guys. Also the incinerator looks strangely similar to the Tartaros Terminator heavy flamer, so I'm going to call it a fancy heavy flamer to really stand out.



What you'll need is a bolter with the fist attached and a straight magazine, and a heavy flamer from a terminator (any mark of armor will do). First I start by cleaning off the side details on the bolter (I'm using the B@C bolters for this) and cutting off the arm of the terminator which held the heavy flamer. In this case its the hand on the end of the incinerator and the nub at the top where you attach the second arm. It also helps to file down the top of the heavy flamer so it's a nice, flat surface.



Now comes the tricky part, cutting the bolter in half horizontally. I like to score it with a hobby knife first before I start clipping.



The finished result. It does look pretty sloppy and messy. I file down the top and try to leave some of the original bolter's details, but it's a matter of taste. Here is how we tidy up...



A nice thin piece of plasticard to cover the top. I trim around it to tidy up the ravaged top of the bolter.



Nice and tidy, hiding the dirty work our clippers did.



At this point I like to get my magnets in there, avoids applying awkward pressure to parts of the model and fiddling.



The final step is trimming the texture on the underside of the bolter magazine, I like to file it down to get it nice and tidy (the scoring also strengthens the bond).



The finished product minus the sergeant. These are not the models that will be carrying these weapons, but magnetized veterans that were handy for showing them off, hence the awkward poses.

@evildrcheese I highly reccomend not eating these urinal cakes, although I will admit that freshly dried Realistic Waters did look like a chewy, sugary treat.

@EmberlordofFire8 I contemplated that heavily, but I wanted to do something really out there that captures both the Alpha Legion's feel and the weird aesthetic of the Imperium. I figure that superhuman soldiers in dark armor sneaking through the underbelly of a Victorian sewer the size of a small ocean would be appropriate for the grimdark setting. For the record, the bases have yet to be glazed.

Hail Hydra!


Automatically Appended Next Post:


And the squad is now truly complete.

I absolutely love your alpha legion dudes.
They look like an elite force of experienced and pragmatic super soldiers - as Alpha Legion should be. I especially love how you designed your heavy weapons, excellent conversion.

However the white piece of plasticard ontop the now cut bolter looks a bit plain. I think a good idea might be to cut the top horizontal piece of the bolter and glue it onto that for detail purposes.

Anyway, love your stuff, will copy it, keep it up

Ooh. Toasty

Have you considered a bit of greebling along the top of the plasticard? Either random studs and suchlike to break up the flat surface, or maybe little monitors displaying ammo/fuel reserves and weapon temperature

I do love your work here, the bases have a really heavy urban and dirty feel to them, perfect for the alpha legion. Also have to respect your conersions on the heavies, outstanding work. But i have to agree with lindsay40k that the plasticard on top looks a bit dull and blank. Some small switches or even minor wiring will hugely improve that part of your weapons.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

@Novelist47 That is exactly the look I was going for, the trick is going to be conveying that with their paint. Thank you for the compliment on the heavy weapons, I was at my wits' end for weeks on those.

@Lindsay40k Toasty indeed! I have been contemplating what to add, I'm liking the idea of monitors. I also have a lot of bits from the kataphron kit that might find their way on there.

@VyRa Thanks for the praise, I really appreciate it. I'll make sure to think of something suitably practical for the scions of Alpharius.

I've not been idle this last week, having produced a lowly tactical squad. I'm secretly a little glad that the Horus Heresy is staying in 7th, as it means I have something to work on while I wait for the big flip to 8th that I know won't be invalid any time soon. I do want dreadnoughts to be good again, but my army should fit into a 40k CSM army pretty easily (thinking I'll 'counts-as' the heavy flamers as Thousand Sons with their warpflamers).



And now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it. The marine in the front row, fifth from the left, looks like he's dabbing.

Just claim its part of 41 millennials culture.

@EmberlordofFire8 Gosh darn 41st millenials, and their vox-pods and primaris marines. Back in my day, you considered yourself lucky to be not dead, let alone a Space Marine!

I return once more with updates. The forces of the Alpha Legion continue to grow and I am preparing to begin airbrushing tomorrow. I will do a quick test marine tonight, but until then I hope this will tide you over.



My second Vigilator with modified Corvus pattern armor.



My third vigilator, a conversion of the chaplain from Betrayal at Calth. I was hoping to have him look like he's using his little hand-held scope to look around a corner. Modeling that will be tricky but I'm not in a rush to base him.



The army united. All I need now is a handful of rhinos and 20 marines to finish off my Coils of the Hydra. Although, if it comes to it, my list only has 16 tactical marines in the big blob, so 4 can come off there, join my Seekers and I can pretend that they're actually just tactical marines.

Finally, Dakka, I need your advice. I'm desperately trying to figure out what to do with the tops of my heavy flamers. There are no useful mechanicum bits in my box, the various pouches and grenades are shaped to fit around a Space Marine's abdomen so they won't sit flat, and the surface area is too small to cut up to give the illusion of a gauge for fuel levels. This is, thus far, my only idea.



Thoughts?

I'd not put the knife their, looks like a safety issue waiting to happen.

If you want a fuel reading, then get some really thin wire and cut a small piece and do just a straight line down the length. When you paint it then paint the wire like you see power bars with green at one end, then yellow and then red. You could vary how much of the green and yellow you paint to show how much has been used.

Thats almost what I though, but my idea was to get some of those 40k tac squad handheld vox thingies and chop the screen off, as a sort of heads up display.

 Theophony wrote:
I'd not put the knife their, looks like a safety issue waiting to happen.

If you want a fuel reading, then get some really thin wire and cut a small piece and do just a straight line down the length. When you paint it then paint the wire like you see power bars with green at one end, then yellow and then red. You could vary how much of the green and yellow you paint to show how much has been used.

Pretty good idea.

Wargames Factory Greatcoats has these weird guns, and some of them you can cut the tops off (it has weird optics and stuff). Alternatively you can you can make horizontal greenstuff ridges on top of it like Picatinny Rails.

A shameful display on my behalf, it has been two months since I've last posted. I would feel much greater shame had progress not been made on my Alpha Legion. However this is not the case and I present you with the results of my labors. Some WIP photos of my 20-man tactical squad and a pair of vigilators...









Now we come to two of my almost-finished specimens, an example in two different takes on the decals on their shoulder pads. Thoughts?

Difficult to tell, with the focus. One's subtle, which fits AL, the other's bold, which makes them more distinctive.

WRT your Flamers - you've already got acrylic tubes and sheet, maybe try clipping out a square for a display screen, and some coins and rings for buttons and/or sockets? Good use for offcuts, this.

Nice work on those, including the viligators. Stolen RG gear too, I'll want those back.

After yet another extended departure, I return. In true Alpha Legion fashion, I had a bit of a crisis of faith in the Horus Heresy. I kept steady labour on the models (a complete rebuilding of my heavy flamer kit and completing my tacticals!). After playing 8th for almost a month now and then playing a game of the Horus Heresy last Friday, I've been rather disillusioned as to the appeal of gaming in the Heresy. All of my favorite units exist in 40k and mesh really well with the Deathwatch, which despite the release of the amazing (Debatably OP) Alpha Legion CSM rules, they don't fit my collection terribly well. My vigilators have no place in a Chaos army, but as Lieutenants they serve incredibly well with master-crafted special ammo bolters. My stalker-bolter marines have no equivalent except maybe as Thousand Sons, but I'd have to come up with a lot of nonsense excuses for them getting an invuln. I feel that if I have to give my opponent more than one reason to suspend their disbelief, I'm pushing things too far.

Regardless, I love the collection and it's coming along rather nicely. In a bit of a bittersweet twist, a friend of mine came up with a fantastic plan for converting the heavy flamers more manageably which I'll be applying across the board, just in time to be incapable of equipping an entire squad of heavy support marines with them! Grr, the growing pains of a new edition. They'll still rock it out as a Deathwatch kill team, though.

Later today I'll be done my transfers, which is the last thing the tactical squad needs, and posting pictures. I'm contemplating the next project for the deathwatch: a terrifying squad of terminators with more guns than you should be able to shake a stick at (3 cyclone missile launchers, 5 meltafists, and 5 stormbolters: thank god for the new split fire rules!).

Well I, for one, am sticking with 30k. I know 8th is supposed to be the "best thing ever", but I still love the HH take on 7th.

Cant wait to see the minis finished.

I don't think I'm going to really "quit" the Horus Heresy, but I will definitely be focusing on the 8th ed aspect of my models and be retroactively building Heresy lists. Anyway, WALL OF PICTURES GO!







At long last, some close-ups of my bases. These are done with Realistic Water.

A short distraction from the Alpha Legion is prompted by an event no less important than my anniversary. My wife (as many of our partners no doubt do) teases me about my little obsession. I ask her "what color should I paint my lovely toy soldier?" To which she lovingly replies "hot pink!" I ask her "what do you think an interesting conversion would be to make his pose more interesting?" To which she eagerly replies "give that man a tutu!"

Well, you know what they say about happy wives...