Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Thought I'd share my latest army project with you lot, the alpha legion lovers out there needs a little love and hopefully a nudge of inspiration too.
This had a humble beginning as a small force intended for a pre-heresy killteam weekend campaign at my local elite store/ gaming club.. and was intended as a ravenguard force.. needlessly to say.. it went a bit overboard.

things tend to get overboard when I get going with things.. anyway.. the RG ide was scrapped.. mostly since the olden days of the 3d installment and the following Armageddon supplement I have a too large Black Templar army and..
..well.. I didn't want to paint another black army.. 80ish initiates, 16is termies and a motorpool of 5 rhino/razorbacks, 7 landraiders (crusaders with the odd helios and phobos pattern) a swarm of landspeeders and a few las predators is enough..

so.. Alpha Legion it is.

First mark to set is 1500 points worth of infantry with drop pods and some support armour.

Captain Octavius Hydacian, Scion of Terra, Commander of the Glorious 6th.





That Alpha Legion symbol was a complete b*tch to do, but now that I have the technique down it should not be too hard to replicate on the rest of the boys.. it will only be 45 more marines.




Corsair Seadragon cloak? Yes Please! .. Some say it contains more badassery than a bearded .. All I know is; it looks great.




The mutilated sister ended up being painted in the colours of the Argent Shroud, i felt the other orders had a too striking colour palette that would disrupt the composition of the model.
Never ever use red as a large component on a base, draws all the attention unless the main colour of the piece runs in the yellow-orange-red spectrum.
Been thinking about adding something to his left shoulderpad but I am unsure.. I want to ceep it clean, not cluttering up the model with too much detail.




Everyone needs a dreadnought, prefferably with a lascannon for some long-range
It's almost done, just some details left like a name on the scroll, some heraldry on the shield and a couple of touch-ups on the highlights.
I need to free-hand the hydra too.. the damn transfer captures some air that I missed and now there are some pale blotches on it.. oh.. and I need to add the legion insignia somewhere.




Blotchy hydra as you can see.. and the 'XX' legion number ended upp slightly off-center but it works, was thinking of adding the 'A' on the small plate below the main shoulder armour that has the 'XX'.




Tried to make a high-polish brass effect on the powerplant, turned out quite nicely me thinks.
Maybe I should add some text on that purity seal..




Aaaargh! what trickery is this? why is that thing blue? blatant thievery of the most hallowed mechanicum's priceless STC- blueprints has obviously been afoot!




Gentlemen, I present to you: the Mk I Ophidian Pattern Gunship in all it's basecoated glory.




Death From Above! ... Ahem.. yes.. well.. that's all for now! CnC is highly appreciated, please help
me with comming up with a suitably cool and evocative name for the dreadnought.

Nice i like captain Obvios (Octavious then). I am looking forward to seing the army when it is compleate

I really like your Captain Octavius Hydacian as well, its going to be a great army painted up to this level.

Great stuff and the best possible subject matter! More please

Are they traitors?? I assume so cause of thr dead sister

They look really awesome! The blue is very subtle imo, but that looks like a good effect

The feint green highlights really make the pieces look cool. Nice job.

The captain is incredible. I love the helmet contrast and of course the cape. I second the green highlights,they really are light-handed and make the pieces stand out.

I have two questions for you on the dread:

One: The light concrete dust on the legs, is that drybrushed on or pigments? I'm looking at doing something similar for my marines since they are in urban combat, but I have not had success making it look well done. I really like the subtleness on yours.

Two: I love the polished brass look on the dread, is that fine pigment paint like model air or a technique that you've used?

Anyway, really great force, I love the look of these.

Thanks guys and yes misagula, there will be more.. painting as fast as I can here.

@ risewiththefallen; well.. the little minds of the 41st millenium might think so, but the Alpha Legion never abandoned our oaths to the emperor.. unlike some
that worship him against his command, and thus needs to be ground underfoot!

on a more serious note I will not add any chaos imagery, there might be the odd trophy skull here and there but nothing chaotic.
I am aiming for a look that works both pre- and post- heresy, as such the newest mark of power armour in the entire force will be the Mk VI 'Corvus' pattern with a majority
of Mk VI and Mk IV suits with a few Mk III in the mix.

I will probably buy a pile of FW Mk V Heresy marines soon.. I have had my eye on them a long time and well.. I just Have to get a Contemptor pattern dreadnought for my
Alphas. No other way around it!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@ Gorgrimm: Thank you for the kind words and for your answers.

One: It is an very light drybrush, using very little paint in the brush, with a few applications of Valejo 'wolf grey' followed by a careful drybrush of white from the same paint brand.

Two: the Brass is done with GW's Tin bitz, mithril silver and devlan mud. its basecoated tin bitz, washed with devlan mud then painted with tin bitz again. after that it's highlighted 5 times
with tin bitz and mithril silver, each consequtive highlight smaller and with a tad more mithril silver in the mix.
One needs to keep a careful eye on how light falls on the surface and do a little research on how light and metal interacts. place a sharp lightsource above the model before you paint, it helps a bit.

Thank you that really did help, now I know what to shoot for. Keep these coming when you can!

Looking mighty fine, Brother. I am Alpharius.

Update! ..then Lunch.


Work progresses with the command squad
This Axe-armed one is destined to be the command squad sergeant, armour is in the early stages of highlight, metal and leather just basecoated so far.





turning out quite nicely, this is about 60-70 mins work from a black basecoat, including a coffe-break or two.





Making some bases for the Hq squad, never done custom bases before.. it's quite fun!





Squad member taking a shot at some unlucky thing outside the frame.





Company Champion, not on his custom base yet.. dressed in a suitably fashionable scale cloak.





Apothecary, next in line for a paintjob after the sarge.





Specialist with Meltacarbine, why? well.. I was out of meltaguns but had a handful of meltapistols to spare..
Need and materialshortages is the mother of all conversons..





.. I had to buy one,.. it's not my fault!.. it's too sleek, and cool, and pretty.. it makes wooshy sounds standing still dammit!




That's all for today

Love the color and the detailed highlights, dynamic posing and clever use of non-chaosy-chaos bitz make for some great looking models!

Great conversions and paintjobs
its shaping up to be a really nice army

Out of dark blue paint.. damn it! .. no more painting today

That meltacarbine is awesome!

Your painting is also quite impressive as well

I have made a grave error, a fatal mistake, a logical loop, a friggin 404.. the modellers bane..

I have had a flash of.. gnnn.. INSPIRATION!

Needless to say I am doomed, I am sure you will all agree. this is the kind of creeping dread we all know too well.. the feeling that you just know will cost you huge sums, take all your spare time hostage and leave your soiled an unkept frame
awash with plastic shavings, licks of paint and your fingers caked with residual superglue.. it's the concept you dream about even when you try to sleep, expanding, adding.. like a fever that you just -HAVE- to expel by making it come true in
plastic, metal and resin.. why?.. you know why.. because it is So Damn Good.. and you know you can make it look awsome to behold..

So how did this fever, this sickness.. this Delerium clasp it's spined coils around my Central Nervous System? What made it come to a life of it's own and make it whisper it's dreams of grandeur from the dark recesses of my cerebellum?

I was doodling along on my honourguard sergeant.. eventually finishing it and then went out for some coffe.. once back, now one cup of coffee richer, I started to muse on what to paint next.. apothecary? .. maybe the meltagunner?
no.. the drop pod. So I happily started to basecoat the instrument of troop-delivery blue in the appropriate places, nothing foul with that. A little while later the pod had it's blue coat and by then my pot with my 'speshul lucky blue' mix had run out..
It's about here somewhere I become dimly aware that I am all out on the major base component ( Necron Abyss) for the mix and that.. well.. the hobbystore is closed..
No matter! I foolishly think, I can always buy some more tomorrow.. and off I go to find something to drink and a book to spend some time with.. this is where everything starts to get out of hand...

Well.. not that bad.. not yet at least.. while going through my bookshelf I find a misplaced copy of IA: 8, the Raid on Kasterl-Novem.. of course I take it with me, I like the elysians immensly ever since FW started churning out their kits and the IA books are always fun to read..
After about an hour's worth of reading I stop at one of the beautifully rendered pictures, showing a bunch of troops rapelling from hovering valkyries while a vulture is bringing in some close airsupport and I start thinking about one of my old IG projects that never made it off the drawingboard.. Airborne Heavy Infantry.. then some random thoughts and ideas about my Alpha Legion project come rushing in and collide violently with the ideas of zooming valkyries.. after a few confusing moments I am dashing to the bookshelf to dig out my well-thumbed
copy of dan abnett's LEGION..

A couple of hours and a pile of books and codexes, a few pages of scribbled ideas and scetches and too much inspirational music.. I foolishly had Two Steps From Hell - Heart of Courage (Extended Version) running on on repeat together with some Globus on the soundsystem.
Just copy paste that title and look it up on youtube or spotify.. you will understand why it does not help with slowing down ideas..

So now it is completely clear to me what I must do.. I must make an Airborne Stormtrooper army to complement my alpha legion.. Hydra cell stormtroopers with valkyries and goodies.. ever model individually converted ..too good to say no to!
And I must make an Alpharius model.. or two! and the legionaires need rhinos.. very customised rhinos.. and I must make another Ophidian Gunship .. I must design regimental structures and write fluff! Loads of Fluff! design insignia and 'devotional art' for the valkyries..

Jesus Christ doing 160 on the highway in a cardbox car.. .... What have I done?!

It must be done!

Hahahahaha But serioulsy, sounds like a great idea man, your spare time can wait, there's modeling to be had!
I love the idea and cant wait to see what you post as time goes on, I'll gladly comment and give honest critique on all of it

Cheers// Tobi

awsome idea good luck!

I really like the dreadnought and the captain. Love the shoulder pad.

Good work there, any chance to see Alpherus and his twin?

Excellent work STC... very nice use of subdued hues without losing the complexity of the figures.

Sounds like you're in thrall to your muse... (lucky for us!).

I'm with migs... more please.

Love them. all the conversions are great ! Keep it up.

Thanks for the kind and supportive commentry guys, it warms my addled brain.. or something like that!

I have been spending a few hours today on trying to piece together what parts I can use and what must be hand-sculpted to make suitably equipped IG spec-ops models with carapace armor.
Not so easy I can tell you that.. where the in 's 'n are those plastic Storm Troopers for the guard I wonder!? Stuff is never around when you need it.. typical typical..

Alpharius and Omegron will make an appearance Miss Dee, have no fear of that. I might need to read up on a truescale marine tutorial or two to make them in a more suitable size.. or I'll just talk to a friend who is quite good at that truescale nonsense..
My Muse.. yes.. she's not all that nice to me Gitspitta.. a damn -tease if you ask me..

Aaaaanyhow.. I took some more pictures.. got -something- done today at least..



Based and slid on a hydra transfer on my Sergeant, turned out quite well this one .. also did some minor touch-ups here and there.





I want a trained leprechaun or something that paints those legion symbols for me.. 8 consequtive layers of highlighting is messed up!





forgot to paint the base with a last touch of fenris grey I see now.. oh well..





Almost done with drop pod no:1





Been rummaging through my stuff for things to add to my rhino kit to make.. well.. rule-wise a razorback with lascannons and every possible upgrade avalible..
Let's just call it something APC-ish .. I can name it when it's done.





And a Groupshot, for your entertainment. Not the best picture I am afraid, caught some flare from the window so it became too bright.. but.. yeah.. it works I guess.

Have you considered the true scale kits that Chapterhouse have?

Also you should look up Hits_the _spot, he does brilliant true scale stuff.

PS Alpha Legion are my favourite marines after the space puppies.

I really like the transition from navy blue into green, very effective. Is it navy blue or dark purple?

Subscribed! This is epic and your skills are impressive.

I had a look but I can't say I liked the chapterhouse stuff, I'll go with my toolbox, bitbox and a pile of greenstuff (well.. i use the grey type but.. yeah) and see what I can cook up.
Maybe I should pick up some Grey Knight Terminators and see what I can make of them.. Bleh.. I'll do some bitz-scouting & scavageing and see what's what.

the 'navy blue' is my 'Speshul lucky blue'-mix, it's GW Foundation Necron Abyss with a splatter of Chaos Black and Hawk Turqiouse in the pot to darken it slightly and making the blue a little richer.
I guess regular Necron Abyss works fine too, it's quite similar, it's just a slightly different tone.

I'll probably have an APC building spree tomorrow.. maybe finishing the melta specialist or the drop pod.. we'll see what happens.


++Proclamation++

Henceforth shall everyone listen to this Song made by Globus while browsing this blog! This is for your own good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNP9lqMVnfw&NR=1

Ugh. This army is sooo good. Not fair.

Me Gusta Mucho.

Iranna.

Been building a bit today, no painting done yet.. maybe later tonight.

so, here some pics on that razorback thing I am making for my AT support squad.

















Not glued it together yet so I can still paint the interior.




AT-Squad.. 4 members of 6. and NO they are not ready yet.. still got some workleft on them, especially lascannon guy no:2 (the guy in the Mk VI Corvus armor).

That's a really nice looking group STC.