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Hey everyone,

I'm starting back into the hobby again after a year or so away, and I'm planning on trying to really improve my painting, and get some serious practice in. My army of choice is the Alpha Legion, as they pose a painting challenge and they aren't the most common army. I'm going to post what I've done so far, so that I can get some feedback and advice for when I paint my next squad after a year away

Sorceror Lord


Possessed Squad






Cultists











Chaos Marines











Defiler



Alpha Legion Berserkers





Thanks!

Damn those are great! I really like the green highlights too, brings out the alpha legion style. Also...do you have any more of them?

Wow! Neon highlighting looks sick!

Great Army!

EmperorsChampion wrote:Damn those are great! I really like the green highlights too, brings out the alpha legion style. Also...do you have any more of them?

Not yet :-) I'm going to paint more though. Im going to finish up a few bits and pieces lurking in my "unfinished pile" (mostly a squad of Grey Knights) then I'm going to try my hand at Alpha Legion Berserkers...

Can't wait to see them here

Stunning

Really nice stuff. I like the way you painted them. I don't have any critics on them. Nice job.

Awesome minis, I really like the effects you've got on the shoulder pads and some of the other armour plates; the bits where you've got patterns with a lighter shade of blue.

Would it be possible to get some info on how you achieved this?

The only slight criticism I have is that a lot of the minis look quite shiny; I think that it might improve them to give them a quick blast of matte varnish.

I love the Alpha Legion scheme, and you've executed it really well. Nice work.

That's really cool. I haven't seen any minis highlighted with a different color on the edges before, and how you did it here looks really cool. Great work on this, man.

Hendie wrote:Awesome minis, I really like the effects you've got on the shoulder pads and some of the other armour plates; the bits where you've got patterns with a lighter shade of blue.

Would it be possible to get some info on how you achieved this?

The only slight criticism I have is that a lot of the minis look quite shiny; I think that it might improve them to give them a quick blast of matte varnish.

Necron Abyss base, Regal blue on top, then 50:50 Regal and Enchanted Blue mix to paint the scales, highlight with 1:1:2 Regal:Enchanted:White, then blue glaze over the top.

They aren't that shiny in RL, I do like shiny armour on my marines, but the act of taking photos of them exaggerates it a bit (need a proper light box)

Really nicely painted dude

Simply Stunning good sir. =]

Nicely done!

Very much a Chaos force, and I'm interested to see how GW bridges the background gap between Pre-Heresy/Heresy Alpha Legion as shown in the HH book series being possibly still loyal (at least to the Emperor if not the Imperium?) and the cartoony mustache twirling lunatics of the DoW series and the rather lackluster "Hunt for Voldorius".

I think Alpha Legion can be whatever you want, I imagine they'll take any role you want background-wise, you can just claim they are in "role".

With my army, they are very much Chaos, not loyalist, and they work with the principle of "hit your enemy with as many different threats in as many different ways as possible" kind of like the heads of the hydra. So my army has no qualms about using Berserkers, Plague Marines, Daemon Princes etc, when common fluff dictates they don't use any of the more "Chaos-y" stuff. The cultists are the leftover of the insurgency phase, though by now the bulk of the invasion force has turned up to a planet where the PDF are welcoming them with open arms...

Thats how I always thought AL should be done, their symbol is a hydra for a reason I always thought

So, I'm trying to figure out how best to do Alpha Legion Berserkers.

I want to keep them with blue armour with the green highlights, but I'm unsure that a red Khornate shoulderpad would go well with that.

Also debating whether to remove the vanes on the helmets and replace them with the serpent heads like with my sorceror. I'm wary of overusing that motif however.

Any ideas I can work with to make these guys a bit more interesting?

This is a great army, very nicely painted. I enjoy seeing the Necromunda gangs being used as cultists.

Regarding the Berzerkers: if you are using the actual Zerker minis, their profile is so well known that they will be immediately identifiable even when painted like the rest of your force - which is my recommendation. The helmets in particular are what set them apart from every other option in army-list.

Myself and others who I game with appreciate folks who don't exactly follow the "factory" paintjobs. I understand the desire to give them >some< coloration to tie the Zerkers in with their cult colors, so why not use more Brass? It will complement your scheme much better than red....

Yeah after posting this I've decided to keep the helmets, as you've pointed out they are pretty distinctive. I'll paint them up as AL but I'll leave the decision on any red until I've got them mostly done. I'll post them up when finished =)

Stormphoenix wrote:
Sorceror Lord

He made my jaw drop. Fantastic conversion. I must know, How did you make the serpent heads on the staff and the helmet?

Looks like modified bits from elf kits - and it is very nice indeed!

Correct. They are High Elf banner tops cut down to size.

I've Put together the berserkers, keeping them simple. It will take a while to paint them, mainly as I've not painted any AL (or anything else for that matter) for a few years, so I need to remember how I did it!

This is fantastic. I really enjoy the super green highlighting you did. The perfect blue coupled with the highlighting gives them a perfect Alpha Legion flare. Kudos on not going overboard with the scale work on the armor, ime that can go very wrong very fast and you've tempered it well.

While I don't think the heavy sorcery/daemonic theme fits the alpha legion, the paint and conversions are phenomenal. I'm in love with the sorceror lord.

Nice job. These guys ook like they've been hanging out in the eye of terror too long.

These look great, specially the cultists

OK so I've done a test paint of my Berserkers, will do the rest after some feedback. What do you think? As per request, I've not varnished this one. Personally, I'm annoyed that the hydra head on the fist is a bit wonky, I'm blaming Khorne's shoddy workmanship also going to add a little more shading on the mouth of the hydra shoulderpad.

Well done!

Clearly a Berserker, and yet clearly also a member of a Chaotic Branch of the Alpha Legion...

Nice!

The berserker rocks the house! He is fantastic, and looks awesome in the alpha legion colour scheme!

I know the powerfist you used, but how did you get the hydra head onto it? is it sculpted with greenstuff?