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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!

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...

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)

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...

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?

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 =)

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!

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.

Emerett wrote:They all look amazing, great work with the greens.

Have you thought about matting them?

Nah, it took a lot of willpower not to douse it in gloss varnish as it is I have a thing for power armour being shiny - they look so dull and lifeless with a matte coat. I use matte for wood elves and stuff..

They are a mixture of Necromunda gangers.

VardenV2 wrote:I really love all of these models. The paint job is very unique and works perfectly. I don't know much about Alpha Legion, but their paint scheme seems very cool.

The berserker looks top-notch in my opinion. It is clearly a berserker but is not red and screaming like all the rest. I feel that Alpha Legion wouldn't break from their paint scheme, they'd adapt it. Maybe a red hand or shoulder pad or helmet, but other than that, I think that it's totally believable that he's a berserker.

I'm curious to see how/if you handle nurgle, tzeentch, and Slaanesh.

Keep up the awesome work.

-VardenV2

Exactly the same way really. I reckon Alpha Legion Noise Marines would look really special. Could be a right laugh to paint, I'll look into it

Not a bad idea, I'll bear it in mind

Hey :-) Saw my thread resurrected, so thought I'd give an update. I've been working on other stuff lately but I'm planning to paint some more of these guys in the coming weeks, so I'll post up some pics soon.

I dont gloss them anymore

So I painted up 3 more Alpha Legion Berserkers - these are the first models I've painted using the new paints. It didnt go so well, the inks are horrendous to photograph, they seem to reflect the light different and change hue under the lens. I also found that the paints themselves were harder to control so they aren't my cleanest paintjob. Still, practice makes perfect and all that..

Debating what to paint next - I can either finish this squad and paint another 4, or start on some Terminators. What do you think?

I''ll have to get some of the new ones to bulk them out though.. I want lots

I went through a phase of glossing my models, which I don't do any longer. Can you elaborate what you mean by the lord being rainbow coloured? I don't see it myself..

I can run through in text, hard for me to do a step by step as I don't really have a hard and fast method, it's more tweaking as I go along until it looks right.

Blue - Spray black, basecoat in Kantor Blue, Drakenhof Nightshade wash.

Edges - Thinned Caliban Green on edge areas, then up to Warpstone Glow, then 1:1 Warpstone Glow / Moot Green on the really hightlighty bits. Then give the edge area a Waywatcher Green glaze to tie in the colour.

At this point I usually tidy up the highlights, using thinned Kantor Blue to neaten and blend the edges into the armour, then a little Drakenhof to make sure its the same shade.

For the metal, its Warplock Bronze, then 2:1 Hashut Copper / Warplock Bronze, then a Agrax Earthshade wash. Then I pick out edges and rivets in Ironbreaker.

For the silver metal its simply Leadbelcher, then Ironbreaker, with a Nuln Oil shade, then repick out the edges in Ironbreaker.

The scales are done with thinned Altdorf Guard Blue, Making little filled in U shapes next to each other. I define the bottom edges with 2:1 Hoeth Blue / Altdorf Guard Blue, then I use thinned Kantor Blue to blend the top of the scales into the armour, and define the gaps. Then I use a Kantor Blue glaze over the whole bit to tie it together.

I hope that helps!